DSP Robotics Support

Here is my latest project, a basic FM synth in a 'rack' format.
What you got is the common features such as ratio and fine tuning, envelope, different waveforms etc. There is also a couple of features such as static filters, bit crush, saturation aswell as an audio input so you can use any synth as the modulator. It has been very fun to make and i hope you like it.

P.S: There are some oddities such as random clicks and such, just so you know. Also there is very few presets at the moment but more will come, so consider this a fully working beta.

I hate to pick the nit, but a Modulator and a Carrier are both Operators, so this a 2-Op synth. In FM parlance, an Operator is an oscillator with a dedicated vca/envelope on it's output and in some cases a feedback loop.

This is really nice and I like it so far.
It’s surprising what can be achieved with just 2 operators, as your synth already demonstrates.

Here’s a few initial comments (and I do take on board this is a beta):

Do you intend to make the preset manager available on the front panel or rely on the DAW for selection and saving as FXP/FXB? Also I see you have Lock set to True which means the DAW won’t save any tweaks made for a song. My own preference is to have the PM on the front, but it’s a personal choice.

I found the ratio setting scheme really awkward to use. To get an exact desired ratio quickly should be much easier I feel.

I didn’t get any clicks but I found the note-stealing rather irritating. I see you have a max polyphony of 8 voices and this means that with your Cello preset, which has a very long release time set, you get unexpected jumping of stolen notes. Maybe you wanted to emulate some older real-world digital synth…? I would recommend setting 32 but it’s your choice that matters of course.

I look forward to seeing this evolve and very well done so far!

Cheers

Spogg

k brown wrote:I hate to pick the nit, but a Modulator and a Carrier are both Operators, so this a 2-Op synth. In FM parlance, an Operator is an oscillator with a dedicated vca/envelope on it's output and in some cases a feedback loop.

Well damn, youre right

Spogg wrote:This is really nice and I like it so far.
It’s surprising what can be achieved with just 2 operators, as your synth already demonstrates.

Here’s a few initial comments (and I do take on board this is a beta):

Do you intend to make the preset manager available on the front panel or rely on the DAW for selection and saving as FXP/FXB? Also I see you have Lock set to True which means the DAW won’t save any tweaks made for a song. My own preference is to have the PM on the front, but it’s a personal choice.

I found the ratio setting scheme really awkward to use. To get an exact desired ratio quickly should be much easier I feel.

I didn’t get any clicks but I found the note-stealing rather irritating. I see you have a max polyphony of 8 voices and this means that with your Cello preset, which has a very long release time set, you get unexpected jumping of stolen notes. Maybe you wanted to emulate some older real-world digital synth…? I would recommend setting 32 but it’s your choice that matters of course.

I look forward to seeing this evolve and very well done so far!

Cheers

Spogg

Yes i thought about moving the preset manager on top.

The ratio, awkward how? I chose ratio settings that sounded musical, some more in-harmonic ofcourse

Yes i usually set the polyphony to something low. Mostly because of CPU useage (on my computer which is old) but also because i almost never use more than 8 voices. Also wanted to emulate old digital synth. But i will raise it to 32 voices instead.

Thanks for chiming in Boys. Really appreciate it

Halon wrote:
The ratio, awkward how? I chose ratio settings that sounded musical, some more in-harmonic ofcourse

If it works how you wanted, that's fine of course.
My comment was based on my expectation, that I could set a ratio I wanted quickly, such as 4.0 and maybe fine tune it if I wanted some beating. But I found I had to adjust both knobs quite carefully to get a specific ratio. I expected the coarse knob to go up in integer steps and the fine knob to make fine adjustments.

Sometimes we don't get what we expect!

Cheers

Spogg

Spogg wrote:It’s surprising what can be achieved with just 2 operators, as your synth already demonstrates.

Yep - I believe all the Yamaha PSS keyboards that were FM were just 2-Op; like Halon's, they used waves other than sine; that makes quite a difference.

As Howard Massey said in his "Complete DX7", algos 5 and 6 were the most used for the DX7's factory presets, and they are simply mixtures of two or three 2-Op sounds.

Spogg wrote:

Halon wrote:
The ratio, awkward how? I chose ratio settings that sounded musical, some more in-harmonic ofcourse

If it works how you wanted, that's fine of course.
My comment was based on my expectation, that I could set a ratio I wanted quickly, such as 4.0 and maybe fine tune it if I wanted some beating. But I found I had to adjust both knobs quite carefully to get a specific ratio. I expected the coarse knob to go up in integer steps and the fine knob to make fine adjustments.

Sometimes we don't get what we expect!

Cheers

Spogg

Oh i understand. Do you or @Kevin know what ratio settings which are normally used?

The list of ratios for the DX7 and related 6-Op instruments was quite extensive, but on the 4-Ops, it was much smaller; on my Skematic instruments I include a button that displays the list of Ratios used in the DX100. This list is from the DX100 manual. I only took them up to 16 or so.

k brown wrote:The list of ratios for the DX7 and related 6-Op instruments was quite extensive, but on the 4-Ops, it was much smaller; on my Skematic instruments I include a button that displays the list of Ratios used in the DX100. This list is from the DX100 manual. I only took them up to 16 or so.

Thanks Kevin.

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