Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

I'm rather new to this FM stuff...but am trying at least...I'm currently using a yamaha DX reface which has 12 algorithms available...I seen to find that the higher the algo the thinner the sound seems to get.
I'm playing around with the synth and depending what preset I start off with I'm ending up with a lot of screeching and nothing much natural....or clean.
As the DX reface is not multitimbral I am thinking of purchasing a further reface DX for a counter rythm but I'm worried I might get bored very soon if I can't get away from the same sounds and the screeching element.

I am trying to emulate the steve poindexter way of working and i feel I'm 80% there and quite close???

There is FM in his methods but I can't think of what else he may have used synth wise barring some Casio CZ unit for his sound blocks.

To start out, just use one operator to modulate another. The synth has a bunch of operators and when they're all modulating each-other in this big crazy way, it gets confusing real fast. The different "algorythms" are just different arrangements of how the operators modulate each-other. The real magic is in how much they modulate each-other, and what frequencies they're on. And by frequency, we're talking about multiples. Math multiples. So remember, each order of magnitude is another octave. So If you have op1 at 2, let's say, and then op2 is modulating it and op2 is at zero, then you'll get this super low sound modulating a sound that's 2 octaves above it. So you get this kind of suboscillator sound. If you modulate something at 2 with something that's like 3 or 5 or something instead of octaves like 2, 4, 8 etc, then you'll get almost a chordlike sound, because a 3 and a 2 are like a G and the C below it.

So you have to set like one operator to modulate another one, set the modulation so it sounds a little weird but alright, and then play with the frequencies of the two operators, and you balance the modulation against the feedback so it gets as textured as you want without getting screechy. Now the thing is, when you want to go beyond what those two operators are doing to each-other, and add another texture to the thing, then you add in another operator. If you just want the operators to act like oscillators in parallel, instead of affecting each-other, you can do that too, by finding an arrangement (an algorythm) that offers that.

So yeah it's kind of a geeky way to program something, but once you get a feel for how modulation works, you can dial in what you want, and get all this complicated, beautiful texture. You can go beautiful places that a subtractive synth can't go to. And terrible places.