Create a WARM, LUSH FM PAD on the Montage/MODX- FM Synthesis Mega Tutorial

#montage #modx #fmsynthesis #sounddesign Don't be scared of FM Synthesis. Let's create a warm, lush FM pad together on the Yamaha Montage/MODX!
00:00 Getting Started
02:13 Choosing the Algorithm
04:00 Tweaking the Envelopes
06:00 Getting a sawtooth wave
08:40 Adding modulation
11:00 Detuning the operators
13:11 Using an operator as an LFO
15:00 Using aftertouch to control the modulation
16:28 Adding pitch modulation
17:40 Making it WIDE part 1
19:20 Using filters for extra expression
20:00 Adding effects
21:39 Making it WIDER !
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[@Cap10NRGMusic]

That was seriously probably the best FM Sound Design tutorial I have seen - amazing job!!

[@Doctormix]

Niiiiice!!

[@cindygroves5804]

Cool trick using a fixed-frequency modulator as an LFO. I didn't know you could do that!

[@peternelson4630]

Hey Dom! Just discovered you today (Jan 31, 2024) and I'm very happy that I did! Interestingly, I just revived my 1988 TX81Z to used with my MODX8 so your explanations of FM were quite timely! I've attempted to dig into FM a few times but just found it too confusing and too abstract. The way that you explained things - starting with the difference between a carrier and an operator - was just wonderful! Watching you do the editing on the Montage was super helpful. I love how you have the separate window of the LCD panel in the upper right corner of the screen. Again, really well done and I'm looking forward to learning more from you over the days ahead. Thanks!

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

I hope you're enjoying your TX81Z. I had two of them in the 80s when they were new because, of course, that was the only way to get warmer, lusher patches. But FM struggles to be even within remote distance of the lushness of analogue, AWM2 or wavetable synths.

[@TommyHelgevold]

Thank you Dom, your videos are always easy to follow and easy to understand, you are a natural born educator. You empower the user instead of showing off like so many others do, you put the power into the viewer and the musicians hands by being thorough and precise. Again, thank you so much for your valuable contributions.

[@irt1971]

Dom does the best MODX/MONTAGE videos online, hands down.

[@NikosKeyZ]

At last, a tutorial that let us hear the sound after each adjustment. Excellent Dom!

[@159awi]

This was great. I would love to see more FM sounds design tips.

[@IvanIvanov-lf9hi]

Thanks so much! Dom. IT,S will be so great to passed the lesson about sound design both engines (awm, fm) in detail!!!

[@RuudJeursen]

Dom, thank you so much for the excellent explanation. I had a lot of fun with it trying it out on my MODX.

[@onionhat9141]

Thanks to you and Claudio and like 500 other people showing this off I have just ordered this beast and cannot wait to be making my own sounds and showing off what this can do!

[@Qba474]

I was going to sleep... but now, since I've watched your video, I have to turn on my MODX and try it myself. This is going to be a long night...

[@EduardoRohdeEras]

That was inspiring! Thanks! Tonight I'll build my FM pad to play alive and I'll use your tips...

[@panoscouros1844]

Great tutorial Dom. Really opened up many levels for me, thank you. Now Im going to try something like this from scratch, and see how I go. So good that this can go from a lush pad to a very bright analog sounding lead with a few dial turns - leaving the simplest and most effective till last. Keep 'em coming please. Would love a tutorial that highlights arp and motion sequencing please, if you haven't already done one (and I missed it).

[@awnashed]

Wonderful as usual Dom, love it.

[@stephencampbell7427]

Brand new to this,I love it so much. Thanks for taking the time to show us how great the MODX and Montage can sound. This reminds me of Vangells"Mutiny on the bounty" soundtrack. Hope you can find the time for more of this.

[@Esperluet]

Vangelis at home, can't believe it...

[@jespergummeson5606]

Great tutorial for us FM-X fans! Thank you for a great video. 👌

[@Polednicek]

Great thanks. This is my first FX sound I ever made step by step and I am very satisfied. Thank you for all your work in the music!

[@EricCorminier]

Thanks Dom, very cool tutorial for Fmx and a wonderful result !

[@ddg874]

is that Jealousy at 21:33? lol. love those chords. great video, Dom!

[@theaudioeng]

🍻's again Dom for another full-on YT drop ♨️ - be safe, have a cool weekend all!! 😷👍🎹🎶

[@brunbabybrun]

Your video is so encouraging, that I wanted immediately go to my ModX and try out some of those ideas, except it's now too late (nearly midnight), so it will have to wait until tomorrow. The trick with detuning the modulator to use it as an LFO is brilliant! I'd rather turn it to Fixed and a really low frequency, but this approach is much more flexible. Thank you Dom, you help people to multiple the value of the gear they already own.

