Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live • Hacker News Board

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#11

Post by S0y » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 1:59 PM UTC

yungporko wrote: post #10

somebody please make a plugin version of operator for both windows and mac, there are zero good options for fm synth plugins in 2024 except for sytrus on windows if they even still sell it. exacoustics GHOST is looking very promising though, just still in its teething stages

Is Dexed not good? https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#12

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 2:14 PM UTC

yungporko wrote: post #10

somebody please make a plugin version of operator for both windows and mac, there are zero good options for fm synth plugins in 2024 except for sytrus on windows if they even still sell it. exacoustics GHOST is looking very promising though, just still in its teething stages

there are numerous good FM modules inside VCV Rack (and Cardinal), which have the benefit (or drawback) that you get full control over both upstream modulation and downstream processing. And they exist for all platforms that Rack (& Cardinal) run on, not just "windows and mac".

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#13

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

polotics wrote: post #5

bowsamic wrote: post #2

I love FM synthesis and I love Robert Henke. Great article

Had the good luck of attending an Henke (Monolake) concert in large-ish and cubical space fully rigged with speaker arrays doing wave-field-synthesis which was beyond anything I heard before or since. Loud is one thing, gigantic is something else. https://roberthenke.com/concerts/wfs.html

You should have stepped over to the TU Berlin. A few month's before that concert, there was a performance/recreation of a concert that took place in Koln cathedral of various Messiaen organ works, played back on the WFS system installed at the TU. Much, much bigger than Henke's setup at Tresor, and it was a truly remarkable experience.

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#14

Post by johnofthesea » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 3:21 PM UTC

yungporko wrote: post #10

somebody please make a plugin version of operator for both windows and mac, there are zero good options for fm synth plugins in 2024 except for sytrus on windows if they even still sell it. exacoustics GHOST is looking very promising though, just still in its teething stages

Probably not pure FM synth, but what about Aalto from Madrona Labs?

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#15

Post by inquisitorG » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 3:41 PM UTC

yungporko wrote: post #10

somebody please make a plugin version of operator for both windows and mac, there are zero good options for fm synth plugins in 2024 except for sytrus on windows if they even still sell it. exacoustics GHOST is looking very promising though, just still in its teething stages

I have been out of audio for a long time but this sounds crazy.

Have owned FS1R and DX11, made my own FM synths in reaktor but I would still rate FM7/FM8 the greatest of all FM synths. There has just never been a better interface to program FM. In the same way I would probably rate the FS1R as one of the all time worst FM synths and I do enjoy a synth that is not easy to program for the uniqueness.

Unless it is vaporware now I would just get FM8.

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#16

Post by yungporko » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 4:09 PM UTC

inquisitorG wrote: post #15

yungporko wrote: post #10

somebody please make a plugin version of operator for both windows and mac, there are zero good options for fm synth plugins in 2024 except for sytrus on windows if they even still sell it. exacoustics GHOST is looking very promising though, just still in its teething stages

I have been out of audio for a long time but this sounds crazy. Have owned FS1R and DX11, made my own FM synths in reaktor but I would still rate FM7/FM8 the greatest of all FM synths. There has just never been a better interface to program FM. In the same way I would probably rate the FS1R as one of the all time worst FM synths and I do enjoy a synth that is not easy to program for the uniqueness. Unless it is vapor…

fm8 is still around and i have it but unfortunately on higher dpi screens its quite frustrating to navigate the ui

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#17

Post by 1zael » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 4:30 PM UTC

Ableton is an epitome of software design innovation. I think few people understand how groundbreaking the Session View vs Arrangement View design was to advance the workflow of both produced and live music. Subcomponents like Operator created design patterns that are widely adopted by most VSTs today. Kudos to the Ableton team for crafting a product that is so beloved.

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#18

Post by MDJMediaLab » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 5:34 PM UTC

johnofthesea wrote: post #14

yungporko wrote: post #10

somebody please make a plugin version of operator for both windows and mac, there are zero good options for fm synth plugins in 2024 except for sytrus on windows if they even still sell it. exacoustics GHOST is looking very promising though, just still in its teething stages

Probably not pure FM synth, but what about Aalto from Madrona Labs?

Aalto is great. It's more of a west-coast style Buchla complex oscillator clone than a traditional FM synth with multiple operators, but complex oscillators have at least one carrier and one modulator by design.

I use very few software synthesizers but Aalto and Operator are two of my favorites.

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#19

Post by Nabi » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 6:04 PM UTC

polotics wrote: post #5

bowsamic wrote: post #2

I love FM synthesis and I love Robert Henke. Great article

Had the good luck of attending an Henke (Monolake) concert in large-ish and cubical space fully rigged with speaker arrays doing wave-field-synthesis which was beyond anything I heard before or since. Loud is one thing, gigantic is something else. https://roberthenke.com/concerts/wfs.html

About a decade ago had the luck attending in-person his field recording and granular synthesis workshop in Amsterdam. Such an inspiring and humble individual! Still coming back from time to time to his timeless album Monolake - Hongkong.

Re: Twenty Years of FM Synthesis Inside Ableton Live

#20

Post by bowsamic » Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 6:06 PM UTC

yungporko wrote: post #10

somebody please make a plugin version of operator for both windows and mac, there are zero good options for fm synth plugins in 2024 except for sytrus on windows if they even still sell it. exacoustics GHOST is looking very promising though, just still in its teething stages

Yeah I'm kinda surprised that there are so few good FM synth plugins. They must be out there but just hidden. FM8 is all I can really think of