Alchemy is a historical proto-scientific discipline that dealt with the transformation of substances, the search for a panacea and the prolongation of life. It is considered the forerunner of modern chemistry and was replaced by it in the 17th century. Alchemical writings and experiments were often characterized by symbols and secret codes, which made interpretation difficult. Alchemical writings and experiments were often characterized by symbols and secret codes, which made interpretation difficult. In addition to the material goals, there were also spiritual dimensions to alchemy, such as the inner transformation of the alchemist. Alchemy is therefore a complex and multifaceted field that encompasses scientific as well as philosophical and spiritual aspects. It has made an important contribution to the development of modern chemistry and continues to fascinate people today with its mysterious symbols and goals. And far more complex than just wanting to turn lead into gold.
And what does this have to do with FM Synthesis? Well, let’s just let Dr. John M. Chowning have his say. In an interview with Anthony Marinellis, he says: “FM was not an invention, it’s a discovery. It’s all there. The discovery is in the ear.”
Ooops, that’s an interesting statement and says more about FM synthesis than a thousand words. Does it mainly have to do with those who are intensively involved with FM Synthesis? Read my other blog articles, such as “It’s all about vibration” and the one in three short chapters “The Third Gate.”
Best before you watch the video embedded below with the complete interview.
And here is the interview
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It’s about instrument making. I recently had a conversation with Jamie from GEOSynths. He asked me how I manage to create hundreds of sounds. Over and over again. He was amazed at the quantity, because he said it takes quite a long time to create just one sound. Sometimes half an hour or even a whole hour. So what’s the trick with me? I told him that it is passion and the constant desire to create sounds. But that was only half the truth, and I’m writing the whole truth here.
I work with a system, that’s the trick. And that’s particularly important with FM synthesis. There are so many possibilities here that you constantly have to decide on something so that you don’t get bogged down or hopelessly lost in the jungle of parameters. So, apart from a few exceptions, a system helps with the basic approach. This makes FM Synthesis really quick and easy. Anyone can come up with their own system, but I’ll give you a practical example: Instrument making. This fits in with FM Synthesis, because you already quickly realized with the DX7 that it is suitable for simulating normal instruments. There are reasons for this, including the dynamic possibilities. Also the fine tuning when generating the desired sound characteristics of the waveforms. Well, let’s take a closer look at this.
At one point in the DX7 manual, the author used the example of a clarinet to illustrate how to create a suitable waveform with FM Synthesis. At the time, this seemed pretty banal to me, as I wanted to create great pads, crisp basses and fat lead sounds with it. That’s what I did, but the idea of using the clarinet as a role model for the approach isn’t wrong at all. Why? Well, the sound of an acoustic musical instrument consists of several components, I’ll call them elements here. And we usually have four of them. There can also be three, maybe even six, it depends on the case. Let’s stick with four for now. And since we’re talking about FM Synthesis, the various algorithms come to mind. How good, because that’s exactly what we need here. For four components that make up a synthetic instrument.
Let’s stay with the wind instrument for this example. First there is the tone attack. Blown gently or with pressure. I call this the flower. It is a very brief moment, our hearing reacts strongly to the beginning of a sound. So well that we can usually immediately identify the instrument in question. It is also always characteristic of the instrument in the overall context. When choosing the type of algorithm, we like to create this sound with an own small operator stack. Usually two are sufficient, sometimes more are needed. I refer to the rest of the sound as the body or core. The waveform and the harmonic overtone spectrum play the central role here. While a note is held, i.e. the sustain phase, this is what we get to hear. The essential thing, i.e. whether the tone sounds hollow, sharp, soft, penetrating, narrow, biting and so on. This is often one operator stack, but there can also be two or three or more, depending on the desired sound complexity.
This is followed by the third element: Modulation, i.e. the movement of the sound over time. This can take place automatically, for example with an LFO, or dynamically and only when required via controller and velocity. This brings the sound to life, just like an acoustic instrument.
