Is it possible to make good FM tom drums with YM2612? (Page 1 of 2)

Whenever I make toms with Adlib Tracker/FM, I just use sine waves with pitch slides starting out fast, then slowing up in speed as note decays

yeah then nag Mauer into releasing the fb01 patches on youtube hes been promising us for fecking years!

I only have experience with the FMDrive VST, but I've found that I'm never totally happy with the percussion sounds (including kick, snare, hihats, etc) I can get out of it. Probably says more about my programming than the chip's capabilities though. The LFO can modulate the pitch, just find the right amount of pitch modulation and adjust the amp envelope to your liking. It will still sound closer to Simmons toms than anything I'd call "punchy".

For kicks I usually just use a short envelope and then play around with the algorithms and carrier/operator frequencies to achieve something that resembles a kick drum. If played higher up on the keyboard, I imagine the sound could pass as toms.

of cause i depend on the software you are using
but i don't think it is hard to make good drums using FM sound,
what i think that is the hardest is hi-hats, crash cymbals, and rides, all sounds that need metallic noise.

here is a FM drum beat using, my own program Power-Fm
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/308 … 20Beat.mp3

Thx

Thanks Lazerbeat! One of these days I should get back to making FM chipmusic...

fedepede04: Not bad hihats, but still rather clicky. Perhaps FM+filters could help. That crash sound reminds me of a grandfather clock or something. It's hard to get a nice complex cluster of overtones whilst also having a nice bell in FM cymbals. I guess oscillator detuning could help with that. That said, I don't think any type of pure synthesis can make a very nice pseudo-realistic crash cymbal yet...

Last edited by freezedream (Jul 1, 2014 9:49 am)

that was(is) exactly my point.
when we are talking about kick drum, toms and synth toms, i think they are pretty easy to do,
but authentic hi hats, cymbal is another matter, even snare drums is hard to do if it shall sound authentic.
then control of the noise and sound is really hard to master, like you say impossible.

it was also the reason for that i was thinking of add samples to my program.
it was also my intention to added filters to the program, but it was something I never got around to do.
and other idea that i played with was, the waveform in my program is 1024 data long, if I took 1024 data from a eg. crash sampling and use it to do FM synthesis over.
but again it was something that i never got around to do.

btw i don't know exactly know how a grandfather clock sounds like
, but i also don't think that my cymbal sound like a crash cymbal, i think it sound more like one of the smaller cymbals