The Intro Song (uses my 2 op FM)

[kensuguro]

Doing a sort of a joke concept where a song just keeps going through a bunch of intros, never really getting to the "meat" of the tune.. Not sure if it achieves the effect, but it does seem like you're channel surfing..

I'm using the same presets throughout the tune, trying to maximize by swapping parts, etc.. The DX7 is bell keys turned out really well! No effects applied, just straight out of the my 2 op FM. I named it TurboFM since it's so fast to get the sound I want.

[dante]

Lol ! Maybe each intro could be a bit shorter - my mrs. surfs TV channels so fast I'm surprised we dont get the 'zipper' effect !!

So all the sounds were 2OP ? Just goes to show that the character in a given FM sound is in the first 2 ops ( 1 carrier + 1 modulator )...in 6OP the added 4 are just refining the fidelity or used for splits...

[kensuguro]

ya, I never could understand how to use 4op or 6op since the sound would be pretty much where I wanted it to be (or close enough).. but then I'm not an FM genius.. I've heard stories of these geniuses, back in the DX7 days, and they'd conceptualize a sound and be able to just make it. It was like hearing stories of dragon slayers.. lol

[dante]

It could be made easier if you followed a few basic principles. But still very time consuming.

. Each operator is a sine wave
. If you stack one op on top of another you get a more complex wave.
. If you stack em side by side you get additive sine wave synthesis.

For example, 6 ops where each op lays side by side is like a 6 bar draw organ ( if you set the frequencies in octaves and fifths), basic additive synthesis using 6 sine waves.

If you have 3 x stacks of 2 operators ( 3 x carrier / modulator pairs ), that would be like having a 3 drawbar organ ( where each drawbar volume is controlled by the output level of the carrier and each drawbar timbe is controlled by the output level of the modulator ) but of course now each drawbar can now be a more complex wave form than just a sine wave (which isn't true in real life coz of course real organs are additive sine only), but you get what I mean.

On the DX7 you could fade certain operators in or out as the notes got higher / lower ( keyboard scaling ) and therefore have splits - eg bass in left hand piano in right hand.

There was 3 or 4 relationships between carrier / modulator frequencies that would give you basic sawtooth, square etc waves. If you memorised those you could make easily your square leads, trumpets by delaying the modulator envelope, etc etc. much the same way as if you were programming an analog synth.

Carrier output levels affect volume. Modulator output levels affect timbre.

[kensuguro]

ya, definitely understand the mechanics behind it.. heck, I just built this synth. it's just so hard to incorporate into my thought process. I guess I do sort of understand the splits concept tho, probably creates a much better playing experience.

[dante]

Well you gotta understand the theory then play around with it - a lot !! As for guys who would say they heard a sound in thier head and programmed it, well I'd take that with a grain of salt. If it was an easy one like the examples I gave above ( eg from the waveforms we know which instrument they belong to ) then yeah, but in the course of my DX dabbling 90% of the good original sounds were created by hard earned trial and error, and in the end they were sounds I never would have heard in my head first.

If you asked me to make a trumpet or organ, I could probably still do it now. If you asked me to make a rhodes I'd probably stumble.

I guess the real geniuses were Chowning himself and the programmers that Yammy employed to built the factory presets, coz they were starting from scratch with no examples to reverse engineer. Even then we'll never know if they worked from first principles, or used some sort of Fast Fourier tool to cheat. But even if they did, the whole thing really was a work of genius anyways.

[kensuguro]

lol, agreed. My first synth was the sy99, and I had no clue what the hell was going on. The AWM samples were so bad, I had to throw in some of the FM love regardless.. but I guess 200% of the time I just ended up with a "cool sound" that I had no idea what to do with. hehe. DX is a motha, but gotta say sy99's complex structure still perplexes me.

The presets on the 99 are more or less obsolete, but I'd like to hear some modern guys have a go at it with what we know now. That's the cool thing with going back to older technology, we know much more and can imagine things people couldn't back then, and so it sheds light on new possibilities that was buried before. But well, I guess we wouldn't be where we are now without digging through those presets in the first place. Something about Yamaha's FM slap bass sound that pushes a very special button for me.

[dante]

'Take On Me' was the best ever use of that slap bass sound I reckon. Basically a melody and a bassline rolled into one, with the lead vocal melody supplying a rhythmic and melodic counterpoint....great stuff.