FM Synthesis - A Practical Guide - Part 1

video upload by ChrisLody

"Here's something I've been meaning to get round to starting for ages, a practical guide to FM synthesis. In my experience FM tutorials usually over explain all the wrong things and rarely get as far as the important things like the predictable way operator ratios change the waveform and frequency responses. So I've tried to approach things from an entirely practical view point showing you how to make saw, square, noise etc with filter like responses.

Here's chipsynth MD (from which I stole a diagram :) https://www.plogue.com/products/chips...

Details on different types of FM (its actually phase modulation)
• Comparing Exponential, Linear, and Th... [posted here]
• The difference between FM and Phase M... [here]

0:00 Intro
2:53 How the meters works
3:23 Operators and Algorithms
3:58 Carriers and Modulators
4:29 MEGA Synthesis envelope generator
5:48 Reface DX envelope generator
6:56 Adjusting algorithms and operators
8:35 Making a basic organ sound
9:47 Saw feedback
10:47 Square feedback
11:48 1:1 modulation (saw sounds)
13:03 Low pass like sweeps
14:12 1:2 modulation (square sounds)
15:34 2:1 etc modulation (band pass sounds)
16:37 Ratio chart
17:10 Quick demo bass patch
18:20 Summing up"

2024/04 - Synth Controller for Nord Drum 2/3 - technical setup

video upload by Stereoping

"A short step by step manual how to set up the right global and voice midichannels on the Nord Drum and how to learn the global channel on the Controller.

For a demo of the Controller with the ND2:"

2022/08 - Synth Controller for Clavia Nord Drum 2

video upload by Stereoping

"Demo for the ND2 Edition of the Synth Controller supporting #Clavia #NordDrum 2. Also works with the Nord Drum 3 but not with the first version (with 4 channels) which does not support CC-parameter editing. 6 minutes of editing with some captions what's currently going on. From 6:28 the setup and usage of the GLOBAL MODE is shown. GLOBAL MODE allows simultaneous editing of previously teached parameters on all 6 channels, kind of performance mixer."

Ambient w/ Nord Lead, OP-1 field | As long as 2025-04-19 by atnr

video upload by atnr

"A piece created with the ‪@NordKeyboards‬ Nord Lead and ‪@teenageengineering‬ OP‑1 field—ambient music where simple drones dissolve into radio noise.

Nord Lead: I play a slow‑attack pad, routing the output through ‪@gfisys‬ SPECULAR TEMPUS for reverb and delay.

OP‑1 field: Connected to ‪@ChaseBlissAudio‬ LOSSY and GENERATION LOSS MK II while performing. Midway, I feed in a radio signal, shaping the noise in LOSSY.

The bell sounds were recorded with a RØDE NT1-A."

Wayward shift | Moog Minimoog, Spectralis 2, Prophet 10, Prophet 12, Nord Drum 2

video upload by MIDERA

"Another track with the Spectralis driving the synths.

Gear:
Moog Minimoog = lead/bass
Sequential Prophet 10 = Bass
Sequential Prophet 12 = Pads
Radikal Technologies Spectralis 2 = Sequencing, plucks, cello
Clavia Nord Drum 2

#minimoog #prophet10 #norddrum2
Uploaded March 25th, 2025"

Synth track: Spectralis, minimoog, prophet 10, prophet 12, Nord Drum 2 IDM electronic music

video upload by MIDERA

"I wonder... how does one increase views? I've been doing the same thing for years. Like 10+ years... and the longer I go, the fewer sales I have on each subsequent album, the fewer views, the fewer everything. I guess it's hard to change, maybe everything I do is the same.

Probably just a saturated market. Everyone out there is doing something."

Clavia Nord Modular 25-Key Virtual Synthesizer

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Nord Modular G2 Engine Software-Controlled Rackmount Synthesizer

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Sequentix Cirklon 2, Minimoog, Prophet 12, SX-240, Nord Drum 2 IDM electronic track

video upload by MIDERA

"I've been trying to see what sequencers to keep. Obviously the Spectralis stays, but I kept running into roadblocks with the Cirklon so it was something I needed to write a track with. I did the same with the Squarp Pyramid, but I got stuck working through it. I'm starting to get the hang of the Cirklon though. Although it does often take a few extra button presses to do things I think should be easy, I've figured out other ways to do what I want too. I'll try again with the Pyramid, but most likely that one will be going away.

