[sdiy] FM bass - most popular algorithm

[Dave Kendall]

Otherwise great DX7 bass sounds can be occasionally be lacking in low end
"grunt", because all the operators have been used up in getting the timbre
and transients right.

The solution is to have a "spare" carrier operator producing an un-modulated
sine wave. 

Give this spare sine wave operator the same EG settings as the carrier(s)
that define the main amplitude envelope (look at the bottom operator or
operators in the stack), and set the key scaling to attenuate it as the
pitch rises, so that you don't unduly affect the tone with higher pitches.
Adjust the volume of this operator to taste.

This nicely warms up the low end of the bass.

Back when I was mad enough to be really into this sort of thing, I re-mapped
many great DX7 sounds from ALG 16, 17, and 18 to other ALGs eg, 26, 27, and
28 which often had enough complexity to produce exactly the same sound as
the original, but with the addition of the "spare" operator for warming
things up.

The "spare sine" trick works very well on other synths too....

Dave ( in DX7 memory lane...)