So, Bruce, don't you think the vast collective of the keyboardist community
sound a collective "duh" when discussing true FM synthesis? It awfully
complicated, and you've done a nice job of overviewing it, and at I do
appreciate the discussion.
You said that you had access to old mono synths that you'd patch up from
scratch. I did too - you old dog. ;-) Imagine trying to do that with an FM
synth! With subtractive synthesis an instinct develops as to what works
(and Yamaha has even given us the sound templates in the AN). With FM it's
pretty hard to guess how to set up a sound. I would suppose that the
majority of patches for the DX series that were musically useful may have
been stumbled upon at first, rather than thought out.
As far as the FM abilities of the AN1x go, it's been given the modulation
capabilities of DCO driven synths of the 80s, like the Roland JX series with
the master/slave thing. What one gets when using an FM setup is something
more than the standard sine, saw and pulse waves. One classic "sync"
(another term for analog FM) sound that I can recall is the lead line at the
beginning of The Cars' "Let's Go", or the synth line from "I'm Just a Girl"
by No Doubt. They've got a vocal quality to them as the filter closes down.
But the bottom line about FM in the AN1x is that it is somewhat limited.
Ed Edwards
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Wahler" <bruce@...>
To: <AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2001 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: SV: SV: [AN1x-list] FM synthesis (long post)
> Jim,
>
> >I still need to wrap my head around the syncing of vc01 and vc02, why one
> >would chose one over the other for master-slave..
>
> In principle, it doesn't matter which wave is the slave for syncing, but
in
> practice, once a VCO is selected, the waveforms of the two VCOs can be
> pruned to include only the most musically useful ones. It may simplify
the
> design, which usually translates into a cost savings.
>
> >One thing especially...when some of the algorithms have an option called
> >"fixed" does that effectively turn the option off...out of the picture?
>
> Fixed doesn't turn syncing off; it just fixes the frequency of the slave
> oscillator. If we look at how syncing works, the master oscillator
'says,'
> "Look, the slave oscillator can do anything it likes, frequency-wise, but
> every time I reach the start of my waveform (0 degrees), I'm going to
force
> the slave back to 0 degrees, too." This is a kind of modulation, and like
> other modulation types, results in a wave that has frequency components of
> both the carrier and modulator. IMHO, fixed-frequency syncing is less
> musically interesting than variable-frequency syncing, just like a sine
> wave is less musically interesting than a sawtooth -- but that's a
> generalization. Both sines and fixed syncing have their use, musically.
>
> >I assume you've been here longer, and know about the list...but for the
> >short time I've been here I have seen mail form other novices and I can't
> >believe they would want to miss out on this kind of good explanation of
> >theory, about one of the central modules.
>
> Actually, I've only been on the list for about 2 1/2 weeks. My advantages
> are: a) I'm an electrical engineer whose specialty is analog electronics;
> and b) I was fortunate enough to go to a college in the mid-70s where I
had
> access to a Minimoog, a Putney VCS3, and a Buchla. The access to
> non-programmed, analog synths means that I had to learn how to do things
> from scratch, rather than depend on a library of sounds created by the
> manufacturer. A pain in the butt then; a clear advantage now. When I
> first got the AN1x, I spent a week of, "Wow! You mean you can sync the
> VCOs to LFO1, and still have VCO2 left over???" and such.
>
> >I certainly can take it off line...but isn't the purpose of this list to
> >discuss exactly this kind of thing? Have most of the people here already
> >been through this?
>
> A good question for the group: Was my explanation to Jim useful to
others,
> or was it a case of, "Oh no! Not another round of synth theory!" I'm a
> relative newbie here, so a poll might be in order.
>
> >(by the way..any idea of the number of listers?)
>
> ~400
>
>
> Regards,
>
> -BW
>
> --
> Bruce Wahler
> Design Consultant
> Ashby Solutions"
> www.ashbysolutions.com
> CloneWheel Support Group moderator
> 978.386.7389 voice
> 978.776.0096 fax
> bruce@...
>
>
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