Classic FM Synthesis on MicroFreak

[@savedbyasong4627]

I like that this goes beyond stepping through presets or playing unuseable weird sounds and that you show how to shape your sound with an idea of where you‘re going. The LFO as envelope trick is great. Thanks! Super tutorial

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for commenting, and for watching. I've tried my best to keep my sound design tutorials focused on moving toward a target sound deliberately vs too much random exploration or patch surfing. Hopefully I can keep this style going as I create more content!

[@kevinaaronson]

Not a wasted word was spoken. Extremely articulate and knowledgeable video tutorial. Really great thank you.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. I try my best to keep videos like this concise: I'm glad you found it useful. Thanks for your support!

[@acfpv]

So this posted on r/synthesizers, had no clue you can have one of the assigned variables be something on the mod matrix itself. Was worth the watch for that gem alone, but the FM tones were sweet as well. Thanks!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Ah yes; that is a fairly non obvious fact about the mod matrix: I don't remember where I found out about it really. In any case it allows for some quite interesting expressive possibilities. I'm glad you found it useful anyway, and thanks for your comment.

[@kilo_llama]

This is super useful, both for the Freak and for thinking about FM. Thanks for the clear explanation!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for your comment. If you are interested in learning more about how to reason about FM synthesis and design sounds, my series on the Liven XFM may be useful. The episodes beginning "one operator" and later describe the process in a way that should apply to other synths: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hH7HaWmhoaaArpY

[@kilo_llama]

@@ChalkWalkMusic Thanks for the recommendation!

[@ChrisBlohn]

I’ve had my micro freak for a while and this taught me quite a bit. Thank you

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for the comment. I feel like the MicroFreak is an odd combination of beginners price tag and form factor, alongside some surprisingly unique and advanced features. I imagine a MegaFreak with 8 voice polyphony (probably with 4 filters making it partially paraphonic for the freak factor) and the ability to cross fade two algorithms. Such a synth would be really compelling, I think!

[@LuisTorres-qz5kr]

Thank you very much for this Tutorial, much appreciated! Certainly learnt several tips to apply to my MicroFreak.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for your comment. I remember finding the algorithms on the MicroFreak all rather mysterious, when I first got it: I hope this adds a little clarity around the FM engine, and some other useful tips.

[@matzer8846]

Great stuff for MicroFreak newbees like me! Thanks a lot for sharing.👍

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for your comment. I'm glad you found it helpful. If you think of any more MicroFreak/synth related content that might interest you, let me know.

[@macaronafterparty]

Excited to make a few patches using these fundamentals. This is helping me to understand and maximize its capabilities despite the limitations of the mf. Well done!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for commenting. I am always surprised by the range of sounds you can hit with the Microfreak. I'm quite tempted by the Minifreak, but I'm not really in the market for any new synths so I guess it'll have to wait; it does seem like a rather impressive upgrade though. The effects and 6 voices turn it from something that's more like a mono++ for use in a studio setting to something I could see myself using live.

[@EdEditz]

The MicroFreak is such an amazing little synth. I have it for about 6 months now and I keep experimenting with it and it keeps on surprising me. Great video btw. I subscribed. :)

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for the comment, and for subscribing! I think the synth really lives up to its name: it's quite unorthodox, but has a lot to offer; it's definitely full of surprises.

[@cagrimutaf]

Hey thank you so much for this video! I just bought Microfreak yesterday, I thought it would be great helper to learn sound design and music production. I have been watching “tutorials” like crazy and everyone seems to “know” what they are doing but unable to explain (or just have no idea why they are doing what they are doing). It seemed weird to me, coming from a string instrument, that randomly pressing buttons is widely accepted. I think you should have a sonic goal and try to reach it. Knowing what happens on a synth why so that you can manipulate it in an efficient and intentional way is crucial. Your video is so dense. While you describe why you do these things, I learned more than several one hour “deep dives”. Please keep Microfreak and sound design theory videos coming. I subscribed and will watch all related content :D

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. In as much as I can, I try and model a process for designing sounds. This process requires certain intellectual understanding to figure out what to change next, but most of the rest of it is done with your ears. I like to say: listen, think, change, repeat; as you've observed, it's surprising how many people skip the "think" part and just jump to changing things. I hope you find some useful elements in some of my other videos too. In any case: I appreciate your support!

