6 op phase modulation
Operators modulate operators. Sidebands grow their own sidebands, the way FM gets its bite.
FM/AM Sound Machine is a six operator synthesizer that turns the physics of synthesis into something you can see, and mind bending sounds into something you can play. In your browser, or as a Mac app.
Every voice is colour coded down to the pixel, so you always know which line is doing what. A live spectrum draws the sidebands the math predicts, right where the new partials grow. The result is a synth that is genuinely fun to learn on, and deep enough to never leave.
The tone you start from. Blue, everywhere, so you can follow it.
Wiggles the carrier pitch. Orange sidebands bloom in the spectrum.
Wiggles the volume. Violet, from soft tremolo to full ring mod.
The sum of it all. Green, on the scope and in the wave you hear.
DX style phase modulation across six operators, with feedback you can wrap around a whole run of them, not just one. The AM stage rides on top, and one knob takes it from gentle tremolo all the way to ring modulation.
Operators modulate operators. Sidebands grow their own sidebands, the way FM gets its bite.
Start from the six classics or the 32 DX7 algorithms, then drag operators into your own routing and loop any run of them.
Depth from 0 to 200 percent. Past full, the carrier cancels and only the sidebands survive: ring mod.
Filters with envelopes and key tracking, unison up to seven with stereo spread, a sub oscillator.
The tools you reach for when a patch needs to move: a real hoover kit, a 303 style step sequencer, an arpeggiator off a proper master clock, and a full effects rack.
Unison swarm, a parallel octave layer, and the signature pitch swoop into every note.
Slides that glide one voice, accents that bark the filter, ratchets that double a hit.
Tube, fold and crush drive, chorus, tempo synced delay, and a doom reverb you can freeze forever.
A hardware style arpeggiator and a sidechain pump, both locked to the same tap tempo clock.
Plug in a controller, use the computer keys, or hold a chord and talk. The mic turns your keys into silent carriers, so the notes you play pitch your speech.
Velocity, pitch bend, mod wheel and sustain pedal, picked up the moment you connect a device.
Your voice times the notes you hold. The classic robot vocoder trick, live.
Play two knobs at once, and map any hardware control to any parameter by wiggling it.
Capture everything to a WAV, or bounce a tempo perfect, sample exact loop for your DAW.
Five guided lessons walk you from a bare sine to a full hoover. A live spectrum predicts the sidebands with Bessel functions and draws them as ghost bars, right before they grow.
What FM is, why bells ring wrong, AM to ring mod, filter and drive, and the anatomy of a hoover.
Ghost bars mark where the partials will land, so the sound and the picture become the same fact.
A caption that recomputes from your knobs and the last note, in words, not jargon.
Every preset ships a short story on why it sounds the way it does. Learn by taking things apart.
The factory bank spans the whole territory, from the first lesson in what a sideband is, all the way to a nine second doom drone you can freeze and walk away from.
The same synth and the same sound, whichever way you open it. Start in the browser in one click, or keep it in your dock for the moment inspiration hits.
Nothing to install, and nothing to sign up for. It loads in a tab, and keeps working even when you go offline.
The whole synth, in your dock and ready the moment you want a sound. Same feel, same interface, no browser in the way.
Apple Silicon, macOS 11 or later. Unzip and drag it to your Applications folder.
Hold a chord, turn one knob, and watch the spectrum answer. That first moment is the whole pitch.