And the fourth element? This is the release phase of the sound. Does it end abruptly? Does it gradually fade away? Or can you have both by temporarily calling up this release phase using the damper pedal, just like on a piano? So we decide whether there should be flowing tone transitions for legato passages effects and where this should not be the case. But release the key, tone away. Pause, no matter how long it lasts. So musically this is important for the composition. The rest, and this would be an optional fifth element, is the icing by means of an effect and the room in which the sound is placed.
The four elements therefore have a connection to life, because they come into existence at the beginning of the sound, continue with their vitality and express what the musician lives and wants to say, stand in a room, therefore exist, and after the key is released the sound fades away and disappear into nothingness.
Is this text a tutorial on how to create sounds with FM Synthesis? No, not really. It’s an explanation of how to systematically and quickly create own FM sounds. The example can be varied with more or fewer elements. And it can be extended to all kinds of sounds, because even soundscapes can be built up using such a systematic approach. And it all happens really quickly if you approach it systematically. That’s good, nothing is more annoying and disruptive to musical creativity than sound programming that drags on forever.
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Although the Yamaha DX7 is often generally equated with FM synthesis, this is not entirely accurate. And also unfair, but more on that later. Although the basic principle is generally the same for every FM engine, it is not identical. This has become apparent over the years. Today, FM synthesis is as ubiquitous in the world of electronic sound generators as analog synthesis. So if you look at different FM synthesizers, you can attribute a different basic character to each one. Sometimes this is not particularly striking, but it is at least subtly audible.
I noticed this particularly clearly a few years ago with the Alesis Fusion. Since then, I’ve been referring to its FM engine as “hot”. What does that mean? Depending on the operator modulation, the sound becomes quite biting, almost coarse, at higher amplitude levels. We already know this from the forefather Yamaha DX7, which can show this sonic face quite well with basses, for example. Other FM engines, on the other hand, are at the other end of this spectrum and seem downright tame in comparison. And there are some whose character sits somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. To illustrate this, I have put together some videos for this blog post. You’ll hear sounds from the Yamaha DX7, Alesis Fusion, Korg Opsix, and the two software FM synthesizers Tracktion f’em and Sugar Bytes Aparillo.
To round it off, there are two more videos, each of which is compared to the DX7. These are the Korg Kronos and its MOD7 FM section and the Yamaha MODX. We already know such comparisons quite well from the Minimoog and its emulations and clones. Now that the text is done, let’s move on to the sounds and the videos. Have fun!
For most musicians, FM Synthesis is a blessing because the sounds are simply sensational. It all started with the Yamaha DX7, which was a milestone and today has a cult status like the Minimoog. FM sounds are great for all kinds of genres. They can be incredibly dynamic and often have an enormous presence and, above all, character. On the other hand, FM is almost a curse for some people, because creating your own sounds seems quite complicated to them.
So, what to do? Well, you can simply use the presets and only play with them as they are made. That’s a very practical way of dealing with it. So leave the fingers out of the editing? Sure, why not. After all, the manufacturers of FM synthesizers have usually hired people who understand preset making. You can do quite well with it. Especially when there is a range of controllers such as the modulation wheel, aftertouch, control slider or knobs that can be used to modulate a sound in realtime so that you can use it expressively and express your music. Many musicians get on very well with this and you can say: End of story. But what if you are not satisfied despite the many presets in the instrument? Is there something about every sound that bothers you? What can you do? Perhaps you have at least read the operating instructions in full. But it hasn’t made you much smarter. It just talks about so many different terms that you’re not familiar with and you don’t know exactly what to do with them. So this question still remains: What to do now?
