Sound design tutorial on a DIY Dirtywave M8 FM synthesizer

[@afr65536]

The m8c application might work better on the RPI than running a full browser. I tried m8c on Arch together with a Teensy 4.1 and it works great.

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks for pointing that out! Pinned.

[@BlackRoseCloud]

+1 for m8c been using it on a ton of devices even a old thinkpad and a PocketChip handheld computer

[@jenskuhnemann1241]

Hi, could you explain a bit more in detail how this solution works? I was wondering if there is a way to connect a display to the teensy using i2c or spi. Unfortunately or probably for that reason there are just the hex files available.

[@MaksimLin]

@@jenskuhnemann1241 No you can't as the headless m8 firmware doesnt support driving a connected display, hence the name. You can see hoe Floyd has the teensy connected to the RPI in his other video about the m8.

[@droussel7359]

@@jenskuhnemann1241 don't know if you ever found the answer but that wouldn't be possible as you need a usb host to use the headless version. The headless sends the display data over a serial connection back to the computer and it is the client app you are using that is responsible for displaying something.

[@JulianToler]

Now I am having a great time with my headless M8 the mysteries of FM synthesis are less of a mystery! Very helpful - Thanks!

[@mr_floydst]

Great to hear! :-)

[@johngalvin6352]

Great project Floyd, but it's you and your videos that just get better all the time, respect.

[@mr_floydst]

Thank you!

[@BudLarsenjr]

You are so cool I have a directory/folder named after you! Thank you for all of the excellent M8 videos. I just had to get a Teensy 4.1.🤓

[@mr_floydst]

Thank you very much! Now that's an honour. :)

[@superkheric]

Awesome video. Definitely would like to see more sound design content related to the M8!

[@mr_floydst]

Thank you very much! I'll do. I really wanted to talk about the tables but making this video nearly ate my whole weekend - so next time ;-)

[@roryjineffect]

@@mr_floydst we appreciate your effort.

[@mrclaytron]

Great video, Floyd. I am really loving the FM synth on the M8, and this video was very enlightening! I've never been great with FM, but I think the M8 somehow makes it quite approachable, and fast to experiment with - I hope you'll consider doing more videos on creating FM patches on the M8, this was very helpful! Cheers

[@mr_floydst]

Thank you! I'll do more videos (I didn't talk about tables yet, which is one of the defining features of the M8). But this weekend, there'll be another topic. :-)

[@MaksimLin]

@@mr_floydst Eagerly awaiting the tables tutorial ! as I'd like to learn more about them to use with LGPT.

[@audioartisan]

Love your FM choir pad, and the alg/freq combo you programmed to create it gave me some ideas. Thanks! Totally agree that fixed freq. and an envelope per op should be in a future update.

[@mr_floydst]

Thank you! Yes, fixed frequencies would really make a patch like this more realistic.

[@sebastien5597]

Hello Floyd, Thank you very much for your little tuto on FM sound design on M8, it was really helpful.

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks for watching - glad it was helpful!

[@pearsonbrennan6222]

Super helpful and informative video. Cant wait to try this out but UPS is a week late delivering my Teensy 4.1. Supposed to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully i can put all these fm concepts to use by tomorrow evening. Keep up the great work! Thanks

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks for watching! Glad it was helpful.

[@farticusmaximusOG]

Very neat, especially for the form factor! Thanks (as always) for great demonstrations!

[@mr_floydst]

Glad you liked it!

[@arcanics1971]

As usual, great vid. Nice editing with the floating circular Floyd btw!

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks! :)

[@avrilcadabra]

thanks Floyd, great examples. Especially the Chorus. You would have to use the LFO's for extra envelopes or make them in the tables.

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks! Yes, that would work, but it might then block the unique stuff you can do with that table - 2 more envelopes would really be nice. but fixed frequencies would be even nicerer. :)

[@avrilcadabra]

@@mr_floydst jump on the discord and ask. I'm not enough of an fm legend to know

[@andreaskafer2474]

Gave my pi4 a go too. Sadly the webdisplay does not work well for me. It does not show up fully. So i went the way littlescale went and that works fine. Thx for the tutorial, cant wait to hold the original in my hands.

[@mr_floydst]

Sorry to hear that. For me, it worked after updating the system. You need a fairly recent version of Chromium...

[@TT-it9gg]

Very nice! Thanks for the video~ Just thinking about putting a Teensy 4.1 inside the Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard, then you will have a Pi 400 M8!~ How's that?

[@mr_floydst]

That would be cool! :-)

[@jg8124]

you're the best, floyd😁

[@mr_floydst]

You are! :-)

[@JoeJohnston-taskboy]

Thanks for sharing! It looks like the software for this tracker (derkyjadex) can be hosted directly on the raspberry pi (I haven't yet tried this). Once installed, the unit would need no external networking, which would should make this a fairly standalone device.

