Hello,
I’ve just seen the tutorial Making Skrillex style GROWL basses with FM synthesis - Ableton Tutorial Tuesday - YouTube
and had a go with a trial of ableton and its so damn easy with operator. I figured I should be able to string up a few oscillators but i’m such a beginner.
How do i get one oscillator to modulate another like operator does? I tried one sine vso into the fm input of another and it sounds completely differrent
many thanks in advance
Use an FM VCO with thru zero FM. There are a few. Bogaudio FMOP is very popular. My “Kitchen Sink” is a sort of knock of that is better in many ways and worse in some. There are others. Valley has a bunch of FM stuff, as does NYSTHI. I think these are all free modules, btw.
I suggest you to feed FM input of bog audio FMOp with a wavetable complex waveform
thanks, I’m trying but i really can’t figure out how to get it to sound like operator. no matter how i plug stuff in it sounds nothing alike. operator’s first oscillator sounds like a sine wave and turning up the second makes is more like a square but vcv models just sound like higher pitches sine waves or screeching
aha, i’m having a bit more luck using a subtractive synth as an fm source. nice rich harmonics but it still doesn’t sound as clean
What are the pros and cons of FMOP vs Kitchen Sink? I always reach for Bog’s FM, but am happy to give KS a whirl.
hoho - someone asked! ok…
I’m not sure this is all “true”, but in my mind:
First of all, they are very similar. KS is “highly influenced” by the feature set of FMOP
FMOP is better in:
The feedback FM path has more oversampling, so it often sounds better, esp at high amounts. The envelopes can sound more gentle and big. Operating monophonically it is more CPU efficient.
KS pros: The triangle to saw morphing is a good sounding addition. The build-in wave folder that can be modulated by the EG adds a lot of sounds. The “n-operator” FM (using more than one module) uses 4X oversampling and sounds cleaner. The envelopes have an option for the moog flat-top “snap”, and can go faster. It’s quite efficient when used polyphonically.
Like I say, I’m not positive all these are true, but I think they are.
4 FM-OPs are working very nicely. thank you so much for your help.
I’m going to try lots of effects and formant filters now.
Cool, thanks. I appreciate all your explanations of how oscillators are coded and aliasing and such, as I don’t have so much background in that side of things. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
how do i tell if a vco has a ‘through zero’ fm? I do the same setup with different oscillators and get wildly different sounds
that’s a very good question. I don’t have a great answer. You can tell if they have “linear” FM by changing the amount of FM. Does the pitch change? Then it’s probably regular 1V/oct exponential FM. If the pitch stays the same then it’s linear FM.
If someone bothered to put linear FM in, then it’s probably through zero. through zero we difficult and expensive in analog, but it’s cheap and trivial in digital.
If you turn up the FM amount and it keeps adding harmonics but stays in tune it’s probably through zero?
Somone may have a better and crisper answer - I realize this is pretty hand-waving.
As a last resort, look in the manual - it may say! Mine do. Even funny VCOs like “Chebyshev”, where as far as I know no one has used the LFM input. But the manual does say “through zero”.
thanks for your explaination. My vcv efforts have somewhat been put on hold by the realisation that i can’t integrate it into my DAW easily. the veeceeveevst version doesn;t have easy automation…
its been educational regardless
What OS/DAW u on?
i have both windows and manjaro linux installed. I use waveform with either but of course i have ardour installed as well on linux.
Are you asking becasue there is a way to do it on one os?
Hi mate sorry for late reply, I’m not familiar with waveform but had a look at it - ur best bet is the jack audio stuff, veeceevee isn’t an option, nor the old bridge. Gonna take some fiddling to get it running but defo worth it