Lessons
Course Introduction
04:57 2The FM Concept
09:50 3Operator Fundamentals
10:16 4FM Pro Tips
11:14 5Classic Subtractive Techniques
08:15 6FM Monophonic Bass
11:32 7FM Polyphonic Leads
18:49 8Drum and Percussion Overview
11:26Lesson Info
FM Pro Tips
all right. The last of our FM concepts video Siris are level one. Of course, we're just going to talk about I'm gonna give you some conceptual pro tips that you can keep in mind as you navigate learning how to create your own sounds with FM synthesis. Um, these are tips that I've accumulated through about 15 years of teaching this stuff, and I find them to be highly lucrative in the pursuit of having a really strong foundation and understanding of FM synthesis so you can go on. And when you have a sound in your head, you wake up in the middle of the night with some idea you'll be able to quickly and effectively execute and create that sound. Keeping in mind building your foundation on these basic fundamental pro tips. Last video, we talked about what an oscillator needs to become an operator or an FM us. Later. I'm gonna look a little beyond that and look outside of the outside of just the operator section itself and see what kind of other pro tips like unmet mustard for you, first of ...
all, and turn all these guys down. We're back to this one carrier in Siris, right? These algorithms air Not exactly self explanatory when you first look at them and I want to point out really some just general ideas of how these work and just ways to think about them. What I did mention in the previous videos that this is pure FM and that this is pure additive. In other words, also, if you are making a subtracted style patch like you just wanted a sol wave with the filter or maybe a couple of sorrow waves, this is the algorithm you want to use. This basically turns FM synthesis off and just allows you to use this like a four oscillator synthesizer. But beyond that, we have all these other cool shapes. Let me explain to you some general ideas of things that I like to keep in mind when I'm choosing which shape to grab when I'm learning FM synthesis, I like to keep it in pure Siri's. And the reason why is because the instruments ability to generate brightness and uncontrollable overtones is most powerful in this state. It's also the hardest to get the most beautiful sounds out of in this mode because you just have one simple wave form that's being jacked around by some very high frequency modulators. These modulators, in this case, they work like LF owes for those of you who are familiar with subtracted synthesis these LF owes, generate modulation. But what's different about them is instead of running in a slow speed, like maybe 64 or whatever these hurts might be a really low frequency speed. Therefore evoking like a barato or tremolo, these are running at an audio rate. In fact, if they're all the same course tuning, they're all running in exactly the same audio frequency. That's why we get these rich overtones when our wave forms are routed in Siris. But I'll be honest with you, keeping it in pure Siri's and even getting upto operator de toe where you can even use this way. For him to create anything is pretty tough, because by the time you've modulated and modulated at an audio rate you know twice over, this thing is so rich and so complex. You turn up the fourth oscillator and it's a little unwieldy until you get really good at this. Um, this is why they give you these more complex algorithms and ways to employ these wave forms and vibrations in combinations of additive and FMR additive and subtracted. And FM, for instance, this algorithm let's talk about this for a sec. This is basically to FM synthesizers in parallel. They both have one carrier and one modulator. I could go ahead and use this algorithm to create one sine wave at another one. The third harmonic up. Um, now I can FM just the third harmonic without modulating or FM ing the fundamental pitch at all Notice how the sine wave that I can hear it. The fundamental pitch is not being affected. So how about if I add a little subtle, full sustained 0.5 modulation to the fundamental Let's listen to this by itself that will turn this on watch as I track this third overtone up and down the spectrum. Whoa. Now I'm just gonna FM this peak without affecting views at all. Cool, huh? So now I have this really great ability to discreetly kind of point where I want the texture and Tambor to be moving around inside of the patch just by having two parallel since another algorithm that I really like using a lot is this guy. In this case, it's not unlike the pure Siri's FM algorithm. But all three of the modulators are independent of each other and just evoking their own unique modulation to the carrier. Let's play around with this for a sec is R sine wave put up one. Now I'm gonna add a little FM at 0.5 again