Music 307

Lab 4:  FM synthesis, analysis

BACKGROUND:
When the Yamaha DX7 FM synthesizer appeared in 1983, it took the world by storm—the DX7 was by far world's most successful synthesizer up to that point (and by number of units sold, probably still is!).  Although it is now an "ancient" synthesizer, there are still hundreds of thousands of them still in use throughout the world.  The DX7 can make a wide variety of sounds, but it is notoriously difficult to learn how to program it.  This is because FM is an inherently non-linear synthesis technique, and also because the parameters of synthesis are too hard to manipulate using the buttons and tiny display on the synth.  The way to make patch editing of any  MIDI synthesizer much more tractable is to put all the parameters on the computer screen at once (including graphical envelopes), instead of using the tiny display that is on the synth.  This kind of editor is now an industry standard, but it was not always so.  The first patch editor ever created was for the DX7, written by David Zicarelli on the Macintosh.  It was a major step in "virtual interfaces" to music equipment in general, and it was the prototype for Galaxy, Steinberg, and many others that are common today .

To create new voices on the DX7 was beyond the reach of most musicians.   It was extremely rare to find anyone who knew how to do it.  Although the patch editor does not substitute for understanding the theory behind FM, it makes it possible to program the DX7 family or TX802 fairly easily.  All parameters are visible and changeable directly from the screen of the computer.  Note that when you do this assignment, you are NOT editing sounds, as you did in the previous assignment (musique concrete).  You are instead editing the parameters of synthesis, which change the sound the synth (in this case a plugin, NOT a DX7) produces.

ASSIGNIMENT:

PART 1 (synthesis):
Make 5 new sounds using the VST plugin called "MDA DX10." http://www.mda-vst.com/ . Put this in the appropriate audio plugin folder on your computer. In the Fine Arts Lab, this has already been done for you. The Max/MSP patch you should use is in the MU307 folder in "Class Files" on the Fine Arts server. Or you can download here: 307LAB4mxb
You can test the sounds by playing them in the repeating melody, or you can click on the button to play just one note at a time. Note that there are actually four ways to play it: 1. click notes on the "virtual keyboard," 2. click on the button to play one note, 3. turn on the toggle to play the melody over and over (you can change the tempo of course), 4. play are real MIDI keyboard if you have one. Once you have a sound you like, click "open," give the soundfile a name, and then toggle on/off to save as a sound file.

You can modify the synth parameters directly by double-clicking on the VST plugin and using the sliders, or by altering the numbers in the "controlsynth"subpatch, or you can modify the "controlsynth" parameters from an external MIDI keyboard if you figure out the mappings for that particular device.

NOTE: You can also do this assigment using a different patch that does not use the DX10 plugin, but rather does FM directly in Max/MSP patch with two oscillators. It's more versatile, but possibly harder to understand. The presets are there to get you started, but I want you to make your own sounds. You'll find it here: FMsynthesis2.pat. For documentation on this patch, click here: FMsynthesisTutorial.

PART 2 (analysis):
Make a 3D image of the sound you created by using sndpeek (you will find this in the Applications folder in the Fine Arts Lab). This realtime 3D waterfall display software runs on all platforms. The trick is to get a good picture. First, save each sound you want to graph as a separate soundfile (do this in Max). Then, put the soundfile in the same directory as sndpeek. Then, if sndpeek is in the "Applications" directory, go to that directory (in OSX type "cd /Applications/sndpeek-1.1-exe/bin") and then type: "./sndpeek test.aif" This will display the soundfile called "test.aif." Type "f" at the right moment to freeze the display, type "x" to replay the sound file. When you get it right, print the display. Write the name of the soundfile on the page with a pen. For more information, go to the sndpeek homepage: http://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/software/sndpeek/. Note that you do not need to run sndpeek at the same time as Max/MSP (you can if you want of course). But if you're running out of horsepower, just run Max/MSP to create the sounds, then quit Max/MSP and run sndpeek. In sndpeek you can read in the five soundfiles you created and display them.

What you hand in:

5 different short sound examples created using the DX10 plugin, each with a simple name on an audio CD

5 print-out pages, each with the name of the associated soundfile written on it. These printouts should match your soundfiles.

1 writeup page that explains how you made the 5 sounds, and why they sound the way they do (and look the way they do).

Note: for all lab assignments, you must HAND IN A WRITTEN PAGE(s) DESCRIBING YOUR WORK (musical materials, tracks, problems (if any), strategy, etc.) You won't get a grade if there is no writeup!