I think I changed my mind

Beginning to feel FM. I think they're some pretty cool sounds to be had and its quite versatile. I do like some cheesy ass presets like brass, bass and ep but the more esoteric sounds are beginning to float my boat too. Yay!!!

FM is essential, impossible to live without frequency modulation, imo. You'd just die immediately without it. Makes the sounds cut right through. Not sure what you mean by esoteric, tho

Listen to The Bro - FM Funk by The Bro

You know the more kinda nutty sounds you can make with FM synthesis. I've been using Dexed a lot but don't really have a clue about FM synthesis if I'm honest. Although I do like FM though. I'd love to get a cheap FM synth like the Volca FM but 3 voice polyphony seems a bit limited for chords and so on. 

Been playing with the megafm and it’s pretty dope. 12 voice polyphony to boot. Being able to modulate the algos with lfos is a secret trick for sure

  On 5/17/2020 at 2:41 AM, nikisoko said:

Been playing with the megafm and it’s pretty dope. 12 voice polyphony to boot. Being able to modulate the algos with lfos is a secret trick for sure

How much is it? 

I saw that Mega FM online looks dope!!

love me some FM. you could try doing basic "analog" FM in something like VCVRack. very fun and hands on!

fm is mamma

Indeed. It can do so much more than DX7 presets... actually, a DX7 can do so much more than its presets ! 

When it comes to softwares, my very fav is u-he Bazille (modular architecture + phase modulation + phase distortion) is bewildering in that regard, so much fun  and character and I also absolutely love Chipsynth MD and Chipsynth PortaFM, both by Plogue.

  On 5/17/2020 at 10:27 AM, TheBro said:

How much is it? 

I saw that Mega FM online looks dope!!

I bought it through their site on a preorder but I don’t think the price has changed

https://twisted-electrons.com/product/megafm/

that looks darn cool

  On 5/17/2020 at 7:20 PM, pizza said:

that looks darn cool

Does but that price. Ouch. I do like Twisted Electrons as a company though. I'm waiting for Behringer to bring out a cheap FM synth lol.

a used reface dx is not gonna break the bank either. it's got a cool interface as well

Reface DX sounds nice from what I've heard.

The upcoming Korg Opsix could be a pretty nice FM synth too. I'm not that found of fixed algos, but it looks like a hands-on DX-7 (and I believe it's what it's supposed to be once for sale)

Seems like most of the bass sounds on Syro is FM. Really awesome way to make sounds once you figure it out. Additive synthesis is king though.

  On 5/17/2020 at 7:50 PM, pizza said:

a used reface dx is not gonna break the bank either. it's got a cool interface as well

Cool. Is that actually really FM or Virtual FM?

FM is FM

Is there actually some reason to have separate FM hardware gear and not just run software on your PC? Most FM is done digitally anyway, no?

  On 5/17/2020 at 9:36 PM, zkom said:

Is there actually some reason to have separate FM hardware gear and not just run software on your PC? Most FM is done digitally anyway, no?

if you don't want to use a computer to make music on

  On 5/17/2020 at 2:41 AM, nikisoko said:

Been playing with the megafm and it’s pretty dope. 12 voice polyphony to boot. Being able to modulate the algos with lfos is a secret trick for sure

nice, jealous! been watching it for months since it was announced and i ended up getting something else recently instead...but may grab one of these down the way perhaps  you finding it useful? heard mostly good about the build quality too, seems solid to you? looks it from the few videos i've seen

  On 5/17/2020 at 9:36 PM, zkom said:

Is there actually some reason to have separate FM hardware gear and not just run software on your PC? Most FM is done digitally anyway, no?

I generally agree with out, FM synths are digital and there are plenty of great FM soft-synths out there, or other synths that do FM on top of other type of things. In the case of the MegaFM, the chip has a specific character that I think would be hard to duplicate exactly. It's pretty lo-fi but since there are two chips and some cool detuning options, it can be quite lush at the same time.

  On 5/17/2020 at 9:39 PM, auxien said:

nice, jealous! been watching it for months since it was announced and i ended up getting something else recently instead...but may grab one of these down the way perhaps  you finding it useful? heard mostly good about the build quality too, seems solid to you? looks it from the few videos i've seen

So far I like it a lot. I'm only a week in to having it but I'm trying to pull as many sounds from it as possible right now. I managed to get some good kicks, snares, and hats out of it with some tweaking. I'm going to be mostly focused on getting some leads and pads over the next few days. It has a good preset save/recall system, but I'm also sampling it into Logic with the new multisampler, which is pretty sweet.

The character is pretty distinct, so unless you are doing chiptune music, I dont think you would want this to be your only synth. However it sounds so unique that I'm quickly satisfied with sounds I get out of it, even when they were relative simple to put together.

That being said, given that there are 3 lfos that can be assigned to anything (including which FM algorithm is being used),  that the lfos can modulate each other and be sync'ed via midi clock, means I can get some pretty wild long sequences of sounds out of it.  I spent some time jamming around with those kind of things and I need to cut them up and whatnot. I havent really played around with the arpeggiator yet but it seems nifty.

oh yeah, i'd say the build quality is good. I dont worry about breaking it.  I think its a limit of the chip, but I find the shape of the envelopes to be a bit fiddly. It's easy to go from really long decays to what to short, so I have to be careful there. I have noticed on occasion I have to move a slider around a bit to get it to 'catch',  but I think this is a common issue with digitally driven synths from analog style controls and not too far off from my experience with using some midi controllers on softsynths.

^sounds like you're getting on with it well, a few little quirks aren't a bad thing of course, no one buys a synth like that not wanting a few quirks i'd assume

Been digging my Akemies Castle 4 op FM for a while

  On 5/17/2020 at 8:14 PM, Nil said:

Reface DX sounds nice from what I've heard.

The upcoming Korg Opsix could be a pretty nice FM synth too. I'm not that found of fixed algos, but it looks like a hands-on DX-7 (and I believe it's what it's supposed to be once for sale)

Expand  

This is some kind of mockup and probably not in the works...

"Yeah. Okay, so Opsix I wouldn’t even call what we showed a prototype. It was a concept. It’s just something they’re thinking of back at HQ so just put it out there to get peoples’ reactions."

https://www.musictech.net/features/interviews/luke-korg-mini-arp-2600-opsix-volcas-behringer/?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=

  On 5/17/2020 at 9:36 PM, zkom said:

Is there actually some reason to have separate FM hardware gear and not just run software on your PC? Most FM is done digitally anyway, no?

All algos aren't equal, plus DAC's and transformers play a part in the sound. Goes for the old ROMplers (wavestation, d-50, JV) vs reissues/VST's as well.