IMO the Preen FM sounds quite different to other types of FM synths. Personally PM (Yamaha) and PD (Casio) appeal to me more.
FYI a MNM, OP-1, TX81Z, FS1R, Preen FM 1 and Preen FM 2 have all passed through the stables, still searching I’m afraid…
FS1R didn’t cut it?
Here are two little loops I made yesterday with the Volca FM solely.
I really like the sound of it !
https://www.twine.fm/LyingDalai/c1422c0/volca-fm-stems-for-next-project-with-tamaris-mem01-110bpm
https://www.twine.fm/LyingDalai/c1422b0/volca-fm-stems-for-next-project-with-tamaris-mem09-110bpm
Funnily enough, it’s one reason I’m interested in the Preen - the fact that it can be made to not sound like old Casio or Yamaha FM synths.
My other FM synths (hardware): Nord Modular G2, OP-1, Korg M3 (EXB-RADIAS board - has VPM).
That all said, I’m slightly leaning towards Volca FM as my next FM synth purchase. the portability and simplicity compared to other FM synths is the draw. May pick up the Preen later.
I think the PreenFM2 has an incredible sound. It sounds suprisingly organic (in a digital way, if that makes sense) & detailed; I really like the bit crusher & filters on it. I’ve owned a Yamaha DX100, DX200, and Casio CZ 101 in the past; they all do sound a bit different. I’d place the PreenFM2’s sound at the top of the list for sure though. I think these two demos are good examples of how cool the PreenFM2 can sound. It’s also a lot fun to program; the way the algorithm can be displayed on the screen at any time is rather slick.
This is my demo i made with PreenFM2 and it’s 4 instruments playing simultaneously into 2 separate outputs (i just hard panned instruments).
It was quickly sequenced in Renoise and routed into Renoise’s two channels with different fx (valhalla vv and automated valhalla freq echo)
I was just toying with new ‘keyboard scale’ functionality when we tried to help Xavier to tune it at beta stage. Transition to full polyphonic and microtuning was made in that period too.
So, interesting moment in this demo is percussion that was made off single instrument with key scaling routed to some synthesis parameters via mod matrix — this helped to get kick and woodblock perc sound.
Edit: Forgot to mention, you can also load your own waveforms in txt format now.
Since this thread has taken a twist towards “which modern FM box?”, I thought I’d throw in a good word for the Reface DX. They started popping up used for cheap so I just picked one up and I’m very impressed so far.
Pros:
-
the keybed is really, really good. The keys are small but feel solid and fast, no sponginess at all, and have a great responsiveness to them that plays well with the velocity setup of many DX patches. very organic variations by varying playing style a little or a lot. Very fun to play.
-
build quality is also very impressive.
-
every parameter is midi-controllable (hey there roland) and the midi spec is pretty comprehensive - you can send and receive on any channel, decouple the keyboard from the synth section, choose whether or not the knobs and buttons send midi data… It also does the USB host thing so you can plug an ipad in directly via USB and either play ipad synths or receive midi from ipad sequencers. Great!!
-
32 onboard patches is not the best but the soundmondo thing is actually pretty good. You plug the synth into a computer or ipad, navigate to the page, browse patches by user or category and when you click a patch it’s instantly sent to the synth. Many have descriptions and sound clips, and I can see the amount of sounds on there growing far beyond the hundreds that are already there. There’s also a librarian feature to keep banks of favourites.
-
touch interface: I thought I’d hate it, and it’s still not my favourite but it gets the job done. It’s not as fast as knobs, but it’s quite responsive and the parity with the screen is well-thought-out. There are 4 shortcut buttons that give you easy access to frequency, osc level, algorithm and osc feedback, then 8 more buttons for deeper editing. This makes the prospect of editing and creating FM patches a hell of a lot less daunting than any other FM synth I’ve touched.
-
onboard speakers actually sound decent. I travel and jam lots so this is a plus.
-
ports: midi i/o via breakout, 1/4 dual mono out, 1/4 sustain in, 1/8 aux in, 1/4 headphone, USB, power. No complaints.
cons
-
no modwheel. Annoying.
-
no aftertouch. Annoying.
-
Just one LFO with a pitiful amount of destinations (amplitude and frequency. That’s it.) Luckily it receives midi LFOs just fine, but it’s still disappointing.
-
Just 4 OP gives it a slightly flatter and less rich/interesting sound than the DX7 and other 6 OP machines. This is really obvious in side by side comparisons, but I guess it was a necessary tradeoff to make the machine a bit more accessible. Overall it doesn’t bother me too much because I’m an FM novice so I’m happy to have a solid starting point into this synthesis type that is simultaneously nice sounding and highly playable.
It fills a different niche than the Volca FM, to be sure, but don’t overlook the DX because of the bad hype it got on announcement. There are tons of good reports on them now that they’re out in the wild.
Sheesh, I didn’t mean to write this much. Sorry folks.
Thanks, solid summary!
Good job man; I love it
I decided life was too short 
Editing that many parameters through the front panel or being tied to an editor was not my idea of hardware FM bliss.
preenfm - polyphonic and microtonal? dayum
need to buy one of those now too I guess!
I was thinking, the volca FM would be brilliant for designing dx patches on the road, too bad there’s no way to syx dump out from them…
I think you can sys dump out of them, there is an “export” button to upload your program to another Volca FM.
[quote="“nightfade”"]
I decided life was too short Editing that many parameters through the front panel or being tied to an editor was not my idea of hardware FM bliss.[/quote]
Hehe, I guess that’s an understandable reason. =)
I think you can sys dump out of them, there is an “export” button to upload your program to another Volca FM.[/quote]
Yes, you can dump the patch, but only to another volca. No way to get it into syx (so that the patch could be then loaded by any dx syx compatible gear).
I actually got my volca fm yesterday! So far I have a bit of mixed feelings about the unit. The sound is not exactly as chunky as I had hoped, and deep editing is tedious to say the least EDIT: deep editing could be worse, now that I’m getting the hang of it
Need to keep on digging… I do like some aspects of the UI though, it caters for quite a lot of happy accidents!
That preenFM2 tho 
yes, and I already have the app too! unfortunately my iconnectmidi interface is missing atm 
And I always thought that dx-synthesis has a pitch env for every operator? Doesn’t seem that way, so it’s only the MEG envs that are tedious to dial in… its aight
What do you mean “MEG envs” ?
You may check the document “Volca FM MIDI Implementation” : the .TXT version is far more complete than the tiny CC chart.
MEG = Modulator envs
OK thx.
Well you have an envelope for the Carrier and one for the Modulation, the attack and decay of which are available from knobs and CC.
From the “Parameter List Guide” it seems you’re true, from the “Program” parameters Pitch envelope is available only for “All”
But from the MIDI implementation chart above it seems one could have access to 8 parameters for Operator (Amp I guess) envelope + 8 parameters for the pitch envelope.
This for each of the 6 operators.
I don’t know if I read correctly the document, but maybe the iPad app would exploit such configuration…
Have you used this with the VFM? If so, how do you like it?