Which engine vexes you most?

[Vlad_77]

Nine synth engines and astounding possibilities. That said, which engine has proven thus far to be the hardest to get your head around?

[BasariStudios]

I dont know, i dont use the CX3 but it seems pretty easy since there is nothing
to it...the other ones i am already familiar from other machines.

[Sina172]

...

[Vlad_77]

Sina,

AL-1 is a tricky one for me too. MOD-7 I chose as hardest though because I have had zero experience with FM so all I am doing with that right now is just pure experimentation! Knowing my luck I will wire something up and blow up my apartment

Ahimsa,
Vlad

[cello]

AL-1 here too - and by no means out of the learning curve; still on the steep bit!

MOD-7; getting there (Kevin Nolan's huge library helped me learn).

PolysixEX - where I go just to have fun Immediate + direct = fun!

Although I've only got 7 engines, there's a lifetime's learning still inside my O

[Sina172]

...

[Broadwave]

I find the STR-1 more complicated than MOD-7, a real steep learning curve.

AL-1 and MS20EX is a doddle for me as I'm a long time modular user, I just see the AMS sources/destinations as patch points and go from there

[danatkorg]

Sina,

AL-1 is a tricky one for me too. MOD-7 I chose as hardest though because I have had zero experience with FM so all I am doing with that right now is just pure experimentation! Knowing my luck I will wire something up and blow up my apartment

Ahimsa,
Vlad

Don't forget to check out the MOD-7 tutorial in the Parameter Guide ("Synthesis with the MOD-7: a guided tour"); 9 pages of step-by-step walkthroughs for all the major MOD-7 features.

- Dan

[drchris]

Don't forget to check out the MOD-7 tutorial in the Parameter Guide ("Synthesis with the MOD-7: a guided tour"); 9 pages of step-by-step walkthroughs for all the major MOD-7 features.

- Dan

Yes, that tutorial is GREAT! If you have a couple of hours, just sit and go through it. You'll understand MOD-7 so much more! Very well written and much appreciated!

As was mentioned above, a few of the other good FM synthesis tutorials online really help too. I particularly like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRazfCjnF8M and the subsequent videos in that series.

Chris

[Gribs]

I can disappear into my own world for a couple of hours just playing with making and tweaking just one patch on any one of the synths. In the end it may or may not be pleasing to me, but I never feel like any patch is "done" and whenever I do get into tweaking like this it really helps me to appreciate the sound design work that has gone into the factory patches.

I totally get the idea of FM synthesis (and all the math behind it as I am a PhD/EE computational scientist by profession), but despite all that I have found that I have to play around a lot to just hear what I get. There is a big void between understanding the math and how it works and getting a time-dependent sound out that achieves a desired effect. I have relied more on serendipity than anything else in that regard. Despite this, I have spent some considerable time with soft synths like FM8 and Blue I am not really feeling out of place with MOD7 at all.

It is Str-1 that is somewhat new to me. I have played with some Karplus-Strong style synthesis in Reaktor and also using the comb filters in my Waldorf Q Phoenix board and in Vaz Modular. It is the grokking of the specific parameter set for Str-1 that is the block for me so far, despite the stuff in the parameter guide. I would like to see a more technical description of the math behind some of the parameters. That might help.