Hey folks
I’m fighting with this thing every time I design some kickdrum at mono. It seems that oscilators here are free-running. This is not an issue with bleeps and noises, but my kicks start to get unstable when I use FM synthesis with very low frequency modulators in it. As of now, I have to resample to fix this.
No, I’m talking about synth engine itself, not LFO. These are affected by 1FRQ…3FRQ and bunch of other parameters for FM machine for example.
OSC are free-running in the mono… i know it sucks.
OSC are free-running, that’s true, but that doesn’t necessarily suck 
After all, you can get pretty stable, consistent kick with not only FM+ machines, but with GND, SID and SWAVE (I actually didn’t try with FX or DigiPRO, who knows…) as well. Just be careful with LFO>Pitch, try various combinations (not only exp or ramp, but isaw, one or half trig, even 3 LFOs!), and, in combination with hold and decay amp parameters, you should get very good, deep and powerful kick. And try study excellent kicks by Nicholas Lem (Lem Sound Pack)…
I have no issues with GND when I need this type of kick 
But there is a sweet spot when you use FM with very slow modulators (which basically work as an LFO on pitch) and loads of feedback. It produces all sorts of strange noisy pattens. And because of absence of phase reset these noisy patterns start to drift, which drives me crazy.
LEM’s kicks are excellent, but I usually need more noise and distortion hehe.
I guess MD/RYTM don’t have this issue, right ?
Given that this is a digital synth, you’d think that this feature would be a given.
It’s something which did disappoint me about the MnM.
Well, it’s the nature of the beast But… Pair MnM with Virus TI (Snow), and you get Phase Init command - you can choose whether osc are free running, or resetting from the certain point. Not the cheapest solution, but I like my Snow working together with (and being sequenced by) MnM.
the sine wave part of the MDs kicks is free running BUT there is a separate transient attack at the begginning and this is solid enough to make the kicks hit hard without you worry about any phasing problem I think this is great since you have very consistent attacks but also some movement that makes the kicks more lively I dont remember any phase issue with the AR`s kicks so I think it´s the same case that with the MD or the oscillators just reset with each trigger
It’s true and there’s not too much we can do about it. Sometimes a really fast one-shot LFO to DISTortion, carefully tweaked, can give you a more consistent click at the start of the kick. In a mix this can sometimes be an improvement.
