By Neodymium
Sun Nov 13, 2022 2:35 pm
Now we have a manual (for the VST), I’m trying to get my head around it and FM, which feels pretty alien to me. I’ve made some progress, I can’t quite get a gripe of solid sounding basses and leads, but man, so far this thing is a pad machine. I thought a thread sharing our knowledge, progress and tips might be worthwhile.
https://cdn.inmusicbrands.com/air/2022/ ... 20v1.1.pdf
Operators and Matrix pages are the Hub of the machine, different from the VST, you touch the large number to jump to it’s operator page, instead for the small menu at the bottom.
And the Grey Matrix Icon to jump to the Matrix (which then lights up)
Ratio
FM seems to work best around numbers from the harmonic series, and as ratios of 1,2,4,8,16 are all octaves, double tapping the ratio for the number entry screen gives the option to double and half.
And as any harmonic can be doubled and halved, such as the 3rd, 6th and 12th, it works for these too (from 0.75 and 1.5 up). The Jog wheel jumps through the ratio in 0.64 steps (or 0.064 with shift) on the Matrix page, but using the Q links on the Operator page jumps in 500 steps which is more useful)
I grabbed the harmonic series off Wiki and edited to add the lower numbers Blue for the Natural Harmonic and Red for there reduced ranges. 0.5 is helpful as it’s a sub-octave.
I found the ratios to Equal Temperament and Just Intonations too. These don’t seem to be part of the how people approach FM, but as all 4 voices can be routed out, I thought they may help come up with something
Offset
I’m a bit puzzled by the use of the off set as it’s a fixed about of Hertz. I don’t know the use of this. If you add and offset of 50, then the A’s frequencies are 55+50 = 105, 110+50 = 160, 220+50 =270, 440+50 = 490, 880+50 = 910, 1600+50 =1650. So at low frequencies the offset is a large deviation, but a small one further up the keyboard. You can also do negative offsets, which caught me off guard when my keyboard reversed order. -1000 hertz means A at 440 is playing -560 (inverted), and then the next A down at 220 is play -780 up the keyboard, and then 110 moves higher at -890Hz
Level
The level control sets the volume in the Matrix, but it also the level available to the submixer. So if it’s on zero here, the sub mixer can’t use it.
PW
Pulse Width seems to insert a zero line and split the wave
This is at 50%
Formant adds a resonant peak
FM Filtering
Filters the upper harmonics of the modulator, eventually reducing it to a sine wave. But you can still send this unfiltered source direct to the sub-mix. So you can both use the source as an audible carrier but tame it when using as a modulator at the same time.
FM Shaping
This has me a bit puzzle to what it’s doing exactly. It seems to be shaping the wave resulting is removal of high frequency noise, but having less impact on the harmonics than the FM Filter has. When the source is quite stable it doesn’t seem to have much impact, whereas filtering always does.
https://cdn.inmusicbrands.com/air/2022/ ... 20v1.1.pdf
Operators and Matrix pages are the Hub of the machine, different from the VST, you touch the large number to jump to it’s operator page, instead for the small menu at the bottom.
And the Grey Matrix Icon to jump to the Matrix (which then lights up)
Ratio
FM seems to work best around numbers from the harmonic series, and as ratios of 1,2,4,8,16 are all octaves, double tapping the ratio for the number entry screen gives the option to double and half.
And as any harmonic can be doubled and halved, such as the 3rd, 6th and 12th, it works for these too (from 0.75 and 1.5 up). The Jog wheel jumps through the ratio in 0.64 steps (or 0.064 with shift) on the Matrix page, but using the Q links on the Operator page jumps in 500 steps which is more useful)
I grabbed the harmonic series off Wiki and edited to add the lower numbers Blue for the Natural Harmonic and Red for there reduced ranges. 0.5 is helpful as it’s a sub-octave.
I found the ratios to Equal Temperament and Just Intonations too. These don’t seem to be part of the how people approach FM, but as all 4 voices can be routed out, I thought they may help come up with something
Offset
I’m a bit puzzled by the use of the off set as it’s a fixed about of Hertz. I don’t know the use of this. If you add and offset of 50, then the A’s frequencies are 55+50 = 105, 110+50 = 160, 220+50 =270, 440+50 = 490, 880+50 = 910, 1600+50 =1650. So at low frequencies the offset is a large deviation, but a small one further up the keyboard. You can also do negative offsets, which caught me off guard when my keyboard reversed order. -1000 hertz means A at 440 is playing -560 (inverted), and then the next A down at 220 is play -780 up the keyboard, and then 110 moves higher at -890Hz
Level
The level control sets the volume in the Matrix, but it also the level available to the submixer. So if it’s on zero here, the sub mixer can’t use it.
PW
Pulse Width seems to insert a zero line and split the wave
This is at 50%
Formant adds a resonant peak
FM Filtering
Filters the upper harmonics of the modulator, eventually reducing it to a sine wave. But you can still send this unfiltered source direct to the sub-mix. So you can both use the source as an audible carrier but tame it when using as a modulator at the same time.
FM Shaping
This has me a bit puzzle to what it’s doing exactly. It seems to be shaping the wave resulting is removal of high frequency noise, but having less impact on the harmonics than the FM Filter has. When the source is quite stable it doesn’t seem to have much impact, whereas filtering always does.
Last edited by Neodymium on Sun Nov 13, 2022 3:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