Sequentix Cirklon 2 - sequencing
Moog Minimoog - bass
DSI Prophet 12 - bell/synth tone
Kawai SX-240 - pads
Clavia Nord Drum 2 - drums
Native Instruments Raum for reverb"

Nodal Red 2X (Free Clavia Nordlead 2X emulation) - Demo by Crazik

video upload by cra zik

"The Usual Suspects again released a must have from the 2000' ! Clavia Nordlead 2X perfect emulation (DSP56300..in fact DSP56362 ). Free VST, CLAP, AU on Linux, windows & mac.. The melodies I play are mine and copyrighted (SACEM). All Rights Reserved.
Free download (Firefox recommended):
http://www.crazik.free.fr/makemusicfo...
Official website:
https://dsp56300.wordpress.com/"

Clavia Nord Rack (12-voice, OS 2.6)

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via this VEMIA listing

Click the auction link on top when you get there for additional listings.

VEMIA is Peter Forrest's auction house. He is the author of The A-Z of Analogue Synthesizer Books.

Unravel | Minimoog, Spectralis 2, Prophet 10, Prophet 12, Nord Drum 2 electronic music

video upload by MIDERA

"Got 5 hours of sleep last night. Had something frustrating happen (possible loss of $$$), not the worst thing in the world of course, just frustrating. After this track, I'll go back and see what else I can do with the Cirklon.

Moog Minimoog = bass
Sequential Prophet 12 = Main melody line
Sequential Prophet 10 = background chime sound
Radikal Technologies Spectralis 2 = sequencing and lead later in the track
Clavia Nord Drum 2 = drums
Native Instruments Raum = reverb"

Control Synthesis Deep Bass 9 Acid Techno Jam with Nord Drum and Novation Circuit

video upload by Waiting For Zyo

"Time to get some basslines from my Control Synthesis Deep Bass Nine, an analog bassline synthesizer from 1994. It comes with a single oscillator switchable between saw, square, and none (for audio input processing) and a few basic controls like tuning, cutoff, resonance, filter envelope, decay, accent, and volume.
Made as a clone of the TB-303, it fails to emulate the iconic synth but has its own character, with deep basses and squelchy resonance. I created some classic bassline sequences with the Novation Circuit (where velocity engages a filter opening in the Deep Bass Nine), a lead line using the internal synth (with a custom preset), and used the four drum parts to control the Nord Drum.

The result is a techno tune with a pulsing bassline and a wannabe acid flavor. :D Enjoy!"

The lies ahead | Moog Minimoog, Spectralis 2, Prophet 12, Prophet 10, Nord Drum 2 electronic

video upload by MIDERA

"I spent a part of the day rearranging my room... as I often do when I have the time. And when I was rearranging I realized just how little sense anything would make. I finally just set it up to explore 'How does the Spectralis fare compared to the Cirklon with sequencing.' And - well, I still think I prefer the Spectralis. I just write stuff faster. That doesn't mean this track sounds better than my last one (Crashing down) [posted here], but it was just a little more organic for me to write and quicker. It's hard to explain, although I suppose it's easy to explain when I think about the 14 years I've spent with the Spectralis. Of course, it's not perfect, it doesn't easily assign MSB/LSB for program changes (you can use cc's but it's a little awkward) and it can't do polyphonic step sequencing (which is actually awkward to do on the Cirklon).

Anyway - here it is. And listening a day after writing it, it’s too repetitive. I don’t like it. But I’ll share it anyway.

Spectralis 2: Sequencing and piano
Minimoog: Bass
Sequential Prophet 10: lead
DSI Prophet 12: Bells
Clavia Nord Drum 2: Drums
Native Instruments Raum: reverb"

Crashing down | Moog Minimoog, Sequentix Cirklon, Sequential Prophet 10, DSI Prophet 12, Nord Drum 2

video upload by MIDERA

"I was considering selling the Minimoog. Kept talking to friends about how I just didn't like it. I don't know why, I guess maybe it was like with the Prophet 10, where it's just a lot of money and it doesn't really seem to do anything that much better than what I already have. One of my friends said 'Well, have you tried sequencing it?' And no... I hadn't. I got the Minimoog when one of my cats died, then I rehomed my dog, and then my mom died. The whole next year (2024) I spent scanning photos in of my parent's. Only now have I started to get back into things. Well, I decided to try it out and wow, I really enjoyed it - the Minimoog sounds pretty amazing. So this is my first track with it sequenced.

