Subject: Re: FM? From: Noel Peters <npeters@xxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 08:14:40 +1000I'm not sure I would agree with the perspective I am reading here - that it is now largely of historic interest. FM is alive and well in some well known soft synths due to its particular nature. Here is a good quick run down: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation_synthesis regards Noel -----Original Message----- From: AUDITORY Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Bob Masta Sent: Tuesday, 16 May 2006 11:08 PM To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: FM? To expand on Olivier's response, the way the frequency modulation was used was to make the modulator frequency similar to the carrier, typically a small integer ratio. Thus, you don't get a sweep or warble like you might expect, but instead the waveform is warped over the course of each cycle and returns to the same point. Changing the ratio and amplitude gives a large variation in the waveform (and spectrum) produced. This allows a small number of parameters to have a large effect on the timbre, and FM was especially easy to implement in hardware or software (compared to, say, additive synthesis). FM was particularly good for horn-like sounds, which were hard to create with other methods of the day. The problem was that there was no intuitive way to predict the effect on the timbre from the parameters. People just tried a lot of settings until they found something they liked. Or, more commonly, they just used the canned presets that came with the synth (designed via trial and error by experts) and never messed around with them... pretty much like way modern synths are used. With the advent of increasing computing power, FM was no longer needed to keep computations down. But on top of this, it seemed to me that the public fascination with strange synthetic sounds waned, and people wanted more realistic simulations that were much easier to achieve via direct sampling methods. Best regards, Bob Masta ------------------------------------------- On 16 May 2006 at 15:26, superk wrote: > Hi, everyone, > > In Xavier Serra's paper, "Musical Sound Modeling with Sinusoids plus Noise", > three types of parameter model of music are mentioned, that is, instrument > model, spectrum model and abstract model. And, it said, "Abstract models, > such as FM, attempt to provide musically useful parameters in an abstract > formula." Here, "FM" refers to what? Does anyone know? > > Thanks > > Superk (Kun She) > intel_ghost@xxxxxxxx > 2006-05-16 ------------------------------------------------------ _____________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MCI's Internet Managed Scanning Services - powered by MessageLabs. For further information visit http://www.mci.com _____________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MCI's Internet Managed Scanning Services - powered by MessageLabs. For further information visit http://www.mci.com