Here is my tip on FM. I know it involves a certain math that can be used when you are trying to retain musicality. If you are like me and have no interest in understanding the math but you want to use FM to get unique timbres while retaining pitch/musicality, you need to focus on 3 parameters: 1. FM amount ( obviously ) 2. OSC pitch ( whole pitch changes as well as cents so 4 parameters I guess ) and 3. OSC wave shape
All 3 play an enormous factor when changing only 1 of them at a time. For example, turn FM amount up and lose your pitch. Start changing OSC wave shapes to see if any new shapes bring you back closer to the pitch you want. Use pitch variations as well for the same purpose. You don’t have to start with the FM amount either. Just remember all 3 play a factor when you are “aiming” for something or when you feel like, " Ive messed with the FM and all it did was make my patch sound like shit".
Anyway, hope thats helpful to someone. Perhaps everyone already knows this and this is MY embarrasing complacency!
Not knowing has nothing to do with being stupid. Not knowing and not asking is stupid.
1 .I still don’t get the sync stuff ,but i use my ears…
2 . I know a little bit more now about sample and hold thanx to
SUICIDELANE…
3. Polyphone mode is adjustable in per track . for eatch track u can choose how many voises u need.
4 . LFO’s >>> SPEED = just for speed ( can be Pos. or Neg.= mirrors the LFo ) - MUL = multyplies the speed so whent the speed is 4 - MUL x2 = SPEED 8
8 - MUL x2 = SPEED 16
4 - MUL x16 = SPEED 64 etc…
5 . CUTOFF is a constant value - While the evelope is time -variant - to make the cutoff change over time. On top of the chosen ENV-CURVE you can choose the depth of the ENV. At 0 the ENV has no influence at all- the depth can be positive or negative.( making the cutoff going up or down )
Start with subtle patrameter-locks (ex/: adding a little more ENV -depth every step )
I totally feel this way about compression… I’ve watched plenty of YouTube vids about it and still have a hard time hearing the differences between settings when I’m in my humble home studio.
Here’s a quote I found online somewhere. Not sure if it’s “true” but I’ve been going with it till I hear otherwise.
Make your attack and release as fast as possible, turn your ratio and threshold all the way up. This is known as the “million dollar setting” in the pro audio field and is typically used on vocals to capture every detail.
Compression was developed for wildly varying acoustic recordings, its not that suited to electronic music. I believe it was originally invented for mastering when poorly recorded performances varied in volume level. That said, the pumping effect or ducking of compression can be used to improve a drum pattern. Because psychoacoustically you are making the same sound effect that our ears make in protecting itself from a loud sound. We are fooling ourselves into thinking the music is louder than it really is.
I’ve recently lost faith in the assumption I help about sample and hold when I started playing with that feature on an Arp Odyssey ( old one ). Not sure what S&H is supposed to be now. More experimentation required!!
my approach to that stuff has been pretty much vice versa.
i had to learn all that parameters for school without having the possibility
to try all of them on actual hardware.
later i recognized that when using that hardware i totally forgot to change
parameters just randomly and listening to it. on different machines you can find the same parameters but the actual audio behaves completely different.
knowing the physics helps a lot to get sounds on purpouse,
but going the naive way helps a lot too.
you can find endless material on these topics in the www or in books
but never forget rule number one: use your ears !
