By hyena
Fri Sep 30, 2022 3:32 pm
Telefunky wrote:The trick with FM is to use (some) fx, in particular delay and reverb.
A patch may sound boring if played dry, but suddenly comes to life with the proper setting. No need to drown it in reverb, it‘s about more subtle aspects of the FM sound structure (dynamic and harmonics) and how this interacts with the fx processor.
I hate the Whitney piano, too... but will always keep my Yamaha TX-7
It can do so much more
Another very important aspect regarding organic and expressive fm patches is dynamics, modulating fm index with velocity,that means how much the modulators actually modulate the carriers = how many harmonics are created must be under velocity control if you want it to be really expressive when you touch those keys.
Also starting with very low fm amounts , setting envelopes correctly, going subtle. you can definitely avoid using filters with fm, a shitload of impressive sounds were made on a dx7, with no filtering at all. if you comprehend that you can reduce harmonics down to the fundamental sine wave just by lowering fm index, then you don't need filters. filters are there just to add another layer of control, of processing. an icing on the cake.