FM8 found lacking...

Youtube user Power DX7 -- who's done some amazing DX7 patch programming -- just posted a video comparing patches on his DX7 Mk 1 versus FM8. FM8 kinda fell on its face, particularly on his awesome 'Alaska' patch.



For what it's worth, he's also done the same experiment with dexed. dexed did a better job, but still came up noticably short of the Real Thing.



It'd be nice if the FM8 developers (assuming they still exist) would contact him for his presets and figure out what the issue is with the emulation... because it was embarassingly bad.

 

If he just imported DX7 sysex, it might not sound exactly identical. Keytracking in FM8 is more flexible than one in DX7 for example, and would probably need more tweaking to get it closer to the real thing. Same thing regarding envelope amounts.

Dexed literally emulates DX7 code, this is why it sounds closer than FM8 in a straight sysex conversion. FM8 (from what I can tell) has a better quality engine that is more flexible than one in DX7 (any number of feedback paths, morphing, filters, etc.), so I would think that conversion might be less perfect. So the idea would be to use FM8 features to their strengths (as it CAN sound very very good, as Lotuzia's soundbanks show us).

 

When it comes to the video it would be interesting to know if the FM8 was in High Resolution mode?

 

musos wrote:
I'll add my usual advice for "boosting" old DX7 patches to make them sound better in FM8:

1) Go to the <Easy> page and lift the Stereo Width - works magic!
2) If possible, increase the output volume. Most old patches are too soft.
3) Tweak velocity sensitivity on some operators - makes the patches more "live"
4) Add reverb or delay etc - season to taste.

I also often reduce the detune parameter as many patches sound far
"tighter" when this is decreased. A slow chorus works a lot better on
a pad patch than a hideous detune which renders the sound irritating
and incompatible with other instruments.

One more thing to note:
When importing banks to FM8, look out for any patches which have
"restricted" characters
* (star)
. (period)
/ (slash)

If the patches contain any of these, they will be left out when importing.

Any older users who have FM7 will be able to re-name these patches
and re-save before importing into FM8.

New FM8 users don't have any options that I'm aware of.

Hope this is helpful....