Triaging FM8 patches for relative n00bs.

Lately my largest synth infatuation has been with programming FM8. So, I've done a little bit of FM with my Virus and understand the theory ... but flipping through the presets in FM8 provides a good sampling of the different timbres possible. So, how does one get a good grasp on what makes up these different FM tones? First of all, you get a very flexible routing matrix of operators and parameters, with the potential to paint very full/dense spectral pictures, and in the process a lot of the fine tuning tweaks can become virtually irrelevant.

Here's an example (click to enlarge):



So, to cut through a lot of what doesn't necessarily or at all compose the sonic character of this patch, let's look at the smallest mod routings.

From Z -> C and D there's not much going on. In fact, whatever those mods might do is inaudibly lost in the much larger spectral content of patch. This is partially because Z's cutoff in this case happens to be pretty low, and so whatever comes through gets lost in the already low-to-midrange output of the patch at large.

Now look at the outputs. There are 4 set to 80. This is going to provide so much output that unless A and Z's output occupy a different part of the spectrum, they're not going to be adding much .... As it happens, though, A is set to the 1+3+5 square, which does indeed provide some higher harmonics that will stand out a bit, but with it's ratio set to 0.7 that is still fairly trivial.

That's it for now. So anyway, there's a bit of structured thinking about how to look at FM8 presets. Learning to quickly filter out the less consequential parts of a patch can help you more easily see what makes up the core tone-making elements of a patch. 8-)

3U Oakley superladder from bridechamber expected in early 2008

Bridechamber, maker of front panels for Oakley synths and others should be coming out with a 3U superladder panel "in the first half of 2008".



This is of interest to me as I'm still not sure what I'm going to do for a front panel for my superladder module.

Stocking a synth DIY parts drawer

Nice thread on the synth-diy mailing list: click here

New journal, Oakley modular stuff

I thought I'd create a publicly accessible journal to record the progress and insights gained from my own DIY synth projects, hopefully other people (and in retrospect, myself!) will find some useful info here :)

So anyway, I've just recieved notice that my Oakley modular PCB's have shipped, I'm getting the SuperLadder module and the VC-ADSR. I have yet to work out the details about sourcing components, besides getting a bunch of plain 2% carbon resistors from Fry's, I may soon have some foibles to document on that front ... there's a set of parts suppliers on the synthtech site that I'll be using for that part.

Anyway Oakley's modules struck me right away as having the most flexible voltage controllability, much more than any others I've yet seen, especially the VC-ADSR. The option to tweak envelope times based on separate CV's is something I have yet to see on any other envelope module available, which is good because I hate static envelopes!

I'll actually be laying out these oakley modules onto perfboard from the full schematics that come with the PCB's, as that's what I'm going to be doing a lot of in the future, and it'd be a pretty good starter excercise to working up to cloning other circuits where there won't be any PCB option.

More later ...