[@helmski]

Thank you for the FM tutorial! I like to add a bit of FX to my FM on the Freak.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for the comment. I definitely like adding effects too, but I wanted to focus on taking the core sound as far as I could. Hopefully you'll make some similar sounds that take these principles to another level!

[@happyjessus]

It's impressive how well you know what you're doing when most of us are randomly turning knobs and values and hope for the happy accident

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. I hope that, through these videos, people will see that you don't need particularly unique or special skills to do these type of things; just a bit of knowledge and the correct approach. In any case: I appreciate your support!

[@MissPristineVenom]

cool synth...cool presentation 🎹🎹

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. It is a cool synth; "unfortunately" the new Minifreak fixes all the frustrating limitations of the Microfreak meaning I am very tempted to buy one. If only it were released sooner so I could get a big black friday discount...

[@ennayanne]

8:45 I don't understand what's happening here. Is the assignable parameter mapped to the envelope or the timbre? You say it's mapped to the routing but I don't understand how you did that and I can't do it on mine, even rewatching this bit multiple times to try and figure out what youre doing i have no idea

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. The assignable destinations (the right most 3 columns of the mod matrix) can be assigned to either one of the knobs of the panel, or one of the intersections on the mod matrix. The former is achieved by pressing and holding the destination assignment button and turning a panel control; the latter is achieved holding the destination assignment button and turning the matrix encoder to select which mod slot you want to modulate the intensity of. In this case the destination is the amount of cycling envelope sent to the timbre of the oscillator. This means that that routing is applied based on the intensity entered in the cycling envelope -> timbre mod matrix slot, then the intensity gets added to by the source targeting that assignable destination (i.e velocity). This means that you are not increasing the timbre as you play harder, but rather increasing how much the cycling envelope affects the timbre. This type of velocity sensitivity is characteristic of classic FM sounds.

[@ennayanne]

@@ChalkWalkMusic Great to know, thanks for the detailed response.

[@coreynasfell1095]

Good work Sir!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and I appreciate your support!

[@robbesmetplopkoek8842]

Awesome vid!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment: I appreciate your support!

[@synthetic24]

The coolest FM sounds/effects is the exponential FM. Dunno if it is possible with a microfreak.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for your comment. Exponential FM can give interesting sounds, but you lose pitch tracking of the final sound in the process. This is great for atonal sounds, but for pitched, it takes a lot of hand tweaking. The Microfreak doesn't support it in any case: only the linear FM in this oscillator algorithm is provided.

[@enochroot9438]

will you be doing a video on the new firmware update? it seems to have added a lot of extra functionality

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for the comment. I was actually thinking about that yesterday: I'll probably give it a shot.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

I just published an overview of the new features describing them all, the exact meaning of the parameters, listen to a few presets and designing a sound using one of the algorithms; I hope you enjoy it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpq7hGlpp9RjjNk

[@genmce]

Can I send dx7 patches to it?

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. The Microfreak only has 2 operators with a fixed algorithm, while the DX7 has 6 with 32 possible algorithms (as well as different envelope and other feature differences). That's all to say, that you can't send DX7 patches, and even if you could they would likely be so degraded in the conversion as to sound completely different.

[@genmce]

@@ChalkWalkMusic Ok - I was comparing it to the behringer brains module that you CAN send dx7 cart files to. I assumed if it was the plaits clone code, that it would be possible. Ok - I was hoping... have a nice day!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

@@genmce I see. The Microfreak didn't include ports of all the Plaits modes (used on brains), only a subset of the original set (plus some that Arturia made). The included FM mode was the original FM mode from plaits (2 operator). The DX7 mode was added to Plaits as part of a final set of updates before Mutable instruments closed. This was before Brains was released, but years after the Microfreak launch. It is possible that Arturia could port it in future (to the Microfreak and/or Minifreak), but it's unclear if they will.