[@lwiggins2919]

Dom, I've watched the video over and over again. I believe i got a handle on it. Thank you so much.

[@Marian1st.]

Cool Arturia keyboard. I have one too. Thanks for making these videos. Learning a lot from you.

[@sgranzo2]

WOOOOOW 🤟🏼

[@trafficjam415]

Fabulous video - thanks a lot for sharing a very good insight into the Montage/MODX

[@gophercrow]

Beautiful patch, Dom. Great explanation of your process too. Definitely more fun to make patches on the Montage (or MODX) compared to the old days on the DX7.

[@alejandroacevedo9409]

Love you Dom its amazing how much you know, make more of these tutorials since you are a genius❤❤

[@agst2006]

FM synthesis never dies since DX7 ... love it

[@rockstarjazzcat]

Thanks Dom, the "Purely FM" is much appreciated. Cheers, Daniel

[@Moessieurs]

Thank you Dom for your great video, using FM-X allow lot of possibilities to made great sounds on Montage/MODX.

[@KierDarby]

Great walkthrough, thanks Dom!

[@digitalperfomer7]

Brilliant explanation, you should make tons of these videos ;)

[@g-keys7078]

Wow! Excellent video. You’ve inspired me to get back into messing around with FM!

[@MrSteveVee]

Awesome 👌

[@PrimitiveBaroque]

This is great stuff. Thank you

[@jimharris6389]

Awesome stuff Dom. I did your FM-X kick drum tutorial earlier too. I've hard FM kicks and lush FM pads for days now! I kind of sat on my MODX for about year just enjoying the pianos and using it as a master keyboard. Dipped into the manuals a few times but came away a bit baffled then about a month ago I really sat myself down and pushed through the things I wasn't getting. It's actually quite simple once you grasp the overall structure and realise where you are in the UI. Oh man Montage/MODX are beasts! Really enjoying getting to know it properly. You gotta commit to big instruments like this but once you do it gives back in spades. I hope Yamaha continue to expand it. Smart Morph was certainly a surprise, only a partial version increment too! God knows what'll be in the next major release ... actually I reckon you might know but I bet you're not telling ;-)

[@ludojazz]

Excellent Dom Thx so much

[@brunodadivore9606]

Excellent ! I have been owned a MODX since mid July. I like your videos and recommended on my gear review on Audiofanzine, a french good site with Moessieurs we have in France. Your english is clear and nice to follow for a non native, your methodic approach is step-by-step fruitful. Thanks very much. Among several ways to build FM songs, to start choosing an algorithm is - I think- the best way. What is just missing somewhere on the net is how to select the group of Algos for a determined expected sound a bass, a drum, a violin, etc cause starting with sines gives many of the time organs (pretty nice as well !). I'm less scary to dive into FM and the great Yamaha MODX sounds tks to U.

[@rjbush7955]

Beautiful pad. Eat your heart out Vangelis. It almost has a CS80 vibe to it.

[@onionhat9141]

built with a beast of an FM engine so I would assume it totally has what the cs-80 and dx7 and other fm synths have but waaaaaaaayyyyyyy more modern and way more better.

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

Excellent Dom!

[@DomSigalas]

Thank you so much Matt!!! ❤️

[@floridaessene]

@@DomSigalas Hi Dom, very nice, but in my 40+ years experience as a pro-keyboardist/composer, nothing compares to the pads the can be created on the Korg TRITON. Do you have a video on the Triton Pads?

[@DemonsDog]

I've begun shifting away from just using presets and moving into creating my own sounds from scratch. I'm looking forward to trying this out, FM on the MODX has always confused me but then so did reading sheet music when I was a kid, and that's no problem for me now haha. I'd love to see you do a video all about the various effects types on the Montage and how to use them to create different sounds. There are that many on board that it can be overwhelming and hard to know where to begin!

[@misterpigman]

This is soo cooool!!!!

[@piotao]

WHOA!!! CHRISTMAS!!! EASTER!!! omg, Dom, what a prezent, thank you! I always was looking for such tutorial, and this one IS JUST AMAZING! You told so much about configuration of the sound, and in my head a lot of things clicked instantly, now, I feel I recreate this sound and name it after YOU! So, that was enlightening and insightful, and I'm really happy you explained some internals. Of course I beg for MOAR, especiall, it will be nice, if you show some of the side effects and maybe explain a bit a full single page here and there - what the settings are really doing, because not always it is clear. And maybe a quest/task/challenge for you - what if I would like to create something like cat purr, will this be possible? Anyway, still lot of smaller things were to show and explain, and thank you for all of that brilliant work, and perfect pace, cool mood, really nice sound and FULL PROFESSIONAL kick!

