I don’t have a lot of experience with FM other than messing with FM7/FM8 and using presets or tweaked presets in there.
A friend of mine is a huge FM fan (partial to their DX7 II FD) and has been going through a lot of shit the past few years, gender confusion, depression, etc… anyway, I was gonna buy them a DN as a gift. I mentioned it offhand and although they were very appreciative, they were wondering why the DN is only 4 operator when even the old DX7 is 6 operator, the now ancient FS1R was 8 operator, etc.
Isn’t that quite a limitation for the breadth of sounds you can get out of it? Why do you think they chose to go with such a small amount?
DN is an FM groovebox. Its easy to neglect this when its commonly referred to as an FM Synth.
Sure, there are things you can’t do with it compared to a ln actual FM Synth. But when combining the usability, UX experience, and processing power to make the entire synth- the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I don’t think it was intended to get nitty gritty into the mathematical universe of FM. Its meant to offer a ease of use approach to making music with FM Synthesis.
Get them an OPSix if they’re finicky about getting down and dirty with FM
There are 4 operators, but there is also a Harmonics control, which gives you access to waveshapes other than sine. This expands the sound pallette available.
If your friend loves FM, I would say they would enjoy the Digitone. It’s very capable, and the fundamental sound of it is fantastic. Plus, THE SEQUENCER.
I don’t have a Digititone, but I do have a Monomachine, and the FM engines seem substantially similar.
If you must have a 6-op FM synth and are on a tight budget, the Volca FM is a very good way to go. Be sure to get the 3rd party firmware (free) to fix a bug or two. If money is no object, the Essence FM looks amazing.
I’m still a few months away from buying more synths, but the two FM machines that I’m mentally comparing are the Digitone and the Korg OPSIX. I expect that I’ll end up with both and an Essence FM but I’ll do that slowly over time.
A wild card option is the Lyra-8. Whether or not it is “true” FM is both unclear and irrelevant to me. It is a fun device to play with and sits somewhere between a sophisticated meditation toy and a very novel drone / noise synth.
Finally, it’s not how much power you have but how you use it. The Digitone’s sequencer gives you a level of control impossible with the DX200, Volca FM or Reface FM. (All great synths that I have owned)
I would probably lean towards the Volca FM as a gift, as the price is low enough that it is unlikely to create an unintended obligation.
The truth is four ops is a sweet spot for fm. It’s rare to use all 6 ops as modulators — the harmonics start to clump together. So most 6-op algorithms actually feature multiple carriers with only one or two modulators, each. The DN does this well with its 4 ops (and convenient X/Y mixing). But if you find you need more carriers, you can always layer some of the DN’s 4 tracks together to get more with plenty of modulation for each. On top of that, as others have mentioned, you can straight up dial in harmonics which lets you save the modulators you have for doing the really wild stuff. Then there’s all the subtractive-style filters and effects on top. It’s a really capable and fun engine.
But there are always times when nothing but down-and-dirty OG 6-op FM will do. Especially when trying to learn or wanting a challenge or even just chasing a vibe. In those cases I can recommend the PreenFM3 on the low end and the EssenceFM on the high.
i used a DX-11 back in the day, also 4-op. i always felt it was about 80% of a DX-7, which was good enough for what i needed it to be. FM-synthesis is never gonna have the full lushness of analog BUT (for me) it makes up for that on the bottom end with bass sounds that anchor all my tracks. and also solid organs, EPs, high-end strings, and anything more percussive/metallic i need to balance out the warmer analog tracks.
where Digitone surpasses even my DX-11 is the filter and LFOs, along with onboard FX and four added tracks of external MIDI control. i don’t care about the sequencer b/c i run everything from Pyramid, which makes Digitone especially welcome in my setup. i wouldn’t want it to necessarily be the only gear i was generating tracks with but a solid FM synth is the yin to my Roland gear’s yang. Digitone does more with 4-ops and 8 voices than you could probably get out of an Opsix, which AFAIK is not multitmbral so you’re stuck with a single patch even as great as its 6 ops can sound
Remember that a resonant subtractive filter was added, so you can shape the sound in ways that most FM synths cannot. (So to some extent, fewer operators needed)
4-op can be a bit of a limitation if you’re stuck with a purely FM engine, especially if it’s sine-only (and depending on what you want to achieve), but on a hybrid device like the DN that adds filtering and direct harmonics control etc, it’s enough to do just about anything you want to.
I’d imagine a more pressing concern might be the voice count - that’s where something like the OpSix would offer a real benefit. The DN does have the four-part split, but they still share the same eight voices. So if you’re friend’s a fan of long, lingering chords the DN might not be a great choice. If they’re a fan of fast & flexible, pattern-oriented, FM-based all-in-one fun, it’s a home run. I own a Digitone, but if someone bought me another I’d be absolutely stoked.
I think that 4-op is actually an advantage when you consider that the DN is meant to be played live while the sequencer is running, just like a typical analog synth. The interface is streamlined and well thought-out to give you immediate access to the more musical parameters. You would quickly lose that if you tried to go full 6-op.
If you are trying to craft painstakingly realistic electric pianos and woodwind instruments, maybe the DN isn’t the best tool for the job. But it’s an absolutely killer groovebox if you want a different palette of sounds from standard subtractive synthesis.
