![fm synthesis fm8 fm synthesis fm8](https://www.16sounds.com/ImageGen.ashx?image=/images/plugins/FM8.jpg)
With this brief history in mind, let’s look at how exactly FM synthesis works, and why you may want to use it when designing new sounds. Yamaha licensed Chowning’s discovery and created the first FM synthesizer, the massively popular DX7. These harmonics would change depending on the frequency of the modulating signal, producing rich sounds with only the use of two sine waves. This resulted in supersonic signals at frequencies over a million Hertz.Ĭhowning then began experimenting with modulating the sine waves with other sine waves and saw the introduction of new harmonics on either side of the modulated sine wave. At first, Chowning was using complex waveforms to modulate the pitch of simple sine waves. This is what makes them sound different.Īs you can see in the diagram below, a complex waveform is created using only two sine waves.įM synthesis was discovered in the 1967 experiments of John Chowning at Stanford University. The timbre of a sound depends upon its frequency content.The frequencies present in a piano sound, for example, are different than those in a guitar sound, even at the same pitch and level. This creates brand new frequency information in the resulting sound, changing the timbre without the use of filters.įor clarity’s sake, “timbre” is the distinctive character of a sound. Simply put, FM synthesis uses one signal called, the “modulator” to modulate the pitch of another signal, the “carrier”, that’s in the same or a similar audio range.
![fm synthesis fm8 fm synthesis fm8](https://vstbase.org/uploads/posts/2021-04/1617985471_1617925163_fm8.png)
So, let’s first get into exactly what FM Synthesis is.įM synthesis is short for frequency modulation synthesis. Adding this skill to your producer toolkit can be a great source of new inspiration and new ideas. That’s because it’s able to generate sounds that would be difficult, if not impossible, to create using other methods. By understanding each part individually, it’s much easier to put the whole picture together and approach FM synthesis more purposefully.Īnd once you do, you might even find that learning FM synthesis can be quite rewarding. Just like any form of synthesis, however, FM synthesis can easily be broken down into distinct parts. It’s much more rooted in theory, and diving into an FM synthesizer without some understanding of that theory can be confusing. That’s because FM synthesis is a bit deeper than sound design methods like subtractive synthesis. It’s no secret that FM synthesizers, like FM8, can be intimidating to those who are unfamiliar with the concept of FM synthesis.