want to jump into the MB-fm. just wondering

[bluelost]

hi thorsten, im so impressed by all the stuff youve got here, particularly the sid and fm synths...

about the fm synth.....

on the main page it says detuning between the operators isnt possible.  this confused me. isnt that a core element of what makes fm able to synthesize the way it does?  each operator being able to have an independent pitch? also after, it says there are frequency multipliers  0.5 and upwards,  isnt that essentially the operator's pitch shift?  each oscillator can have its own pitch with the frequency multiplier right?

also,  i couldnt really figure it out from the page but, how many parts multitibral is it? and how much polyphony? how do the drums fit into that? 

do the cc parameters change live? like turn a knob and it changes as it turns as opposed to when its done turning or the next note-on?  i know that some older synths that people try to mod,  its just not possible for say the pitch or mod level to change in real time for morphy type changes.

one more thing,  for now i just want to make a core and opl3 module.  are  all the voice editing parameters editable thru cc#?  i dont really know anything about sysex.  ive been long awaiting a synth where every (ok at least the operator mod levels, pitches, algorythm, and envelope) parameters could be accessed all at once in real time (assuming i have enough knobs on my controller to do it) . i could do that on each voice with cc#'s with this? like, edit one voice live, and switch to another, editing that, back n forth etc,  while i have a multitimbral sequence going? just all live without a computer.

thanks thorsten,  again  awesome work!  you do the best diy stuff out there!

-Corey

[TK.]

Hi Corey,

these are interesting questions for a FAQ (FARMARKER)

Detuning: OPL3 only supports predefined multiply factors, thats the only way to "detune" the oscillators... I understand under detuning those slight frequency differences between the OPs which could make the results even more interesting (especially for Fx sounds)

The drum channel has its own voices, they are handled independently from the instruments

Multitimbral: there are 4 instruments and 6 voices, the voices are allocated dynamically. This means, if all 4 instruments are in mono mode, only 4 voices are allocated, 2 are unusued. If one or more instruments in poly mode, they will share the voices (the longest played voice will be dropped first)

CC: yes, absolutely live with immediate update on LCD - this feature was one of my main focus

Parameters: yes, all are editable via CC. Only difference to SysEx is, that CC listens on a specific MIDI channel. This can cause a problem once two instruments are assigned to the same MIDI channel, you won't be able to edit them seperately.

Have fun :)

Best Regards, Thorsten.