Yamaha FB-01

I've sort of known about this synth module for years but never took it seriously until I heard the sounds in this demo below. I gotta say I like em - they got that real Sega Megadrive FM feel obviously 'cause they're using the similar soundchip. Has anyone got one of these? I'm looking to pick one up cheap if I can. The hunt is on!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqIOTwUjlks

I saw one on craigslist for $25 but the dude never responded to my inquiries. It seems pretty cool.

Yeah I got a feeling I could get this dirt cheap. A big motivation would be its size as I've got limited studio space!! Gotta love the presets though - some of the basses sound real cool.

If it doesn't have to be hardware then I'd suggest getting the much cheaper (ie free) Vopm - http://www.geocities.jp/sam_kb/VOPM/

Yeah I've got that but never figured out how to use it. I may have a play with it tonight.

Am I right in thinking the FB-01 is just for playing back preset sounds rather than making your own ones ?

no it says it has 96 user presets

  On 10/30/2012 at 6:25 PM, sneaksta303 said:

no it says it has 96 user presets

I think that's for transferring a selection from the 240 rom banks into user ram banks - http://soundprogramming.net/manuals/Yamaha_FB-01_Manual.pdf

oh lame

I got one mega cheap. Never properly used it because it is an absolute ARSE to use. You CAN program your own presets, but only via SysEx and there aren't any readily available editors out there for anything other than Windows, and the only one I did find for Windows could be far better.

i.e. I still need to sit down with Max for Live and write my own editor.

Is it worth picking up? Yes if you need a late 1980s paperweight. No if you want a programmable FM synth.

VOPM is excellent, but only if you get ahold of the ripped instrument packs from the Sega Genesis roms. They are on the net in various places (if i had a link id post it) but the synth turns into a beast once you load it up with those. IT is by far the best software method of getting that Sega Genesis sound. Don't bother doing this on the Mac OSX version though, as far as i can tell it only works with the PC/windows one. You can load in the files on OSX but the presets just wont play back (they will all sound the same)

I saw one for mega cheap last year, tested it out in the store but it wouldn't power on, aww. It went back on the shelf for some other poor sucker to snap it up without testing.

The Preen has basically the same specs, although in my experience it doesn't have such chunky bass.

There are quite a few on Ebay at the moment but they're all stateside. As soon as one pops in the UK I'm gonna be all over it. Either that or I'm lucky enough to see one in Cashconverters lol!!

I looked into this a while ago. For what it's worth, i read that the FB01 has quite a thin sound for hardware, almost comparable to a vst equivalent. Also, VOPM is incredibly unstable in renoise.

Sounds are FM sounds so have their own characteristic. The fun of a module like this I find are in its limitations. It brings you back to the music and not necessarily realiance on sounds themselves. If you like the sound of the Sega Megadrive then I think its a real bargain myself.

doesn't sound like a megadrive to me.... some pretty good bass presets on there though! if you can pick one up for cheap i say go for it.

I've passed on these as low as $25 on craigslist. Just seemed like too much of a pain to edit.

Just use the presets then, is there really much more you can do that is far from those presets? From my experience these old synth modul are very limited sound design wise, unless you use an FX chain, otherwise...

  On 11/16/2012 at 5:22 PM, SampleScience said:

Just use the presets then, is there really much more you can do that is far from those presets? From my experience these old synth modul are very limited sound design wise, unless you use an FX chain, otherwise...

I'd agree with you if it were a standard rompler type synth, but it's an FM synth.

FM synthesis can go waaay beyond the presets. Even a simple 4-op FM synth has amazing sonic potential beyond the presets, which usually mostly just emulate "real" instruments.

Plus if you're serious about your music, you're going to want to at the very least have some control over envelopes, LFO speeds and whatnot.

I've wanted one of these for a long time just to have a more gig-friendly version of the TX81Z but they don't seem worth it. I don't think they're that much smaller anyway. The red display is sexy though.

Got one today and its amazing.

8 VOICES MULTITIMBRAL!!!!!!!

With polyphony assignation,you can choose the polyphony of each voice!!!

The editor works fine on windows but you have to use 2 midi interface to make it work it seems.One for MIDI IN and one for MIDI OUT.

But man 8 voices multitimbral FM synth fully editable with the editor for peanuts!This is amazing!

FM is where the deals are now.

These things are such a good deal.

Being mutitimbral with some zoning capability means you can use it as an 8 voice FM drum module!

The analog output stage is kind of awful, distorts easily and is lowpassed at something like 6k because of excessive high frequency noise.  All of that makes it sound better to me. I've got an FB-01 and a TX802 for FM and I find myself using the FB-10 at least as often as the 802 because like the dirtier output section so much. In that well known Legowelt Studio Tour video he talks about always running FM synths through lo-fi analogeffects like the monotron delay to make them less sterile.  The FB-01 has that built in!

Honestly it's hard to justify not having one of these around if you use hardware and have any money to spare at all. 

Stop fuelling my GAS you perverts

I should have picked up the one I mentioned earlier in the thread. I think it was like $70 or something, yikes.