FM sounds

[sucram]

I've recently become a fan of FM synthesis after goofing around with MDA's DX10 softsynth. Does anyone out there have experience with the Yamaha DX200, or any other FM synths that may have come out since the 80s? Are there FM soft synths available?

Thanks a lot in advance,

marcus

[brzilian]

Native Instruments just released the FM7 DXi plug in softsynth. There is a demo on their website:

http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?fm7_us

[sucram]

thanks for the info! i'll check it out.

-marcus

[Chriss]

i've got a friend who owns one and he's crazy about it.. weird sounds but rather limited in polyphony and parts.. find a store and go check it out.. it's got all the ol' classic features..

[sucram]

Chriss,

Yeah, when you use the onboard sequencer, you get 3 rhythm tracks for the sampled drum, bass, and effect sounds but only 1 track for the synth which is beyond me, since it's marketed as a groovebox, not a drum machine. Plus, the single track for the synth voice is monophonic. It boggles my mind why Yamaha would limit a self contained box so much when there are a million better drum machines out there. Fortunately for me, I'd use it with a computer so the onboard sequencer would really just be gravy. The computer editor that's included with it really opens the synth up though, since you can access parameters you can't even get to just using the knobs and buttons. I'm mainly interested in how expressive the sounds get. I definitely will check out a local Sam Ash, but I didn't even see it on their website. The closest Guitar Center is an hour away too. Sucks to be me.

Brzilian, thanks for the tip. FM7 looks incredible, and can be had for almost half the price of the DX200. Just looking at the envelopes makes me drool. I guess I now have to think about hardware vs. software issues. By the way, in August, I'm going to a friend's wedding that's going to happen in Sao Paulo (i think). Will I get robbed and shot there?

Thanks for your input you two.

-marcus

[brzilian]

Originally posted by sucram
Chriss,


Brzilian, thanks for the tip. FM7 looks incredible, and can be had for almost half the price of the DX200. Just looking at the envelopes makes me drool. I guess I now have to think about hardware vs. software issues. By the way, in August, I'm going to a friend's wedding that's going to happen in Sao Paulo (i think). Will I get robbed and shot there?

Thanks for your input you two.

-marcus

Just be careful and don't act like a stupid tourist!

I have family 1 hour away from SP and was just there over the Holidays. I love the place with all my heart, but will not deny it has its problems.

[Chriss]

Originally posted by sucram
Will I get robbed and shot there?

if there are 10 of you and you stay there for a week theres 100% chance of either things happening.. but then there are of course 9 left

[sucram]

Hey, as long as i'm looking into soft synths, does anyone have a clue how NI's Reaktor compares with their FM7? Strictly for FM synthesis. Using FM7 seems like it would suffice (I've been sorting out the demo), but if i can get all of Reaktor for around $150 more than FM7, then it seems like there's no contest. Although, I admit, I'm intimidated by Reaktor 3. Seems like it may be toooooooo deep (months of learning to install buttons for each midi connection for each circuit in each module in each instrument in each...).

Does anyone out there use Reaktor's FM capabilities? How does it fare? Is Reaktor better at FM than NI's FM7? If it is better, then it's definitely worth getting since it's Reaktor. No matter how big the manual is.


Thanks,

marcus

[LongWaveStudio]

i love my tx81z.

it's got some wicked sounds that go sooo well in a mix.

for anyone who's got one.. check out D09 "Spc Midiot"

works so well if you're looking for that William Orbit-y type noise.play with the pitch bend