Programming NI’s FM8 Using Easy Edit Mode

When FM synthesis arrived in the 1980s, it came with a whole new set of parameters that were unfamiliar to users of analog synths, not to mention an editing system that required viewing parameters one by one in a small display window. No wonder so many musicians eventually turned to third-party sounds. Native Instruments’ FM8 software still allows you to create your own sounds from scratch using all the controls and parameters of the original FM synths, but for those who want to start making sounds right away, the software synth includes an Easy Edit page, which should be sufficient to get you started customizing your presets. Simply call up an existing instrument as a starting point (strings for example). The Easy Edit sliders all go positive and negative to let you increase or decrease relevant properties of the sound. The Easy Edit parameters are actually “meta parameters” which manipulate a complex set of FM parameters that are the building blocks of the various programs. Tweak one Easy Edit slider and you may actually be adjusting two, three, or more elements of the underlying parameters. In addition, there are Timbre Controls that can quickly change the harmonic structure, fatten up a sound, make it brighter or darker, and tweak the velocity sensitivity. For many users, this may be all the programming they’ll ever want or need, while those wishing to “get their hands dirty” can crawl under the hood of a virtual FM synthesizer and make edits on a parameter by parameter basis.