Should I go for Fm synthesis or stick with subtractive.

T

theblackbelted1

New member
I really want to make all kinds of complicated sounds like mechanical/engineering noises (not dubstep sounds), and just really anything I think of that has a unique timbre. Seeing some subtractive synthesizers and working out a way to recreate these noises seems impossible. Probably is possible though. I think I saw a video saying something along the lines of "with subtractive synthesis you're limited depending on the wave forms provided to you and Fm synthesis lets you break through that barrier of limitation". Something like that. But is it really true? Should I consider learning fm? I understand the concept of fm and seeing people use it on live streams like seamless makes me think it's way harder than subtractive. Or would it be better to read the synth secrets series that I keep seeing on this website and ignore fm.
 
Fm is definitely harder than subtractive, but it's a good tool to have in your belt. There are plenty of sounds out there that you just can't do with subtractive synthesis.
If you're struggling to decide whether it's worth the effort or not you have to question why you are making music- it was never going to be an easy journey and no-one ever excelled in it without putting in any effort (apart from possibly Martix Garrix lol)

Not sure exactly what you mean by mechanical sounds though... might be or might not be FM. Do you have a specific sound in mind?
 
Oh yea I should of been a bit specific. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of edm death machine by knife party. You know how just before the drop they have all of these mechanical , building sounds as if they are creating a machine right then and there? I'm not looking to copy it but that's kind of the style I was looking for an intro.
 
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If I wanted a really mechanical noise I'd sample a drill or a blender or an electric pencil sharpener or something..
You can get whirry noises by FMing a saw or square wave with a sine wave and adding portamento, but you can do that in massive using the phase oscillator...
 
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Fm synthesis is kind of difficult at first, but you get a feel for it after playing around a while. I'd recommend getting something like the Freeware synth Oxe FM Synth and trying different ratios and algorithms and testing those to the limit to get a get a feel for what this sort of synthesis can do, before reading Chowning or something. A lot of people get put off by reading the theory in advance, (which can be pretty scary and involves advanced maths) rather than just experimenting and seeing what happens.Start with one oscillator modulating itself and another then go from there. Also you can find some patch sheets for the DX7 online. You should be able to replicate them using Oxe FM and in the process you'll learn a lot. As for mechanical sounds, I'm not sure what you mean. For that sort of thing I'd go to granular synthesis/extreme timestretching and resampling, but of course we could be talking at cross purposes.
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Yemski-Redux said:
Fm synthesis is kind of difficult at first, but you get a feel for it after playing around a while. I'd recommend getting something like the Freeware synth Oxe FM Synth and trying different ratios and algorithms and testing those to the limit to get a get a feel for what this sort of synthesis can do, before reading Chowning or something. A lot of people get put off by reading the theory in advance, (which can be pretty scary and involves advanced maths) rather than just experimenting and seeing what happens.Start with one oscillator modulating itself and another then go from there. Also you can find some patch sheets for the DX7 online. You should be able to replicate them using Oxe FM and in the process you'll learn a lot. As for mechanical sounds, I'm not sure what you mean. For that sort of thing I'd go to granular synthesis/extreme timestretching and resampling, but of course we could be talking at cross purposes.
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One thing to be aware of though... there are actually two types of 'FM' synthesis and they sound different. The more common one these is more properly called phase modulation and is used in sytrus, FM8 etc. The other is 'true' FM synthesis, which works in a different way and I believe is how the Oxe and classic yamaha synths work. This isn't really explained very well anywhere I've found on the internet, and I don't fully understand it.

I'm not actually aware of any freeware synths which use the first kind of synthesis, if anyone knows of any it might be beneficial to point them out.
 
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