I was watching that vid on Youtube of hydlide24 ranting about FL. And at a point he got on to comparing FM synths on what he believes is true FM.
Now when I listened to what he thinks is real FM I thought he is taking a load of Bullsh!t. This is mainly because not only do I have a handful of FM synths. But i'm a fan of the YM2612 or as some of you know it as the Megadrive synth chip, which sound nothing like what he said is real FM.
So instead of talk the talk. Lets walk the walk.
What i've done is loaded 7 synths and basically set them up with the same parameters, so oscillator 2 is FM oscillator 1 or vice versa. I've done this for both a sine wave and saw wave, used 100% volume on the FM and no external effects except Fruity Parametric EQ2 as some synths had drastic volume differences.
Synths used with the sine wave in this order:-
Toxic Biohazard
Wasp XT
Sytrus
Blue
FM8
Phantom
Subtractor
Synths used with the saw wave in this order:-
Toxic Biohazard
Wasp XT
Sytrus
Blue
FM8
Subtractor
Phantom was left out of the saw test because it doesn't have that waveform. The reason I used it in the sine test is because it is set up with the same parameters as the FM2612.
Now if you listen to the sine wave, it pretty much sounds like the same across all synths, except for some clipping.
Now with FM on the next clip. There is clearly differences between them now. However, Toxic and FM8 have a close sound and so does Sytrus, Phantom and Blue. The odd ones are Subtractor and Wasp XT with their own edge
Now for the saw wave. Now they all have got the same edge but what's with FM8? Now i've checked the effects and they are all off so i'm a bit puzzled why is sounds like it's had some EQing. The only thing I can think of is that looking at the waveform, it's not completely 90°. Having a similar waveform in Sytrus kind of give the same results.
Now with FM. WHAT THE FECK! There are some really big differences now. As it was in the last test, Toxic and FM8 have a close sound and so does Sytrus and Blue. Don't know what the feck Subtractor is trying to do and Wasp XT is off but not like Subtractor is.
So what have we learnt boys and girls. Well I think that FM synths are not all the same. And i'm glad that they're not. It's great that they don't sound the same as this means that you can have a different edge to the same parameters and you can choose which is best for you.
You could be a purist if you want and use a real FM chip. But even Hardware is hit and miss with itself.
Example from Wikipeadia Megadrive page:-
"Changes in the mixing circuit resulted in later revisions of the hardware producing more distorted sound output than earlier models."
So if anyone tells you that this VST synth is better than that VST or hardware is better. Tell them that they are talking a load of testicles. From what I've found, there is no real perfect way for FM, only the theory by the sound of it
Anyway. I hope this puts some of this VST war to rest and stop the gob sh!tes from talking crap.
True FM
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True FM
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