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks! Yes, that's true. I should mention this in another video.

[@dolvaran]

Cool sounds. Reminds me of the original Dune game soundtrack!

[@mr_floydst]

Thank you!

[@AV-fh7rp]

If you have time Floyd would be cool to see a m8c tut on the Anbernic r351v I see some others suggesting. Love your videos.

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks for your suggestion! I'll look into it. Do you have any links with more info on that m8c project?

[@yamitanomura]

Amazing!

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks!

[@JonathanDotExe]

All these cool FM vidoes on your channel really make me want to buy an FM synth soon :)

[@mr_floydst]

I heard the OPSix is great :-)

[@JonathanDotExe]

I'm thinking of getting a MODX in a year or so which would also cover the FM part. But right I should check out the Opsix aswell

[@mit136speichenumdiewelt]

Hallo Floyd, vielen Dank für deine tollen DIY Tips. Du hast mich son angespornt das ich jetzt gerne meinen eigenen M8 Hack machen möchte ;-) Wenn ich alles richtig verstanden habe brauche ich ein Teensy 4.1, Raspberry Pi 5 ( Würde das auch gehen oder muss ich nicht das neuste haben?), TFT Bildschirm, gerne größer, kannst du mir was empfehlen? und eine Tastatur (könnte man hier ein Macropad) benutzen? Vielen Dank für deine Hilfe und Rückantwort.

[@mr_floydst]

Hi, danke für die freundlichen Worte! Du brauchst eigentlich nur den Teensy - mittlerweile kannst Du den Bildschirm auch in einem Browser aufrufen: derkyjadex.github.io/M8WebDisplay/ Das geht dann auch auf einem Smartphone oder jedem anderen Gerät, welches einen Browser ausführen kann und einen USB-Anschluss für den Teensy hat. Viel Erfolg damit!

[@mit136speichenumdiewelt]

Danke für die Information und schnelle Rückmeldung ;-)

[@MettapanaSoundAV]

This channel is great, thanks for sharing. I have a bit of a random question, can I connect a Hyperpixel 4.0 Tft Capacitive touchscreen to a macbook pro m1 to use as an external display? I can't find much information on this. I could do without the touch. Thanks!

[@mr_floydst]

Unfortunately not. It has no HDMI port. You can use this one, though: www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07QKT6L58/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[@MasterMainak]

Hi i am watching Floyd Steinberg's youtube channel and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i want you in a studio ghibili movie

[@mr_floydst]

I could totorolly not see myself in such a movie and I would kiki the idea overboard. :-)

[@MasterMainak]

@@mr_floydst

[@AV-fh7rp]

Could you do a tutorial on connecting headless to anbernic 353P

[@mr_floydst]

I'm afraid I can't do that... ;-)

[@Destide]

Maybe running raspbian server and using a docker based browser could save some resources and you could then put that towards the gpu memory.

[@mr_floydst]

There's also an app for this I wasn't aware of when making this video. It's called M8C github.com/laamaa/m8c

[@dviant13]

I'm interested in this project. I don't really understand what the Teensy is doing though. What is the point of the Teensy?

[@mr_floydst]

The Teensy is the driver here, I used the PI only as a screen (in fact, any device can be used as a screen). This is the free-to-download version of the DirtyWave M8 handheld device which is based on a Teensy.

[@dviant13]

@@mr_floydst thanks. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how all of the components are associated. I understand now that the m8 is run on the Teensy. I think it plugs into a computer just for the purpose of having the computer run a display and input device. I don't quite understand why the software is on the Teensy and not just on the Pi. I suppose that allows it to be OS independent. Does the Teensy also have features that m8 benefits from such as sound synthesis? I'll likely get it up and running and use my Surface Pro 3 as the display. I have some Raspberry Pi Zeros that I typically run headless. I wonder if I can use a Zero for this.

[@mr_floydst]

@@dviant13 The Teensy is a microcomputer, too, just like the RasPi, but with lesser specs than the latter, and from another manufacturer. The developer of the M8 handheld chose to use the Teensy as the foundation for his instrument, and he also released compiled versions of his software for download. This will only run on Teensy, not on Raspberry PI. And you can't port it to RasPi because it's already compiled, not open source.

[@dubseed8547]

Hi great video...I was wondering if the touch screen x y pad capability works with the headless m8

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks for watching! I'm afraid I can't answer that. My guess is it won't work, the free M8 software does not seem to support touch screens.

[@richardcnrd8302]

Another great video . Love your zynthian vids as well!!I have a crowpi with a pi3b in it (the suitcase model) iw onde how easy it would be to set that up as an m8 system ?I'm not great at coding but the crowpi has a touchscreen 7 in bilit in

[@mr_floydst]

Hi, thanks for watching! That should be no problem. Some of my viewers suggested using M8C ( github.com/laamaa/m8c ) is better on the model 3 PIs. You don't need to code here - but you definitely need the teensy 4.1, too.

