Production Diary – Revive the classic Sci-Fi sound or FM…

Hey guys, it’s Andre.

Today, I’m going to revive a classic effect known as FM Synthesis.

FM means frequency modulation and that explains it pretty much. One Oscillator’s frequency is getting modulated which creates that well-known metallic sound.

I rebuilt that effect in NI’s Massive synth And that is my basic template.

What does it sound like and how this effect still influences modern music, check it here.

There’s only one OSC which is set to a sine wave which is getting pitched down via an envelope.

The OSC is modulated with a phase modulation (To be 100% exactly, this is not a pure frequency modulation, but a phase modulation which has very close results).

The amount of effect is determined by the envelope. Change the envelope settings or maybe add a loop to your envelope curve to create various effects.

Below are some various examples based on this patch above. The first one is the original setting, the rest results from changing the envelope curve, amount of phase modulation and the pitch of the Modulation OSC and the kind of note I’ve played. The last one features an effect from NI’s Guitar Rig.

http://soundcloud.com/benztown-branding-blog-4/fx-synthesis-example

So why revive that pretty old school space sound? Like most trends, FM synthesis effects are coming back again, but in its ugliest and most rough form – in modern Dubstep sound

http://soundcloud.com/benztown-branding-blog-4/fm-synthesis-dubstep