FM8 wishlist, although Christmas is gone.

Just playing around with FM8, and got to thinking. How cool would it be if FM9 (or whatever's next for this synth) had selectable and expandable envelopes (like Tone2's synths), as a few more interesting insert effects? As for the effects, I'm thinking:

-Compressor (since FM8 is good at percussion)
-Eight channel EQ of some sort
-Bitcrusher
-Multi-channel distortion (perhaps take cue from Audio Damage's Kombinat?)

Crazy? Possibly, but since FM hardware was digital to begin with, realistic I think (at least nowdays it would be).

 

I know I've mentioned this somewhere else but it would be nice to have the option of an FM7-style skin. Many of us prefer the FM7 look.

 

Operator Copy/Paste and Randomize, with user-selectable parameter boundaries.

But, more than anything:

OPERATOR COPY/PASTE!

Oh, and a sound engine that screams '2009'... i.e. NO aliasing. None.

A professional sounding filter. License FabFilter, if you must.

 

Yes, No aliasing would be great - and a nice filter also - but, well, that is not what I hear from fabfilter products ... , license something else (UAD moog, EMU morphing filters ....)

 

Truth be told, I only listened to the FabFilter demos online, which sounded pretty convincing. But, yeah, there are other digital filter emulations which I love. Zebra 2 has a couple of great filters, and the Sylenth1 filter is really nice. The GMedia stuff is ace, too. I guess there a lot of options. NI has a couple of nice filters on Massive, but, again, they just don't have that character and sheen that a lot of the boutiquey softsynths have. They sound "very good", but not quite "excellent" or "outstanding".

 

Well, the NI filter I like most personally is the ladder within Kontakt (and I think Reaktor - which I do not have) - reduces volume a lot which not that great but the resonance is very fine and not that doped like with most virtual analog filters ....
I am not that crazy about the Massive filters ... they are not bad, but at least the results I get from them are not stellar ...

But as you say Massive - a compfilter would be nice for FM8 as well.

best

 

In HQ mode with a bit tweaking parallel LP/BP, the FM8 filters can sound very ok. I sometimes add a 0Hz operator behind the filters for some distortion/shaper type effects.
When it comes to massive I tend to use the Bandreject Filter, modulating cutoff and bandwidth at the same time in cases I need a nice creamy LP simulation.

When it comes to the FM8, additive Waveforms would be very nice, especially Absynth type morpable ones, but with absolute and not relative levels. Due to the fact that the harmonic series coincides with ratio frequencies, every harmonic can act as a separate sine operator.

 

Another setting that would make a lot of sense to add to the list of "Morphable" functions of FM8 (via the Easy Morph Square) would be the "Note Length" knob in the Arppegiator.

Holding down an Arp Pattern or Sequence, it would give a nice characteristic of going from a strum to almost a pick or plucking sound on many string-like instruments.

 

I'd like to see a facility in FM8 to import Scala or TUN files. Full microtonal capability!

 

Might I add we need some unique effects on FM8? Some insert effects that can only be found on the synth and nowhere else?

And maybe a bit more weight on the bass end of the sound engine.

I agree with the filters, FM8's are not too sterling. They need to sound crispier, crunchier, and with 70% less fat. Make them razor sharp yet warm. Something that screams "digital but phat" just like the DX7 and all those good old FM synths. Rob Papen's synths, especially Predator have absolutely delightful filters.

 

Well, if you want the filter to scream, add some saturation (Operator X) or a 0Hz Operator with slight feedback behind/parallel to the filter output. The example I added to this posting should give you a general idea, please try in highres mode and the modifications I added to the morph square...

 

Not necessarily to scream, but to be absolutely crystaline yet with that odd touch of warmth that digital hardware synths like the DX7, and Access Virus have.

 

I don't understand the Virus reference, since to my ears it's far from clean sounding, I mostly have severe problems to get the hiss out of its sound. But I love my TX802 (rack version of the DX7II) for it's crystaline almost metallic type of sound. It's not impossible to get this out of the FM8 but one have to spend some effort in waveshaping.

 

Odd, my friend doesn't seem to have that issue. Oh well. That metallic sound is what I'm talking about, hard and yet full, fat, rich. I've managed to get sounds like that out of FM8, but not without a fair chunk of time (two hours I think).

 

Most Virus presets mask that effect with lots of reverb, it's some kind of blur/narrowband noise at about 10-12Khz...

Well, you could upload an example in case it's much different from the example I added to this posting...

 

Right on, I'll get to that soon, got quite the load of work, and it's a late night at the school.

An improved Morph Square is also due. Definitely needs to be an end to the whole thing being reset once a new preset is clicked in the browser, and I think every voice should have "Kore" like morphability in its own right.

 

This wishlist thread seems to have disappeared from the top of the FM8 forum page since NI's web site redesign, so I'm putting it back near the top to say:

NI, please make FM8 re-skinnable. A lot of people - myself included - don't like the silver colour.

 

Got to agree with that on the skinning.

And thanks for making sure this thread didn't go to the grave!

 

+1 vote for the re-skinning, or a complete makeover. FM8 looks about as bad as the new forums do (June 2009. Maybe get new graphic designers? This "look" is not appealing, neither cutting-edge nor Retro, tiring on the eyes, lacking in colour and generally DULL.

Sorry, I'm not one to rant about this kind of thing usually. I prefer to just get on with making music. But this image and direction that NI is heading is really disturbing and counter=productive.

Maybe take a poll among users......?

 

But it does have full microtonal capability - only it doesn't work well because of a bug that NI refuses to fix. FM8 should be able to read 128-note Midi Tuning Standard (MTS) messages that are sent to it. Because of the bug you can't just send the tuning table with MTS to the FM8, you have to save it first as a Sysex file first and then choose 'Open Syx' from the FM8 file menu. There's software to convert Scala, Tun and other such formats to MTS and Syx.

If you're on a Mac, LMSO is the nicest software for working with tuning tables in various formats. On a PC, I suppose Scala.

nylo