[@richardcnrd8302]

Thank you for that info Floyd . Viele danke hope wrote that correctly

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

Interesting.

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks! :-)

[@ingoFLAM1]

I am looking into making a diy portable setup similar to what you have constructed- do you have recommendations on which raspberry pi or similar device to use for best performance/value? Also, is it possible to have the device automatically boot the m8 teensy software on startup? Thanks

[@mr_floydst]

I think a RasPi Zero-2 with the M8C software github.com/laamaa/m8c will be the smallest possible setup. Just add the m8c software to your .profile file which sits hidden in your home directory.

[@ingoFLAM1]

@@mr_floydst thanks! My goal is to make something portable and self-contained but I don't mind if it ends up bigger than a dmg gameboy or even a small desktop synth. If you have any more tips I'm definitely receptive, and I'll be sure to give you credit for inspiration

[@CrusaderGeneral]

There should be alternative builders of m8, to DW.. maybe with a builtin rotary encoder and some dedicated buttons .. what do you think of yourself getting into that? I would buy!

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks for watching - the M8 software isn't open source, so there's no way to build on that. One could use other software, though. Thing is at the moment, I have no capacities to start developing complex projects myself. (With all these crises going around things can get pretty challenging, economically) ;-)

[@CrusaderGeneral]

@@mr_floydst oh tell me about it. The orchestrated crisis are intended to do exactly that...population control... fn globalists

[@jordan_gentry]

Love your videos, now i don't know any coding, but i was wondering if there's a way to make the raspberry pi boot directly into m8? In wondering if it would it be possible to create a controller for the m8 firmware using teensy and have a screen for it, a homebrew m8.

[@mr_floydst]

You can just edit a file named .profile in your home directory and add a command in the style of chromium [web page url] to it's end. Which will auto start the browser with that page every time you turn on the PI.

[@jordan_gentry]

@@mr_floydst thanks will give it a shot!

[@jordan_gentry]

@@mr_floydst do you think teensy 4.x is powerful enough to read IO controls and output audio (via DAC maybe) as well as video on a smaller LCD (like one on DSO 138) or would there be a need for separate CPU for that?

[@mr_floydst]

@@jordan_gentry To be honest, I didn't dive into that yet. Thinking out aloud, I'd presume the "real" M8 is built around a Teensy, and the USB connection is exporting both the screen data and audio, so whatever is needed to run the periphery does not really need to process data, only display it. But again, just guessing here.

[@MaksimLin]

@@mr_floydst You're spot on, the actual M8 is a Teensy 4.0 with the screen, buttons and dac connected to it.

[@goesbysteve]

What was the webpage link to open?

[@mr_floydst]

derkyjadex.github.io/M8WebDisplay/

[@aardiie]

It says on the youtube settings this has been uploaded or misconfiguerd as 360p quality shrug 🤷‍♀️ Its firefox wtf lol works fine on edge tut

[@mr_floydst]

Thanks for watching! KZbin sometimes take some time to process 4k content - it should work by now.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

I can safely say that I will never get one of these mainly because there is a very good sounding FM sythersizor on Android and I bought a used tablet for £70 just to use it. I also have an old 80s Yamaha with FM editing which easy to make classic FM sounds.

[@mr_floydst]

Fair point! But the M8 does a lot more than FM - there are two subtractive synths and a sampler in there, too. But the workflow is indeed dominated by a lot of careful planning, to put it like this.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

@@mr_floydst It definitely has value however I have a Peak, MiniNova, old Yamaha (forgot the number) Reason, Abalten, Aturia Analog lab V with Minimoog unlocked and sythersizors on My tablet, I really dont need anymore ways to make sound.

[@microfx]

Name of the tiny display?

[@mr_floydst]

amzn.to/3BzINo5

[@microfx]

@@mr_floydst thx!

[@michaelkohlhaas4427]

Fake English?!

[@mr_floydst]

Usually, I'd just ignore comments like this, but I fully expect to get more of them as my channel's reach is growing, so here's an exemplary answer. OBVIOUSLY, I'm not a native english speaker and OBVIOUSLY, my school days are long over :) . What's more, everyone can look up where I'm from on my KZbin homepage. That being said, there's a KZbin bot which converts the things I say into subtitles, and those lines of code seem to understand what I'm saying just fine, which allows for the hypothesis that an actual human being will understand what I'm saying just fine as well. :-) I'm ok with people pointing out my flawed english but if you do so please do it in a way that helps me to get better by e. g. saying "this word should be pronounced like..." Best regards

[@jaakbonenstaak8041]

@@mr_floydst Just wanted to say, i can understand you perfectly fine! :)

[@mr_floydst]

@@jaakbonenstaak8041 Well, zank ju! :-)