FM workshop livestream + Live/DJ sets

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Hej!

I’ll be livestreaming a workshop on FM synthesis this Sunday, the 22nd. All times are in US PST.
The stream will be up on Twitch via resourceresidency.com

Besides me there’s a bunch of lovely artists performing live and playing DJ sets, it’s going to be an awesome way to cure that boredom when you’re (probably) cooped up inside.

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The workshop will go through the very basics of FM synthesis while also elaborating on different ways to use it, different tools and how to approach building your own. I’ll try to show off some examples and funny use cases that will probably be a bit surprising!

Hopefully I will see you there!

32 Likes
Digitone videos: Jams and Tutorial
Ess’s Digitone Twitch?
Digitone (DN+DT) only music
#2

Awesome I know what I’ll be doing on my birthday. Thanks for the announcement @Ess

2 Likes
#3

Getting the stream setup rolling, kinda fun :slight_smile:
So I’m going to be on at 8PM CET / 12PM PST.

I’m gathering a few Max patches that show some esoteric FM like how to do real PWM and a 909 oscillator, haha! Will try to show everything from the basics to some deeper stuff.

I’m thinking - maybe I’ll stream some more now that we’re all pretty much isolated? Don’t know what would be the most interesting to see.

20 Likes
#5

Oh yes!! This seems so cool! Please stream so much as you can! :blush:

1 Like
#6

By the way… will be with Digitone?

#7

Dammit, missed it. (Been occupied with Windows acting up again, audio interface troubles, dropouts in cubase latency + steady audio spike when nothing really is happening, and a couple of VSTs with a blank screen $^%#$ ! CB10.05) So i’ll catch it on the rerun? (mixing up timetables seems i accidentally dropped in right on time :smile: )

#8

It’s starting now.

#9

tx

#10

I love this, great idea for an FM workshop.

#11

Live now! :smiley:

#12

Yep inhouse tool, i was wondering the same thing. Nice and crisp. Tried to capture my DT DN once with a ‘proper’ webcam but had a lot of trouble getting the settings right and the screen still looked blurry (with the refresh scan lines, ofcourse has it’s own charm but…) I thought that plant was covering up something more than just the mic :stuck_out_tongue:

#13

@Ess just watched it, great stuff and if you do that same workshop but more in-depth and 5 times as longer would be amazing! Please please share with us how you fed your DN screen on your desktop, that would open so much for video making! Thanks!

2 Likes
#14

Good stuff, I enjoyed it. And it would be great to see more. Maybe a part 2 in the future?

#15

Wow, went by so quick! It was a bit unstructured but hopefully it was fun anyway. I’m up for doing more streams, I have everything set up now anyway so why not.

9 Likes
#16

@Ess So basically we can have a M:C/DN in Max plugin format? And make our own DN/DT feature requests with a bit of programming skills? Just joking ofcourse. Nice peek behind the development curtains at Elektron and nice presentation Me too would love to see that extensive tutorial series on FM and some nice ‘chiptune’ sounddesign lessons straight from the source!

#17

Haha not quite, the Digitone is very very raw in its Max prototypes, mostly just parameter control put in place, with the ADE envelopes that I designed. The Cycles stuff is almost as the final result, just a lot more clicky and missing some great tweaks we did in the end. Basically, the Max stuff is kind of unusable for production but great as a proof of concept. It’s not like having the stuff digitally is what I’m saying, promise.

4 Likes
#18

Damn, I missed the workshop. Any chance this will be uploaded Permanently on Twitch or YouTube, @Ess?

1 Like
#19

Thanks, that was very nice to watch.
As you said envelopes are an important part of sound design but an attack setting was not included in the model cycles, just sustain and decay. Now that cycles machines are finished would be it hard to implement ENV attack even just a setting per preset (fast/medium/low, think of DFAM) or would need code to be completely rewritten…?
I know the LFO can be used as an env but is kind of a bummer to use the lfo we´ve got for that.

Would be nice if you could show us one of those M4L cycles prototypes and what macros do, or at least part of it…not need to go very deep, I know, there are things that must be kept secret…:sweat_smile:

#20

Yes, you can re-watch here: https://www.twitch.tv/ess_mtsn/videos

As the Cycles main focus is percussion I think it’s fine that it doesn’t have an attack envelope, and the LFO trick works - paired with the kinda crazy controls and parameter locks you can get a lot of movement with that setup anyway.

But I do see the desire of it, however the limited parameter set is what gets in the way - many have asked for Func + Decay for attack, but how would you then parameter lock it? And it would be missing from the panel - it’s a lot to consider in the end. (Also the design principles of the Model:Series goes against secondary functions for the most part)

Hmm, I will keep my macro mappings a secret. :wink:

10 Likes
Model:Cycles Q & A with Ess
#21

Well, yes, in a drum machine is not that important but could be useful for tone and chord machine…

I don’t really see the need of an attack knob; maybe one " easy" way would be to implement it as a setting like I said, that setting could maybe share menu with LFO.
ENV Atk : Fast/Medium/Slow

I am used to use DFAM as a synth and just a fast/slow setting can make a huge difference sound wise really feel the need of an attack knob, I am used to use DFAM as a synth and were just a fast/slow attack setting can make a huge difference sound wise; to be true is one of the things that bothers me more about the cycles… I will have to live with it :sweat_smile:

Anyway; it is great little machine, lots of fun…and quite powerful, as can be seen right now…:upside_down_face: