FMB
By chunter on Nov 16, 2013 5:04 am
Made for SounDevotion Competition Round 76 - http://sdcompo.com
The special rule of the round was to make every sound using 2-op FM, in this case with mda DX10 and Renoise. This song is simultaneously what I like and hate about FM synthesis.
When I started making music, I had piano lessons, and a console piano my father bought for the house. Most everyone in the family tried to play it at least once, but I was the only one who stuck with it for good. I was always fascinated by how universal the synthesizer had become, and loved the casio products since the VL-tones started showing up everywhere, but my family wouldn't get me one until my brother and I pooled allowance money together and bought a Yamaha PSS-170, which used OPL FM chips for sound.
When I was a teenager, I wanted a more proper synthesizer, so my family gave me a Yamaha YS-100, a learning FM synth that renamed (dumbed down) most of the parameters to make it easy to use. I was also given a PC with the SB Pro that came with Voyetra sequencer and could use the Adlib FM on the SB as a MIDI instrument, and a Boss Dr. Rhythm drum box, the only thing that *wasn't* an FM synth. That was what I used to compose, how I learned to make electronic music, and it was the rig I had through college and a bit beyond.
Since college was around the time Sega Genesis/Megadrive rose to prominence, everyone thought my FM synthesis sounded like a video game, and at the time I didn't want or know to take it as a compliment.
Once virtual analog subtractive synthesis became available to me, I immediately wished I had found some way to buy some monophonic subtractive synth when I was younger, but there is only so much retrospect can do- I have mixed feelings for the sound of FM synthesis, most of them bad, but since I know what works (thin organs, belltones, brass) and what doesn't, and how to work around the shortcomings (careful use of reverb, stacking of tones, chorus, phase, calculated saturation/distortion, etc) I knew I could at least come up with an entry.
I still have my YS synth, its memory battery is dead.
This submission is licensed by author under CC Attribution Noncommercial (BY-NC)