one of my favorite settings, and put this at zero, maybe even one, just to get a little motion. In fact, it started zero. Now watch when I had a little FM here, a little d tuning start to see this wave form move around a little slow bend happening just for some complex city. That's why some of these peaks are moving up and down, and I it let's also add some slow attack Greater FM. That's pretty distance on because of my 16 GTO. Uh, now we could even have another one that's just plucking number. Before, I couldn't get a pluck to come through. If the previous modulator was at a slow attack. Now I can cause they're acting independently of each other, have a nice metallic attack as well as on a slowly growling kind of overtone set for the bottom down a little further, maybe three on this guy. I'm gonna go way up high. Ah, like a little tiny kind of roads Sound on the attack when I get way up high, kind of suggest metallic edge there, and that leads me to a really nice point. FM synthesis, If you look back in the early days of FM FM filled a puzzle piece, an important puzzle piece in the great equation of electronic music creation. That puzzle piece was sounds of metallic and brass instruments before FM synthesis. The sub tract of synthesizer of the Mobi etcetera was very capable of making Chel owes and bass sounds and even temp unease and bongos and all different a lot of different kinds of sounds that use membranes or strings. But the brass section of the orchestra or the symphony was virtually on a NRI. Create herbal, if that's a word with the sub tract of Simpson, get kind of close, but you can't really get those tiny metallic edges or like the sound of bells. The bell is the classic FM sound, and you get it by following my chips. The first tip is being aware of how these different algorithms work in relation to your final output, and then the next tip that I want to mention is working with while you're learning FM working only with sine waves, there's a reason for that. You'll notice. If you look at my Acela scope, I'm already creating a pretty rich with form. Let's try and even leave sustainable little bit. Let's give it a little more emotional way. Got a lot of complexity, a lot of overtones in a lot of richness, with only sine waves. Now you definitely want to use other wave forms in the creation of Advanced FM sounds. But in the very beginning, I highly recommend starting only with sine waves. If nothing else, it'll make conceptualizing what you're actually doing so much easier. So three parallel modulators with one carrier, all acting independently of each other, all with only sine waves suddenly de tuned. This is a This is pro tips. The next final pro tip I want to give you and a lot of I mean all of you classic synthesizer users out there are gonna shudder when you hear me say this, But this is advice when you're learning how to really get the best sounds out of your FM synthesizer, starting with only sine waves is only enhanced by not using the filter until at least until the sound is completely done or as baked as you can possibly get it with only signs. And the reason for that is if you remember back to our very first video, we noted how sine waves. In fact, I'll leave this up just off. Sine waves are the pure, fundamental pitch. If you use a wave form, it's rich with harmonics and you low pass filter. It's also a sine wave. So instead of choosing complex way of forms and slamming a low pass filter on it, which is gonna lead you down the same exact paths of a subtracted synthesis synthesizer, let's start with only sine waves. And let's avoid the low pass filter. We're going to really be flexing our brain muscles as much as we can, making sure we're getting the most out of the fine tuning course, tuning discreet envelopes and velocity sensitivity that make FM synthesis what it is. If you're trying to make more subtracted style patches, honestly, you're going to get better sounds out of an analog modeled subjective synthesizer. If you're trying to make the sounds that those instruments can't follow my rules, so there it is, folks, see in level two.
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
People complain about Abletons "uninspiring" synth presets, and Operators businesslike interface doesn't scream "fun". It is however, an insanely fun and powerful instrument once you get your head around it. This class is perfectly formulated to turn anyone into an FM super-ninja in no time. It starts with the basics - perfectly explained, and delves deeper at a nice pace. I've been using Operator for years but still picked up a few tips in the later lessons. Taking this class will empower you to stop worrying about having the latest, greatest third party VST. Operator is a beastly synth. I rarely use any other synth because of the sheer sonic capability, and tight integration with Live.