Friendly FM synth?

[Biospark]

All this talk got me thinking about FM and how very little i know about it. I have some Tx gear but its damn near unprogrammable. Is there such thing as dummy friendly FM synths or am I just going to have to bare with it :tongue:

Plus any pointers would be helpful, Ive had this gear on the backburner for too long to not do anything with.

[Syrinx]

I agree with you that programming SY-77 is definitely not as easy as programming my JV-1080. But it is not too bad with the software now. I got this utility, it's called SY-manager from somewhere on the web (www.fm-alive.com me thinks), and you can come up with new patches, change existing ones in a heart beat, then dump it to the SY. You have control over every single parameter, except that you don't have to dive in menus within menus to get to them. In a word...awesome.
I have another utility for the JV-1080 as well, that does pretty much the same thing.
Remember that part of what makes FM programming hard, is that it's different than say subtractive methods. You have to read something about how it works. There are tons of nice stuff available, let me know if you are interested.

If you still find it annoying to go in depth with FM programming, then I think the easier choice is NI FM7 soft synth.

Hope that helps.

Best.

[Omega Monkey]

None of them are friendly. At least not really. The good news is, the main thing that makes them "unfriendly" is ignorance. So youre best bet is to read all you can about FM synthesis, how it works as well as practical tips on what settings to use for certain types of sounds.

Which TX stuff do you have? Depending on what model you have, it might work with DX manager (if its 6 op at least).

But yeah, knowledge is your best defense. That, and the fact that are 8 bajillion free patches out there for a lot of the Yamaha FM stuff (esp the 6 op stuff).

[Biospark]

I have the Tx-7 which is basicly just something to exchange patches with, its 6 op. I also have the Tx-81z. The 81z is the one giving me the most headaches, the U.I. just flat out bites.

[losmusicanos]

The TX-7 is very friendly. You don't have anything to program, just load the crappy patches found on the web and there you go! Personally I leave the factory presets in my TX-7, they're still better than all the banks I've tried.

[Omega Monkey]

The TX7 is one of the easier ones actually. That should definitely work with DX Manager. You really can find a ridiculous amount of patches for it online (Im guessing somewhere in the thousands, maybe even 10 thousands) and any software with a MIDI Sysex dump function will be able to transfer them to the TX. I have used Cakewalk successfully for doing this.

The TX81z's coolest feature is that you can use other types of waves. This in a way makes up for the lack of 2 operators compared to the DX7, etc... Also its multitimbral so its basically like an FB01 on steroids. I know theres a site somewhere where this guy has created sounddriver editors for all of these "low budget" synths, mostly from the 80s, and the results he gets from them are really amazing. But I cant think of the link right now. Im not sure if hes got anything for the 81z though, or if there are many patches available for it on the net. Your best bet is a google search for these things.