Well, there are basically three successive gates you can go through to conquer the FM Synthesis for yourself. I will introduce you to these three in turn. Once you have read through the following text with these three gates, you can think about what you find symphatic and how far you want to go. But one thing is important: In order to get to the Third Gate, you must first go through the First and the Second. Now, do you want to try this and find your way? No, rather not? Ok, then you can stop reading at this point and just work with the presets as usual and as they are. As I said, that’s also great and you can make your music with it, no question. Or, are you ready to open the Gates and use what you find behind them for yourself? Ok, then read the following text through to the very end. And maybe you’ll get so excited that you’ll want to get to The Third Gate and go through that. Alright, in this cass: Let’s get started.
The First Gate
Behind this Gate lies the field of the simple and also quite fast method type “Strong and beautiful in 5 minutes”. This is particularly suitable for people with only a little time on their hands who want or even need to concentrate on the music. Writing songs or rehearsing them for a cover band can be time-consuming enough. There is little opportunity to study any manuals in between, let alone to familiarize yourself with the complex user interface of an FM synthesizer and be able to operate it quickly. Just to customize a few sounds. So there’s the simple method where you just change things in existing presets so that they fit a song better. In this case, all you have to do is pick out the preset that comes pretty close to the sound you need. Then you look at what simply doesn’t fit. These are usually things like Attack or Release time. Maybe just the duration of the Sustain, because the sound should actually decay by itself a while after the key is hitted. Or the vVelocity is not as good as it should be. Or it is even simpler and only the Reverb or Chorus effect is too intense or too low.
In such cases, you usually have to deal with a manageable number of parameters that are more or less always the same and need to be adjusted. So you first look for these parameters in the operating manual, read the explanatory text and then look where you can find them on the synthesizer panel, in the display or in the software on the computer monitor. As soon as this is localized, you try to remember their places on the user interface. So that you can find them as quickly as possible when you need them. There’s nothing worse than not knowing where they are. You don’t want to waste time on such small sound changes, because that kills creativity. You’ll notice that over time it becomes quicker and quicker and you’ll be pleased with your success. This in turn motivates you to do it again and again when it’s required, because it starts to require no particular effort on your part. In short: The First Gate and that goal achieved.
The Second Gate
This is for someone who has either already gone through The First Gate or wants to understand something properly right away. Someone who is prepared to invest a considerable amount of time to explore a complex system with countless parameters and menu branches. To do this efficiently, you first need to familiarize yourself with the existing conditions. The first step is to try out and play all the presets thoroughly to find out everything you can do with the sounds. It is possible that a synthbass played in the middle register is a wonderful percussive sound that can be used to play grooving chords or single notes. Or it can really pack a punch in the top register and can also be used as a solo sound. Or you realize that a percussive sound that sounds great in all registers only needs a long sustain phase and a gentle attack to deliver a great pad.
It will certainly take you a good while to try it out with all the available presets. But that’s the way it is. After all, you’re probably having a lot of fun just playing and maybe you’ll even come up with some new musical ideas, such as a completely different bassline or a cool chord progression that inspires a new song. Just because you didn’t always want to play the same thing during the preset test. Once you’ve tried out the presets, pick up the manual and read through it if you haven’t already done so. But even if you have already read the manual, just do it again, because you will certainly read some passages with a different perspective now that you know what the author of the manual described there sounds like. You’ll also be able to memorize the terms better. Once you’ve done that, perhaps you’ve marked a few key points in the manual with a pencil for future reference, then it’s time to go to the synthesizer’s Edit page. Or to the user interface of a software. As described in The First Gate, you now look for the locations of the parameters. This should be done thoroughly so that you know where the individual sections such as Envelopes, LFOs, Pitch etc. are located. After all, you want to be able to find everything you want to access as quickly as possible. In contrast to The First Gate, you are now in a position to really create a sound from scratch. The best way to do this is to work systematically and build up the sound in the same way as you would when studying an acoustic instrument.
