Still obsessed over the EssenceFM, though there are a few things I’d like to see. Mostly additional mod matrix options. I also get the occasional stuck note, but I’m sure that’s my fault in the programming. As far as buzz goes, it doesn’t seem to be getting much traction, but I’m still thrilled with my purchase. Here’s another dopey little jam
Yeah, they maybe decided not to play the influencer game with it which is probably fine, seems like a pretty unique synth that will slowly build up a user base. I can’t really think of anything that would directly compete with its feature set.
Yes i respect that, but the fact the only videos with some information (not demo) and tutorials are in french makes it less accessible which is a shame.
@Fotopaul
Maybe they have a secret partnership with Duolingo 
just came across this video on there website some nice pad sounds in there
also fun to see @Snipecatcher being featured on the website now under experimental
Exactly!
@Snipecatcher have you used anything else than the Octatrack to sequence the EssenceFM ? How is the built in voice sequencer ?
Been trying out Renoise and quite like it, will have to try it with the EssenceFM when I get mine. (Hopefully next Week)
Congrats! I gotta say I don’t fully understand the EssenceFM voice sequencer. Maybe you’ll be able to teach me soon! The way I’ve used it is when I have a patch with several voices stacked. You can kinda emphasize and deemphasize the different layers with the voice sequencer. I’m sure there’s way more to it, but I haven’t really gotten to that yet.
And how do you find ReNoise? I’ve thought long and hard about trying it
Thanx! Really looking forward to tinker with it and learn more about FM and sound design!
That’s one of the things i wish was explained a little more in detail in manual but from my understanding reading it a layer equals a track and the sequence consists of 128 steps on which you can place an event, so up to 128 events is possible. I will find out soon enough hopefully! 
Regarding Renoise, i loved these kind of trackers and remember playing around with them in MS-DOS but never really understood them.
But after some basic explanation it’s quite simple, albeit different but the workflow lends it self to more experimental exploration and is a lot of fun. I can see why people get excited over the Polyend Tracker.
I highly recommend downloading the demo and try it, ill bet you can come with some really cool stuff paired with the EssenceFM!
I’ll take a look at it
I thought the yamaha modx line is probably a competitor to this, similar price and capabilities, controlled by a touchscreen etc. But I’m hoping the essence has an edge with its multitimbrality and outputs? The essence looks a lot cooler to play live with, and portability is a bonus, but hard to beat a yamaha keyboard with faders and the awm library. I wonder if anyone here has tried both to compare.
Yeah the MODX with the new OS 2.5 with the Smart Morph feature sounds nice. There’s a lot of synth here for the money.
I think an important point of comparison for the two, after sound, would be how easy they are to use, and their learning curves.
Oh man. I thought I was done with GAS. Thanks a bunch, this thread 
I love the sound of the ModX and on paper it seems to have a few advantages over the EssenceFM. I tried one when they first came out. Sounded good for sure. I found nearly all the presets to be either cheesy or gimmicky or both, so I tried cracking into it. I’m sure it can be mastered in time, but I found it maddening to try to get around on. On a shallow level, I think it’s super ugly too
The main drawback for me was I don’t have room or desire for a large keyboard. The size of the EssenceFM was a huge draw, the layout is super user friendly and it sounds great. I’m happy with my purchase for my needs
Same here I have no use for a big keyboard so the form-factor alone makes the MODX irrelevant for my use.
The user interface of the EssenceFM is what caught my interest, to begin with, and in that regard, i hope that the EssenceFM will be easier and more fun to work with.
But in terms of performance, as the MODX7 has 128 polyphony and 64 for FM is quite a big difference no ?
Yeah if I’m honest one of the main reason I’m more interested in the essence is it just looks better when people are performing on it. If you bring a modx to a gig as a soloist I think people will be expecting you to start playing some top 40 covers since it looks like (well, is) an arranging keyboard.
Programming them does seem to be very similar. I’d like to get some hands on experience with drawing the EGs and adjusting them in real time, since that’s probably the most interesting component of 6OP FM synths. After a cursory glance I think both can output 16 different timbres.
It kinda is, but once you get up into those sorts of of numbers, I’m not sure it would affect me either way…I have had an old Korg Trinity since…96? Something like that. It’s 128 note ployphonic and I don’t remember a time that I maxed it out
I too had sucked notes.
I am still not understanding deeply the overall sound design (this thing is complex 
) , but regarding the stucked notes, playing with the vol envelopes sorted it.
Usually the volume envelope fixes it, but I had a snare sound with a quiet synth pad that was bleeding through and I just couldn’t figure it out. Solo’d each operator…no luck! I wound up deleting the patch and started over. I got lucky because the new patch I made was better anyway
I don’t know if something is wrong, or if I’m just kind of a dummy who doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but I suspect the latter
Despite a few niggles, I’m still very happy with mine
Hi, Stephane from Kodamo here 
I think stuck notes come from the fact that the EssenceFM only does a partial real-time update of the sounds when you are editing: envelopes are updated on all 300 voices, but the algorithm isn’t updated in real-time (to prevent abruptly affecting playing notes). So if you tweak the algorithm while playing, and have some envelopes not ending to 0 (point to the bottom), you may have old voices of polyphony sounding again. In the EssenceFM all the oscillators are free running, there is no “inactive voice”.
Quick fix: press the Panic button
Better fix that we will do: update the algorithm in real time on every voice (finally it seems OK to do that)