[@SadhanaKhawas]

Will you please make more videoes on how to use fm synths as this is really helpful and easy to understand thanks for uploading 😃

[@zorangolijanin9627]

Very nice, I followed you on my modx. :) thx

[@ProjectVastness]

awesome :)

[@macdaddybender]

Thanks so much Dom. Another entertaining and super interesting video. I have to admit I found it quite hard though. I've got some FM soft synths and a Yamaha DX Reface but I really do want a MODX, they seem to be in short supply (covid related??) at the moment but I will pick one up soon. Anyway, the finished sound was amazing. You must have spent quite a bit of time learning the interface. :)

[@JDStoneCreations]

Sounds lovely! I'd be really interested seeing you make an insane distorted lead sound... I want to do so myself but just haven't had the time or motivation to do it! With my CME-Widi Master coming soon I think I need to get on and make one though to play on my keytar 😊

[@synthfluencer]

I'm still a bit scared about FM synthesis but we come closer 😊 thanks Dom for the fantastic tutorial. Don't know if this was meant as sort of an easter egg 🥚 but at 23:47 I've spotted the phaser effect you obviously played around with. And of course, adding some filter envelope tweeks and the phaser effect you get a super cool FM Solina with this pad! 😎👌

[@TritonesProductiona]

Greetings from Pakistan Very informative video

[@pafnouticlavipiano]

Thank you for this wonderful content. Would you recommend this synth to someone who wants to produce jazz/fusion and japanese citypop stuff? I think the FM engine could be nice for this type of things. Thanks ;)

[@TheInterGalacticFederation]

hi Dom - thanks for another great Montage video! we def'ly need ideas for FM-x and programming by ear...

[@CinderellaVasia]

Great video, Dom! I liked when your hair were longer...20 years ago! 😊

[@optimistaoptimismo]

Oh yes greeeeeeeeat!!

[@stephaner-peintre7453]

la synthèse FM est toujours puissante , c'est un laboratoire

[@simonwestlake8287]

Awesome stuff man loving the channel. I tried doing this with MODX which is bit harder with only have 4 sliders etc. I got all the way through creating the lush pad until i reached the bit where you edited operator 1 and 2. When i adjusted fader 1 and 2 it turned the whole track off when I looked back at mixer page volume went to zero. So I turned it up then went back into editing i didnt get any sounds from any of the operators. I tried tapping the button which switchs parts between 1 and 4 and 5 and 8 and trying all faders then sometimes i would get sounds and othet times not. I gave up in the end I tried this about 3 times with same results. Got any ideas ? What this is.

[@PankajChoudhury]

Hi Dom, Great tutorial as usual. Are these features available in MODX too like montage?

[@Dromeusik]

***** 5 stars out of 5. Very useful and clear presentation. [just for a laugh: I didn't get what you meant by "ditchin'" until I realized it was "detune" :-)]

[@twinsprodEnt.]

thanks Dom! I wonder if You could tell us if it is possible to create on the Montage a pitched R&B pads like we can find on Serum? If yes, could you show us how to do it please?

[@theaudioeng]

p.s. Dom, where can I get the Yam Tee's from (assume these are direct from them??, high quality)?, 🍻's again Dom

[@MrAliensix]

Excellent! More of these please! :) Just one question - In the Operator settings there's the 'Key On Reset' option. I'm assuming that it restarts the phase of each operator with each key press, so would switching it off introduce a little more movement and unpredictability, therefore adding a more analogue vibe. Am I right?

[@DomSigalas]

+Geoff Pinckney exactly! It determines whether or not the oscillation of the Op is reset each time you press a note ;)

[@johanboyen1275]

Hi Dom, I've tried so many times to use my yamaha modx to create the lead brass pad sound used by Vangelis in Blade Runner's opening track. I don't know much about sound design but I think the sound is made with 2 mono osc with a little detuning and low and high pass filters, resonance and a lot of reverb to do. Still, I never get that perfect brass pad like in the trailer. Is it possible to explain this in one of your next KZbin sessions how you can do this with the Modx / Montage? ... Tip ... I think thousands of musicians and fans of Vangelis would be happy with it . My musical greetings! And ... always great sessions that I already saw! Johan 🎹

[@diomic]