Like a fFlute, for example. There are always several sound components. You have an attack phase, which is perhaps a kind of air noise. Then comes the sustain phase, when the sound resounds for a longer period of time. And there is a decay or release phase. Sometimes there isn’t, in which case the sound simply stops abruptly after the key is released. Then come the modulations, which means that you can modulate the sound with a vibrato or tremolo, for example, in addition to the volume and overtone dynamics. Either dynamically as required while playing, or automatically by programming a fixed vibrato effect, which only starts to resonate automatically a moment after the key is pressed. These dynamics can be expanded several times so that you can use all of the keyboard’s controllers. Perhaps increase the Volume using Aftertouch, call up the Vibrato using the Modulation Wheel, extend the Decay time using the Damper pPedal and so on. If you do this often now, you’ll find that quickly over time, you’ll know the ins and outs of the instrument more or less inside out and you can easily and quickly create a new sound, completely programmed from scratch. Adjusting an existing one quickly will work in an extremely short time, for example during a recording session or a band rehearsal.
And another thing: If you discover a preset with this knowledge that you really like the way it is made, you can look at the data thanks to the knowledge you have now and use it to recognize how the programmer did it. And add it to your wealth of experience. Because a wealth of experience is fundamentally important in FM. So, that was the way thtough The Second Gate.
The Third Gate
Let’s move on to FM magic. Excuse me, what does FM have to do with magic? Well, in this blog post we are moving from the primitive to the complicated to the simple. And with The Third Gate, we’ve landed on the simple. The core of the FM universe. And that’s where the magic of FM synthesis lies, and it really is simple. Let’s take a look at how the story began.
The inventor John Chowning has said in his interviews that he was actually looking for Vibrato effects because the simple sine waveform sounded too sterile and lifeless for his needs. So he thought, how about simply combining two such sine waves and trying to set them in motion to create the desired Vibrato effect. The computer he was using at the time couldn’t do anything in realtime, you had to wait until the calculation time had elapsed and the audio result was ready to listen to. And he was amazed at what he suddenly heard. By simply changing the Pitch of the second sine waveform, a completely different waveform emerged.
He once said that the moment he found out what these two connected sine waves could do was a magical moment. Ok, so what does that have to do with us? Well, we can experience such a moment too. That’s when the penny drops. I see. And how does such a moment come about? Well, it’s a matter of luck. It happens to you, or it doesn’t. And how do I know? Because I experienced it. It was some years ago and until then I thought that after all those years of studying FM, I had understood the whole thing. Yes, I certainly did. But it was an intellectual understanding. One that goes hand in hand with formulas and math. With knowledge about acoustics and how acoustic instruments are made and how sounds are created. How sound waves work and what role the room in which a sound wave is generated and produced is.
Now, back to Chowning. He once recommended in an interview that, firstly, you are pretty well served with six operators like the DX7. And he added that you can really do an incredible amount with them and get a lot of great sounds out of them. He concluded by saying that you should try working with just two operators and see what you can do with them alone. And use operator feedback to generate potentiating resonance fields. So, you have a key now in your hand and it’s up to you what you do with it. Because you can use it to try and give your luck a little boost. You can also read my blog post FM Synthesis: It’s all about Vibration. And maybe it will happen to you too: that magical moment when you know, yay, that’s how it works? Yes, that’s exactly how FM works. Good luck!
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It was Dr. John M. Chowning who first discovered FM synthesis in the late 1960s. As a musician and composer, he was already working on his pieces with a computer system at Stanford University in Los Angeles. The sounds of the system were very sterile and he wanted to give them a bit of a boost and tried to do so with vibrato effects.
Although the computer available at the time was cutting-edge, it only offered simple sine waveforms, so Chowning experimented with two sine waves to which he assigned different pitches. The results were always a long time coming, as it took a while to calculate the result. This led to the magical moment when two sine waves connected together produced a completely different waveform, such as rectangles and bell-like inharmonics. So instead of continuing to use vibrato to make sterile sine sounds sound livelier, he shifted his experiments to generating different waveforms by means of linked sine waves and their tuning ratios to each other. The first results were reminiscent of the additive synthesis already known at the time, i.e. overtone spectra, but which could be produced far less expensively.
