Gilzad is the one person that have been most active in developing advanced so called Meta modules for SunVox.
(For you that do not know Meta Modules is many modules brought together into one module for making all kinds of instruments and effect modules). Have the ones he made already in a downloadable bundle but have not included his latest creation something that do not exist in any other of the music making applications... a ten band equalizer!
This is one reason for this post but the other reason is that he recently released one song just using FM synthesis in combination with effects and it is an interesting study in what is possible using the FM synthesizer in SunVox and to take a look at the complexities in his Meta modules.
Yes he have released the song with the archive that you can open in SunVox and study how he made the song
and how he used his own mixing / mastering modules.
Here is his own explanation that he gave on the SunVox forum:
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At SDC there was a competition where you could only use FM-Synthesis to create your song. So to me the challenge was to create a tune that would not sound like the typical OPL3-sound at all. Luckily SunVox's modularity helps a lot to create almost everything out of almost nothing. Night already was so nice to repost it on Soundcloud. Now it's time for me to share it along with the source file and some description here.
The Shakuhachi intro:
Not a sample. I accidently hit three successive keys on my keyboard and noticed that it sounded like the famous shaku-flute from the E-mu Emulator. So I sequenced them. It's just there to show off. The audible clicks are not intended at all. For some reason the volume ramping in SunVox can't handle any softer steps here, so any changes on the volume (fade in) cause clicks.
The percussions:
The snare is three layered notes of an FM-synth that applies lots of modulation to its carriers. The tonal groove snare is played with a single/monophonic note. The hats are similar but have on own FM-synth. The BD is just no magic. You just need to have the carrier fade-out fast enough and soon you get to fiddle around with variations of a bass drum. A selfmade exciter creates the final formants and equalizes the sound color. Most of the time I focused on avoiding the typical brushy and tonal sound from typical FM-synths.
The piano:
It's a reduced module (only containing fm-synthesizers) of a [url]larger project[/url] (fm&non-fm synths) I'm still working on. The audible harmonic distortion doesn't come from a sample. It's just that Sunvox's engine creates more THD at 48KHz than at 44.1 KHz. I boosted the high frequencies of the FM-generators which makes the THD show up even more.
Mix/Master:
The tune contains most of the MetaModules I shared earlier for the mastering. Those are the 10-band EQ, the multiband limiter and the lookahead compressor. Using them I managed to create a very hot (loud) master. You can render the tune in Sunvox and watch the hard-limited waveform in any editor. I know I preach to not join the loudness war but for this Genre I found it very suitable to do so. So here's the result of the DR-Meter:
(For you that do not know Meta Modules is many modules brought together into one module for making all kinds of instruments and effect modules). Have the ones he made already in a downloadable bundle but have not included his latest creation something that do not exist in any other of the music making applications... a ten band equalizer!
This is one reason for this post but the other reason is that he recently released one song just using FM synthesis in combination with effects and it is an interesting study in what is possible using the FM synthesizer in SunVox and to take a look at the complexities in his Meta modules.
Yes he have released the song with the archive that you can open in SunVox and study how he made the song
and how he used his own mixing / mastering modules.
Here is his own explanation that he gave on the SunVox forum:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At SDC there was a competition where you could only use FM-Synthesis to create your song. So to me the challenge was to create a tune that would not sound like the typical OPL3-sound at all. Luckily SunVox's modularity helps a lot to create almost everything out of almost nothing. Night already was so nice to repost it on Soundcloud. Now it's time for me to share it along with the source file and some description here.
The Shakuhachi intro:
Not a sample. I accidently hit three successive keys on my keyboard and noticed that it sounded like the famous shaku-flute from the E-mu Emulator. So I sequenced them. It's just there to show off. The audible clicks are not intended at all. For some reason the volume ramping in SunVox can't handle any softer steps here, so any changes on the volume (fade in) cause clicks.
The percussions:
The snare is three layered notes of an FM-synth that applies lots of modulation to its carriers. The tonal groove snare is played with a single/monophonic note. The hats are similar but have on own FM-synth. The BD is just no magic. You just need to have the carrier fade-out fast enough and soon you get to fiddle around with variations of a bass drum. A selfmade exciter creates the final formants and equalizes the sound color. Most of the time I focused on avoiding the typical brushy and tonal sound from typical FM-synths.
The piano:
It's a reduced module (only containing fm-synthesizers) of a [url]larger project[/url] (fm&non-fm synths) I'm still working on. The audible harmonic distortion doesn't come from a sample. It's just that Sunvox's engine creates more THD at 48KHz than at 44.1 KHz. I boosted the high frequencies of the FM-generators which makes the THD show up even more.
Mix/Master:
The tune contains most of the MetaModules I shared earlier for the mastering. Those are the 10-band EQ, the multiband limiter and the lookahead compressor. Using them I managed to create a very hot (loud) master. You can render the tune in Sunvox and watch the hard-limited waveform in any editor. I know I preach to not join the loudness war but for this Genre I found it very suitable to do so. So here's the result of the DR-Meter:
Nothing to be proud of, but this proves that SunVox can be loud.
The title:
When I was in Berlin I got the perfect inspiration to keep things simple enough so I could get this entry done in time.
The source file:
The source file manages to hit the limits of my sandy i7 (quadcore@2GHz). That's also a reason why I kept this tune so simple which is not usual for me. I'll be glad if you check the song on your machine. However, if your machine is weaker, you might want to try the lofi-version of SunVox.
Thanks for listening and I'll be glad to hear your comments.
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Here is the song file:
The title:
When I was in Berlin I got the perfect inspiration to keep things simple enough so I could get this entry done in time.
The source file:
The source file manages to hit the limits of my sandy i7 (quadcore@2GHz). That's also a reason why I kept this tune so simple which is not usual for me. I'll be glad if you check the song on your machine. However, if your machine is weaker, you might want to try the lofi-version of SunVox.
Thanks for listening and I'll be glad to hear your comments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the song file:
| berlin_fm_-_nt.sunvox |
Even though it is countless modules hidden inside the Meta modules the archive is only 235 kb.
Here is the new and updated package of all Gilzads excellent creations:
Here is the new and updated package of all Gilzads excellent creations:
| gilzad.zip |
Exciter, Gate, Mid/side Mux/Demux, Multiband Limiter, Vocoder, Lookahead Compressor,
10 band equalizer.
Take a listen to the song:
10 band equalizer.
Take a listen to the song:
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