the new Fors m4l synth from ess (fm+wavetable) sounds very interesting
@RPLKTR wow, thank you for that response. i have heard and been interested in pcm synthesis based off of some comments made in the daydream sound youtuber’s esoniq reviews but digital wavetable synthesis may be more what im looking for. i assume this is the same type of thing that serum and hydrasynth use. *edit: after reading the wiki atricle, it seems like its something else.*i think where i get frustrated with the digitone, even though i love it overall, is that it does feel like if i were able to change the operator to an importable wavetable, or even substitute it with the external input, then have a slightly more complex eg, potentially a few more routing options, it could be much more flexible. i do understand the limitations and they did a good job of keeping it extremely musical.
since that comment, i did grab an Analog Four. I was initially attempting to use linear fm in my small eurorack setup and that did give me cool results but i think i maybe didnt have quite the right types of vcos with fm capabilities for what i was doing (something like the instruo vcos modules with complex fm inputs and cv control/wavefolding). Now, A4 does have external ins, the 2 vcos can be frequency modulated and amplitude modulated, so i could theoretically get closer to bringing in my own unique oscillators (even digitone oscillators) to use as operators. but i may be even more limited now because t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶v̶e̶l̶o̶p̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶i̶g̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶w̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶d̶u̶l̶a̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶r̶i̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶r̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶t̶a̶n̶d̶.but i do have the A4 audio going into both inputs of the Digitone, which goes into two inputs and a thru track of the Octatrack. So i have all 3 (very different) chorus effects from the 3 machines (and phaser/flangers/reverb/delays, the latter 2 of which are unique to the machine), and i assume i can create some sort of feedback by either cue-ing audio out from the octa and into the A4’s ext in or running it straight out of the digi and into the A4.
im guessing, and i may try mocking this up in vcv rack, that if you were to use the DHE segmented envelope modules (https://library.vcvrack.com/DHE-Modules) on the more complex modulator vcos or maybe mutable stages in a real modular environment, and use multiple instances of that that feed back into themselves, you could get some more complex results. im sure this is even more easy in max or pd, but i don’t understand those well enough to try that yet. maybe with automatism. i do wonder if there are any really good examples of someone using analog fm to make otherwordly textures. one video that really grabbed my attention was divkid’s Tona demo. that seemed to have a really nice timbre as far as fm goes in general. or this one around 4:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLMFAW3CJDM&ab_channel=DivKidVideo
the minilogue engine does sound very nice. i was not aware that the nts-1 was the same engine as the xd. will definitely have to look into that. i guess by “an alternative to field recording”, i just meant replicating textures that are found in nature. or even ones that arent. every texture i make in my previous fm synths has still had a very digital fm sound, so i think i do agree that physical modelling synthesis is probably what i’m after. i have almost zero understanding of fft, phase synthesis, formant synthesis , markov chains, pulsar synthesis,
as far as hardware synths, the opsix does look really flexible and deep for sound design. im sure i would love that. it sounds a lot like the volca fm in the demos, which i really enjoyed. I am curious about it’s ability to do less musical timbres/textures. thank you for the response and recommendations. i am just now seeing this response for some reason, so sorry about the delay. i have never used sculpture and never even heard of flow motion. ableton’s operator is pretty complex in that it uses subtractive techniques, you have more control over the individual components of the algorithm, you can add harmonics to the frequency spectrum, and you can use more than just sine waves. it does seem like maybe the highest level of experimentation is going to require software of some sort
