Modular/FM VSTs

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MattAltmanMusic
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Modular/FM VSTs

Post by MattAltmanMusic »

What are some of your favorite FM VSTs or more modular geared VSTs? I've heard FM8, and obviously Operator, but was curious what you all are using.

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over9000
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by over9000 »

i use fm8 and massive and operator.
theres reaktor for the modular thing, you can do almost anything with it i believe, never tried it out though

Opnå
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by Opnå »

Operator here. I find it's so flexible and a lot of the time it's the FX that i use to manipulate the sound the most. I just want something synth wise that i can dial in the type of dynamics and wave shapes i want easily before I get mangling with the other stuff.

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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by Planar »

You've covered all the main FM synths most of us will use around here, maybe Sytrus is worth a mention (never used it personally). I use a bit of FM in Serum as well.

The_G
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by The_G »

For FM, I use FM8. I also have Dexed, which is free, but I don't really use it much. I demo'd FM4, which is weirdly available only for Reason (using the proprietary RE format) and iOS. I thought it was a great learning tool.

For "modular," there's u-He Ace and Bazille (and a free version of Bazille comes with CM).

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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by Martin »

For modular i really like aalto

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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by Southpaw »

I used Dexed too but I never know what I'm doing with FM, I just f_ck about until some sound happens that I like. I have a DX11 hardware synth but I have that many sounds for it that I rarely even tweak things. I should learn FM but a lack of time means I spend my music time doing more interesting things like trying to make a track.....
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Críoch
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by Críoch »

Operator mainly for me. I've fm8.. though I really only use it for it's pads & strings, with minimal tweaking. I had started learning how to program it a few years ago, but that's when operator really clicked with me.. so I left it tbh. I intend to go back to it as the modulation in it seem great - the pitch envelope alone is mouth watering. Only copped the inbuilt saturation & filters a few nights ago.. but got, there's a lot of depth to it.

Dl'd the demo of Serum.. think that might be a bit FM-y? Haven't properly looked at it yet so aint sure. Know its wavetable, but the layout & modulations seem very straightforward. Seen it in some tuts & it looks good. The demo cuts out after 20mins.. so more than enough time to bounce some garbage for resampling.
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MattAltmanMusic
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by MattAltmanMusic »

Martin wrote:For modular i really like aalto
I have heard this one thrown around a little. Gonna try out the demo today!

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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by Planar »

Críoch wrote:Dl'd the demo of Serum.. think that might be a bit FM-y? Haven't properly looked at it yet so aint sure. Know its wavetable, but the layout & modulations seem very straightforward. Seen it in some tuts & it looks good. The demo cuts out after 20mins.. so more than enough time to bounce some garbage for resampling.
It's very much a wavetable synth, but you can set the oscillators to FM each other. So you can have a morphing wavetable on one osc being FM'ed by another wavetable.

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JoeS
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by JoeS »

Operator was my main FM synth until I got Bengal. Awesome.

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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by PatrickHughes »

I just recently picked up reaktor6 and it's very powerful and can do all sorts of FM. They just recently released a new block set with some specific blocks for FM too.

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Críoch
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by Críoch »

Planar wrote:
Críoch wrote:Dl'd the demo of Serum.. think that might be a bit FM-y? Haven't properly looked at it yet so aint sure. Know its wavetable, but the layout & modulations seem very straightforward. Seen it in some tuts & it looks good. The demo cuts out after 20mins.. so more than enough time to bounce some garbage for resampling.
It's very much a wavetable synth, but you can set the oscillators to FM each other. So you can have a morphing wavetable on one osc being FM'ed by another wavetable.
That sounds very interesting. The modulation options on it are very impressive.. just need to see how it sounds at this point.
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ozias_leduc
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by ozias_leduc »

For "classic" FM, i don't think you can beat NI's FM8. Dexed is also great if you want a more authentic (and thus limiting) DX7 sound - although you can set it to OPL mode for an even more grainy sound!

But my favouritest EVER plugin is Cakewalk Z3ta 2+. It has FM options too. Like Serum it has wavetable oscillators - and combined with its modulation matrix you can go deep.

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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by dubdub »

As far as modular goes, I like ACE. Patching feels very intuitive and straightforward.

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totalcult
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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by totalcult »

dubdub wrote:As far as modular goes, I like ACE. Patching feels very intuitive and straightforward.
Me too.

I also use Reaktor Blocks (never delved deeper than Blocks-level) - which is amazing, versatile, sounds incredible, but ACE has an instant accessibility that I like - it's all there, with all the major patch points in one screen.

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Re: Modular/FM VSTs

Post by PixelKind »

Softube Modular gives you a classic modular system as a VST. You can even expand it with extra modules. Sounds really good too and is very accessible


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