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Earthly Pads

Last Edited: Nov 30, 2023

Today, I've made a pad synth in FM8 that might remind you of something from an ambient Squarepusher track like Tundra or Tommib. It consists of 3 carriers: enveloping, frequency modulation, low-pass filtering, and reverb. The patch is easy to create but requires a lot of listening and fine-tuning. These low-frequency sinusoidal components interact with each other in undesirable ways if you don't mix them carefully. The patch sounds like this...

Possible Context

Operators

1

F - A key synced sine wave, carried to the low-pass filter (Z) by 80% and modulating E by 20%. This tone has been transposed up an octave by moving the "Ratio" parameter to 2. E - A key synced sine wave, carried to a low-pass filter (Z) by 70% and modulating F by 30%. This tone has been transposed up 2 octaves by moving the "Ratio" parameter to 4. This increases the amount of sidebands created by the frequency modulation. It also has 10% feedback implemented. D - A key synced square wave, modulating E-F amount by 10%. Its "Ratio" has been moved up to 5. C - A triangle wave carried to the low-pass filter (Z) by 40%. Z - A non-resonant low pass filter carried to the output by 85%. The cutoff frequency is somewhere between 1 and 2 kHz. Carriers F, E, and C are collected here.  

Envelopes

F - Main Carrier This is the envelope of the main audible signal, a centered sine wave.   2 E - Carrier/Modulator This is the frequency modulation envelope on F and the secondary carrier. This signal is similar to F except an octave higher.

3

D - Modulator This is the envelope of the modulation operator, modulating the E-F amount.

4

C - Carrier This is the envelope of the third carrier. This carrier provides the brassy timbre you hear at the onset of the patch.

5

Z - Low pass filter This is the envelope of the low pass filter. It starts immediately, and the release is long enough to filter all carriers and modulators.

6  

Modulation

7

LFO2 is a triangle wave modulating the amounts for D, E, and F by 45 %. The rate is not synced but is about 3 Hz. Key scale and velocity scale affect the rate by 50%. Consider assigning the Mod Wheel to control one or more of these parameters.  

Master

Transpose - Transpose the entire patch an octave down (12 semitones)—Polyphony - 16 available voices. Unison - 4 voices, detuned about 30% and spread about 60%.  

FX

Reverb - long bright decay, but not too wet.  

Control

8

Parameter Assignment 1) D-F amount: X axis. 2) E-F amount: Y axis. 3) Filter Resonance.  

Automation

9        

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