Hey! How do you know what Algorithm should choose to a certain sound? For example an Organ, a Pad or a Saw. How do i know how should i place the operators. Is there algorithms that are better for Saws or Pads? EDIT: And for example how do i know what type of Spectral do i know when to use for a saw, organ, pad for example

[@aleksandartodorovic1924]

Hey Dom thanks for this Video its very helpful. Can you make a tutorial how to make simple Sounds with the FMX engine for Balkan sounds? I also need a help for making a smooth portamento when I play Legato with sounds like guitars, strings saxophone from AWM2 engine. On the FMX engine portamento works perfect. Thank you😘

[@TheAceReviews]

Nice edit at the end making a mini cam so that we can see your face and not the shortcut icons! Sounds make me think of Jarre... ;)

[@leirumanuel]

Hi Dom. Is this also possible with MODX? Thanks!

[@nikhilraj8565]

In the very first step itself when I increase the volume of the op8 fader on my MODX6 the sine sound is not coming at all.If I don’t hear anything how can even set attack. Please help me figure this out.

[@wizardfrequency1621]

How do I know which algorithm to choose for a sound that I want to make? How do I know I need for instance 3 operators or carriers. Or are their no rules for this only creativity 🤔

[@DomSigalas]

With practice you will start understanding which one you need. But sometimes just experimenting can yield amazing results :) There are no "rules" per say. The more complex the sound, the more modulation you intend to do the more stacked Operators you will need :)

[@paulis7319]

This is the second video I've watch so far on FM synthesis (other one was a different KZbinr/musician) and for some reason my keyboard makes no sound after straying from Algorithm 1. I reset all the factory default settings, turned it off and turned it back on, and still no joy...only makes a sound with algorithm 1 and nothing else. Is there a hidden step I'm missing? I've followed both videos button for button. The "pause" button on my computer is probably gonna wear out doing this. lol

[@Swanlord05]

When is Yamaha going to make a 12 op FM synth with filters and sampler only

[@hirangabijoychakraborty6639]

Hi Dom..... Please do a moxf video, tutorial, it's use as a midi keyboard and making new sounds..... I know it's an old machine but I have one and there's no proper video available on its usage

[@Swanlord05]

Hi thank you for the video I was 13 when the DX7 came out I remember the ads in the music stores and hair metal guys playing jump on it for me I wanted one so bad but way outta my price range at 13 at the time loll.... It was at the time a very difficult synth to program for..... FM synthesis was almost impossible to do on the dx7.... Even little small changes with the buttons and 2line screen that it had.... In fact I challenge anyone to do the same thing as fast with only the dx7 and its face buttons and screen...... It was beautiful and sleek but the interface is what killed you from learning FM Now 30+ years later..... It's a sinch with the montage and PC vst..... Much much easier.... Yamaha needs to remake the Dx line with only the FM engjne And effects and Filters..... If they did it would beat up on the Montage! Thanks again

[@irt1971]

I know what you mean, I finally bought a DX7 Mk1 35 years on in immaculate condition but it is painful to edit sounds.

[@compfox]

I'm not scared. I love my Montage.

[@withamindwideopen5403]

Does the MODX also have aftertouch?

[@DomSigalas]

It can receive after touch messages but the Keybed doesn’t have aftertouch ;)

[@nikhilraj8565]

Why am I not able to do this steps in MODX?

[@user-eb2bg4tt8d]

расскажите пожалуйста как создавать пользовательские арпеджио на montage

[@filipzawadzki9424]

20:57 deep house chord. Shy its so short fragment.

[@josh-_-_-]

Now let's add the furry dust.

[@nicolaupoceiro7570]

interesting, but is it worth the effort? I can get nicer pads with less effort from any decent subtractive synth. FM synthesis always sounds sterile and cold somehow.

[@dnk700]

Nice work! Is it possible to use FM-X or another feature of Montage to create an acid lead like this one similar to the TB-303? (kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6DPq4OBi7aUZ5I)

[@andesneko]

And here I am having a hard time playing around with a 3 knob bass 🤦‍♂️

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

These FM videos always try the same trick of attempting to convince us that it can be used to make a patch that an AWM2, wavetable or plain analogue synth can do far more effectively and with less programming hassle. Not sure why we should try when the Montage/MODX has a plethora of 'warm, lush pads' through AWM2.

[@jacobbrown1690]

i wouldnt call fm lush lol. always sounds synthetic

[@sompotrol]

I'm scared of the price of the Montage XD

[@sound-guy]

Great video Dom. After watching FM videos for a while, I'm getting more confident. Still picked up some new tips here, the Fixed frequency operator as a mini LFO was new. And the copy paste on both the operators and the part is a nice touch! Cheers.