I'm also working on trying to get more proficient with the Cirklon, and I've gotten a little hold on using it.

Parts:
Moog Minimoog: Bass
DSI Prophet 12: Bells
Sequential Prophet 10: Pads
Clavia Nord Drum 2: Drums
Sequentix Cirklon: Sequencing
Native Instruments Raum: Reverb"

Beginner's Guide to Midi Routing with Midicake ARP

video upload by midicake

"I get asked all the time how to connect Synths and MIDI Devices and so this short video runs through the practicalities of hooking up your hardware gear.

I'll show you how to connect multiple MIDI devices, how to utilize a MIDI Hub, how to set your MIDI Channels and how to connect it all together!

I hope you find it helpful. Enjoy!

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:23 Connecting to a Synth
01:03 Setting the MIDI Channel
02:09 Playing on Different MIDI Channels
02:37 Playing Multiple Synths
03:22 Adding more Synths
04:11 Using a MIDI Splitter
06:26 Playing Nord and Blofeld
07:52 Controlling ARP via USB (Note Sync)
10:35 Controlling ARP with MIDI DIN (Note Sync)
12:21 Summing Up"

ESK - No Input Mixer Symphonic Drone 3

video upload by Metunar

"Third feedback drone with a no input mixer patch.
This time i switch the feedbacks from low to high frequency with HPF.
The sound sources are 10 feedback loops from an Allen & Heath WZ3 14:4:2 analog mixer (white fader on the mixer) and 2 filtered noises form the Clavia/Nord G2 Engine (blue Fader).
All this sounds go parallel into 6 effects sends. 3 sends of them go to the modified Roland VG-8 (red fader) and the other 3 go to the Nord G2 Engine with filtered delay and reverb (yellow fader)."

http://www.metunar.ch

Metunar No Input Mixer Symphonic Drones

MiMa's cover of Tim Follin - Chronos

video upload by mima85

"This is my own arrangement of the theme music of Chronos, a video game made for the venerable ZX Spectrum in the early 80ies. This piece is one of the early tunes from the great Tim Follin, and the term "great" is well deserved here because the ZX Spectrum's speaker by itself was capable to do just boring, monophonic buzzes. Tim, with some very clever programming, managed by software mixing to squeeze five, I mean FIVE channels of polyphony from that thing. So yes, 'great' is very appropriate for Tim.

Nonetheless, the original song is still a mosquitoes orchestra, five channels of polyphony but always of buzzing sounds, which many people can rightly find irritating to listen to. But this means that there's ample room of sound and stylistic choices when doing a re-arrangement. And for me, which I usually stick with the original arrangement and style when doing covers because I don't feel creative enough to come with something of my own, this was a cool exercise of creativity. Who knows, perhaps this means that some time in the future I'll be finally able to make some original music by myself :-)

As usual this video is not exactely a live performance, because the audio comes from the fully finished song. For the video I play the various parts like if I would've beein playing them live, paying attention to all the details (sound changes, execution, etc...) for the most realistic effect.

By the way, if you find yourself puzzled watching the pads I play on the OB-8 in the upper right corner, because chords with higher notes are being played in a lower octave, it's because I have a split patch with a version of the pad with slow attack on the keyboard's left side, and another version with fast attack on the right side. And the left side's patch is transposed up an octave so it matches the other one. This made playing those parts easier. That's one of the details I was talking about before.

As I am, like Tim, a big fan of progressive rock, I chose to do my cover in that style. I hope you're gonna enjoy it. As always, feel free to comment :-)"

ESK - No Input Mixer Symphonic Drone

video upload by Metunar

ESK - No Input Mixer Symphonic Drone 2

video upload by Metunar

"Another feedback drone with a no input mixer patch.
The sound sources are 10 feedback loops from an Allen & Heath WZ3 14:4:2 analog mixer (white fader on the mixer) and 2 filtered noises form the Clavia/Nord G2 Engine (blue Fader).
All this sounds go parallel into 6 effects sends. 3 sends of them go to the modified Roland VG-8 (red fader) and the other 3 go to the Nord G2 Engine with filtered delay and reverb (yellow fader)."

http://www.metunar.ch

Nord Wave 49-Key w/Original NORD Bag

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Nord Lead 2X Anniversary Edition 49-Key 20-Voice Polyphonic Synthesizer

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via this listing

"One of the only 299 units made

NORD Bag included"

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