It quickly became clear that it was possible to create sounds that were reminiscent of conventional instruments, such as trumpets and flutes, instead of the typical synthetic sounds that analog synthesis was and is known for. At the beginning of the 70s, the matter was ready for patenting and not much later Yamaha became a licensee. The rest is history, because nothing has been the same since the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. And since then, musicians have been trying to create their own sounds with this FM synthesis. Most of them don’t succeed, having previously been told that this FM synthesis is difficult to understand. But that is not true.
FM synthesis is basically simple. And why do so many musicians fail to get to grips with it? Because you can’t learn FM synthesis, you have to experience it for yourself. Preferably in a playful way. But not completely without a plan. And you also need time. There’s a good chance that this will happen at some point, just like with chowning: Suddenly there it is, the magic moment. When the penny drops and you realize: Oops, that’s how it works?
Yes, that’s exactly how it works. However, it helps to have a little knowledge of acoustics, conventional musical instruments and, above all, patience and the drive to want to get to grips with FM synthesis in practice. Oh, so real work? Yes, but if you’re really serious about it and enjoy exploring things and just won’t rest, trusting that it will happen at some point. When will that be the case? They’ll know, guaranteed.
It’s about vibrations. Slow and fast, a combination of both. Carefully tuned and also randomly thrown in. Those that resonate with each other. And some that are brought to life through dynamics. The ear, with its highly sensitive ability to recognize the finest or coarsest movements and differences in temporal expansion, can show itself from its best side.
Chowning once said in an interview that you program an FM synthesizer with your ears. And that’s exactly what it is. You simply listen carefully to what you do with the parameters. Over time, you gain a wealth of experience that helps you to proceed in an increasingly targeted manner. The order in which you proceed is something you decide for yourself. FM is frequency modulation and that literally says it all. You are only dealing with frequencies that you can impose your own will on. You can determine their color, influence the duration of the sound development, whether any changes should take place over time and how dynamic control can influence it at any time.
So, we are talking about frequency modulation with only 2 operators. The operator with the carrier frequency is modulated by the second operator. So there is a relationship between these two, like two people having a dialog with each other. The tuning of the modulator therefore influences the sound of the operator that delivers the carrier frequency. Since the pitch of the modulator is normally set with the parameter Pitch or a similar parameter designation, you have a long list with which you can create almost any waveform. It doesn’t have to be an even value for Pitch, you can also use odd values.
All of this can also be found in nature. Ocean waves are created by deep trenches in the deep sea, plus winds above the water surface, both modulate each other and currents are created. Frequency modulation at its finest.
It doesn’t take long to realize that a large number of different waveforms can be generated with 2 operators alone. This does not include the frequencies of the carrier. Because this can also be tuned, just like the modulator. Given this multitude of possibilities, is it easy to lose track? Indeed, it is. FM synthesis instruments usually have more than just 2 operators, the DX7, for example, has 6 of them. So how do you keep an overview? Firstly, by getting a few empirical values. A ratio of 1:1 simply provides two sine waves, while 1:2 gives you a square wave. And so it goes on until it gets into the inaudible range.
Once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll automatically remember the waveforms that you particularly like because you use them in your music. And others that somehow deliver the opposite, i.e. sound like they’ve been brushed against the grain. If you constantly play any phrase on the keyboard during these pitch experiments, you can immediately check what a currently set waveform is suitable for and which is less so. If you want to do more, try the carrier instead of the modulator and try out all possible ratios in relation to the modulator.
The bottom line is that theory and tangible practice work best together and are therefore easily memorized. A little trick here is to be decisive. No matter how many options there are with this tuning, you simply save a reasonably suitable waveform. This will definitely help at this point for later approaches. This way you create a pool of candidates. You can continue to work on them later when it comes to creating complete instruments.
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Copyright notice:
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