Twisted Electrons MegaFM vs Yamaha TX81Z - Compared Side by Side with Identical Settings

[@MonkeyMarc]

Such a great synth. I own one and it constantly surprises me.

[@asynchronicity]

Great comparison. The TX81Z is super clean compared with, say, early 4op Yamahas like the DX100 / DX21, which have a wonderfully hazy, warm and noisy quality.

[@thebrackett]

Great side by side! Thanks very much! Also thanks for providing your midi mapping solution 👍

[@frankcastle2876]

Mega FM has several different output modes. I like the 'stereo' and 'Wide6'. I also have both synths and enjoy them both, but having more control over Mega FM means you can have a little more immediate control. That is always nice.

[@MikloMusic]

Right on! Mine is usually in wide6 with a bit of detune 👍

[@SPAZZOID100]

A LOT more.

[@erisd8452]

It would be epic if you could do a similar video comparing Digitone, Opsix, Kadomo, Iridium, etc. all with identical settings

[@MikloMusic]

Yes, totally agree, would be epic! A fair bit more complicated (and expensive!). But who knows, maybe one day :)

[@bunen7135]

awesome, thanks for the effort! (my MEGAfm is on its way)

[@MikloMusic]

Awesome, thanks!

[@fernandomercado5519]

“The one with the Yamaha chip wins.” “But...” “Exactly.”

[@MikloMusic]

Exactly!

[@MikkelGrumBovin]

Enjoyed and Subbed -(while waiting for my MEGA fm to arrive) :-)

[@ShimanskiBeats]

thanks for the video Miklos, it was very helpful! In some of your sound examples it seems that you can compensate for the lack of waveform diversity in the MegaFM with feedback and distortion, so it would be possible to achieve sounds similar the TX through a slightly different method. I hear that the TX81z can sound much cleaner and smoother than the MegaFM. I understand that you needed a compressor to make up for some volume differentials, but this way there is basically no case where the MegaFM doesn"t sound noisy. I remember my TX81z was quite noisy on its own, but no comparison to the MegaFM. How do you deal with this in practice?

[@MikloMusic]

In practice, even though the MegaFM indeed is quite noisy, the output level is generally loud enough for the noise to not be a problem. It's mostly on very clean settings where the output level is quite low and high input gains are necessary I find the noise gets objectionable.

[@Guillaume-du2sp]

Nice video ! I found that my MEGAfm have a low level output when comparing to other gear. Did you experience the same feeling or not ?

[@MikloMusic]

Yes, it's relatively low.

[@hdjsos]

Thank you for this! I received my MEGAfm the other day and had issues connecting it to my keystep 37. No sound at first and then i tried the midi configuration and could barely hear any sound. Do you have advice on how to set up midi? Any help is appreciated !

[@xplo8554]

RTFM

[@akirakosaintjust]

I prefer the grittier, more aggressive sound of the MegaFM, but god it's noisy af, at least in this video. Can something be done to reduce the noise level?

[@MikloMusic]

Yeah that's what I like about it too, but for sure it IS noisy, especially under certain conditions like clean sounds where the level above the noise floor gets very low. To keep it under control I use noise gate in the zoom cdr70, and also generally how I use it the remaining noise is typicalky masked in the mix anyway, but ymmv

[@andywatts8654]

The mark II is much less noisy

[@akirakosaintjust]

@@andywatts8654 oh that's great to know!! Thank you!!

[@andywatts8654]

And they made the MkII easier to convert back to the MkI with a few spots of solder (and the YM612 chips)

[@gregoryzaharias1831]

This doesn’t make sense really because they have different chips and u can totally change them easily in the mega fm to the ym2412 and the sound would be exact

[@cooksoni.a]

hey, i can't for the life of me figure out how to load your midiflow preset in the app, and it looks like the support forum is closed. can you help me?

[@hermask815]

The mega fm lacks the other waveforms the Yamaha has. How big of a problem is that?

[@MikloMusic]

Wouldn't call it a problem really. Sure it limits the theoretical sonic palette, but otoh the mega makes that up with all the dirt and overdrive that you won't get on the tx81

[@baramundi__88__]

Great video. Can you make drum sounds on the Mega FM ?

[@MikloMusic]

Absolutely! Check out my other video on the MegaFM kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4uTeXaCgNxgeJYsi=-V-T3e174HtejUxf Thanks for watching!

[@MikloMusic]

Drum sounds at about 6:50

[@fierytoucans6177]

Thanks for the video! In the video there's really noticeable noise when you switch to the MegaFM channel. Does the MegaFM output lots of noise when no notes are playing or is that just an artefact of the high gain of the fat compressor you mentioned? (I don't mean the quantisation noise).

[@MikloMusic]

It's a bit of both I would say. It IS a little noisy, but it gets over exaggerated in some parts of the video where the output level on the mega is quite low, there is quite a lot of gain on the input PLUS quite a bit of makeup gain on the compressor, so it wouldn't be that noisy in normal use.

[@MiguelCarvalho-wh7bz]

Isn't the megafm full of background noise? That is one of the things that really makes me look away..

[@MikloMusic]

Yes, it's relatively noisy, especially if you run at lower levels to avoid distorting the output then the snr is quite low. So yeah, if you want quiet AND clean I'd say this one's not for you. With the mega you basically get either/or.

[@squishmusic]

Interesting. I am after a small desktop FM thing. MegaFM is outta my budget as is the XFMsonicware and Digitone....gosh Im stuck with a VolcaFM! :D Maybe time to hunt down a TX, or FB01? What is the FB like - 4 or 2op? BY THE WAY : Heja svergie från annat musician i skåne :P

[@MikloMusic]

Hey nice man! 🙂 Volca fm ain't bad though! The TX and FB are 4 op. Såg att det ligger en preenFM på vend.se, kanske kan vara nåt? Verkar vara en intressant maskin för en rätt billig peng!

[@squishmusic]

@@MikloMusic yeah theres one on vend and blocket. Ive just not been impressed finding stuff here in YT on the Preens.Seems rare! :D Volca limits are 3-note poly and only MIDI in. But yeah the FB01 looks ok if one can get access to the guts.

[@MikloMusic]

Yeah for sure the polyphony is a severe limitation, but it sounds surprisingly good. Was debating whether to pick up that preen myself actually even though I don't really need it. Pretty interesting machine! What do you mean access the guts? Bend it?

[@squishmusic]

@@MikloMusic oh i mean in the FB01 case access all the FM parameters. I saw a few PC editors but I want to repurpose an iPad2 as just a MIDI controller.

[@Swanlord05]

Tx81z = winner by far

[@LukezyM]

Do you still have it?

[@MikloMusic]

The megaFM? Sure do!

[@LukezyM]

@@MikloMusic It has such a fine sound, almost analog like. Is it hard to make a usable patch on it?

[@MikloMusic]

Totally agree, very warm and fuzzy, especially for an fm Synth. I would say both yes and no; it's very easy to edit patches as far as fm synths go, but, and this is partly due to the nature of fm, it's not super easy to find sweet spots, and it it's quite easy to descend into a distorted mess. So the big difference to, say, the tx81z is that it's much faster to program, but you still have to wrap your head around fm to make it sing, if that makes sense :)

[@LukezyM]

@@MikloMusic Makes total sense, thx.😉

[@JB-ng7be]

är du svensk?

[@MikloMusic]

Japp 🙂