First Love FM Synth

I guess this is what sticks in my craw. They say that’s what they’re doing. That’s what people who have reviewed it say it’s doing. But in practice they’ve just added five built-in oscilloscopes, and I don’t get how that helps?

Now, in subtractive, oscilloscopes can be quite handy because you start with mildly complex shapes and then filter off their pointy bits to arrive at your sound. Having a picture of this happening can help you build intuition for the process.

But in FM, you start with a sine and then immediately enter “unknown shape” territory. Like, what does this sound like?

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What do you get when you modulate it with this?

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The answer, I suppose, is this:

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But tell me, what does that sound like? Is it clear, glassy? buzzy? bell like? harmonic? inharmonic? Like an organ? Like an oboe? I’m pretty experienced looking at oscilloscopes compared to the average person and I don’t know.

And what’s worse, there’s no way to build up intuition for this. Waveforms past a certain complexity don’t have common shapes or shared properties for us to grab on to and pattern match by (that’s why Fourier transforms are such a huge deal). The developer as much as says so in the video above saying they avoided numbers in the UI so people would have to edit it by “Changing it and listening rather than looking.”

Then hastily adds, “But also looking at the beautiful graphics!” And, again, nothing wrong with wanting beautiful graphics. But this whole approach perpetuates the myth of FM being this big, mysterious, unknowable thing that all you can do is just randomly change some parameters and, like anything can happen? Maybe it’s a bell lol shrug

But it’s not unknowable at all! Ironically, looking at numbers it’s pretty easy to build an intuition for how your changes will affect a sound. FM is a numbers game of ratios and indexes, after all. Throw in a spectrum analyzer, and FM becomes downright intuitive.

But that wouldn’t be beautiful so that’s not what they’re doing, so it all feels very form-over-function which is a shame and kind of grinds my gears.

To be fair, they have developed an intuitive way to visualize envelopes. I just don’t know that was the part of the process anyone was having trouble wrapping their head around.

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I believe that there is a new generation UI for FM left to be discovered and developed.

Often I think about how it would feel navigating the sounds if all parameters were available at my fingertips simultaneously, in a comfortable way.

Hardware wise
I would classify Digitone, MegaFM and Opsix as the “original method perfected”
while First Love FM as a being part of that “transition” to the new generation

Like in evolution, try something new, see what works and what doesnt
Obviously it doesnt mean that this synth is going in the right direction, but you never know unless you try, and I respect them for trying.

I also think that despite shuffling controls around, they havent added much to the existing UI concepts, playing it safer than Id hope. But I agree that envelope manipulation is neat, and its more of an automation lane than an envelope now, cool!

I think its funny how comically oversized it is considering its rocking a handheld console button layout (at least the prototype version).

There probably has to be a number of weird and funky FM synths to come out before someone finds all the missing puzzle pieces and puts them all together, creating something new.

Btw someone wants to make Cute Gear youtube series? Ill take 10% cut, thanks.

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Interface be like…

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Really? This Love synth sticks in your craw? :))

You sound as if you like utilitarian, and that’s ok. But not everyone does, always. Do you like the OP-1?

And to not just leave it at that. There is an intuitive way in how you connect modulators and some kind of immediacy of visuals as you manipulate the synth engine. The sound seems more organically connected to the visual feedback as you are experimenting. It is more joyful to me then thinking about what do i need, how do I get there. Takes me back to the days when I first started discovering synthesis when I was a kid, when pure experimentation was the way. Granted that they need to work on the physical aspect of the synth, as it is for now a not fully integrated and obviously printed shell. I personally believe this does have a place in the market if developed further and well.

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That’s alright!
I like seeing new approaches to it.

For me it’s the Opsix that finally really helped me understand FM. Different strokes. What a time to live in to be this spoiled for choice.

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Here’s the latest about the First Love FM synth from Machina Bristronica 2024 ( thread )

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I thought this was going to be a thread about everyone’s first FM synth love.

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A nice FM nostalgia thread would be so nice!! :nerd_face:

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This thing is actually big!
I mean, physically.
I expected a Gameboy-sized machine.
It’s more like an iPad with buttons.
Interesting, though.

Yes, I really thought it was going to be much smaller, still interesting, but I was hoping for a smaller form factor.