Logic Pro X - Video Tutorial 50 - EFM1 Synthesizer; Understanding FM Synthesis Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

[Music]
hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 50 of my logic pro 10
video tutorial series in this episode
I'm going to give you a walkthrough of
the EFM 1 synthesizer in logic which is
a FM synthesis emphasize ER before we
get into how this synth works I would
like to give you a basic overview of how
FM synthesis works and I I really don't
want this to turn into too much of a
drawn-out lecture but unless you
understand the basic concepts of FM
synthesis you're not really going to
understand what you're doing with the
EFM 1 and also keep in mind that the e
FM 1 is one of the simplest FM sense out
there in the software world there are
other ones like the the FM 8 from Native
Instruments which are much much more
complex and than the e FM one but this
synth is a great way to start and to
kind of start learning about how FM
synthesis works and you can create some
really nice sounds with it so first
let's talk about how FM synthesis works
and what it is
FM stands for frequency modulation
synthesis and this means that you can
modulate the tone or the timbre of an
oscillator by routing the signal of
another oscillator into it so imagine
this like an electrical signal where you
have a voltage controlled oscillator
with that the signal of that oscillator
being routed into another oscillator
when you route a voltage into a voltage
you're going to disturb and change the
voltage of the second oscillator and so
you can create a more complex sound with
your second oscillator oscillators and
FM synthesis are referred to as
operators and there's basically two
types of operators you have carrier
waves and modulator waves the carrier is
the actual oscillator that we hear and
then the modulator is the oscillator or
the operator that is routed into the
carrier so the modulator modulates the
signal of the carrier so the modulator
is disturbing the electrical signal of
the carrier of course in the EFM one
all digital so it's just more or less
just a reproduction of the way an analog
FM synth would work as far as the way
that the modulator disturbs the carrier
signal there are many many many
different ways that this can be done and
it depends on how loud the modulator is
what the frequency of the modulator is
but this this pictures just shows how a
modulator can distort and change the
signal of your carrier wave so depending
on again the volume in the and the also
the frequency of the modulator wave and
also the frequency of the carrier wave
you'll get a different looking and
different sounding sound on the output
so I think this diagram is a little more
easy to understand because it shows how
the modulator signal is routed into the
carrier the modulator changes and
distorts and you know disrupts the
signal of the carrier and so it happens
is we get a new more complex sound at
the output of the synthesizer so again
the carrier is the actual operator that
we hear it's sent to the audio output
the modulator just modulates the carrier
wave so we don't actually hear we don't
we don't necessarily hear the modulator
by itself but we hear the effect that it
has on the carrier an older FM since
like the Yamaha dx7 which was first
introduced in 1983 the carrier and
modulator were both sine waves a newer
FM sense you can often change and
customize what waveform you want the
carrier wave and the modulator wave to
be in the EFM one like I said so a bit
simpler than some of the other FM since
out in the market the carrier wave is
always a sine wave and the modulator can
be customized to basically be any any
waveform you want it to be by the way
the Yamaha dx7 didn't just have two
operators in the EFM one we're stuck
with one carrier one modulator the dx7
actually had six operators but they are
all sine waves so if you're able to
customize a waveform
to be anything you want it to be even
even in the EFM one or we can just
change what the modulator is it gives
you a whole plethora of other tones that
you can work with when you're stuck with
only six sine waves it seems like a lot
because you're getting six operators but
the signal that you're getting at each
operator is so simple that it takes a
lot more modulation and it requires more
operators to get say the same sort of
sound that you can get from the EFM one
another factor in FM sense is the
frequency ratio between the carrier and
the modulator like I said before the the
the type of sound you get at the output
from the carrier depends on how high or
low the frequency the modulator and the
carrier are and some basic frequency
ratios are 1:1 which means that both of
the operators have the same frequency
the same pitch two-to-one means that one
of them or one to two means that one of
them is one octave higher four to three
means that you have a perfect fourth so
in essence one oscillator is one hundred
and thirty three point three three
percent higher than the other and a
three to two ratio is a perfect fifth
perfect fifth which means that one
Operator is a hundred and fifty percent
higher than the other these are really
common very stable musically stable
frequency ratios we'll find later and we
start working with the EFM one is that
the more complex the ratio is something
like a six seven or a nine eight those
ratios are going to result in less
musically useful but sometimes more
clang Ebell like sounds so they can
still be used but these four ratios tend
to be to be the most stable but there's
a whole plethora of other of other
frequency ratios out there and then the
other four another factor with FM sense
is the FM algorithm with the e FM one we
only have two operators one modulator
one carrier so there's only one way that
the the two operators can be chained
together and other FM since there's
often different ways you can chain your
modulators and your carriers together
and often times you can tell certain
opera
to be carriers and others to be
modulator so you can have like two
operator or two carriers and two
modulators or maybe three carriers in
one modulator or three modulators in one
carrier so this diagram is taken from
the Yamaha T X 81 Z which is from 1986
and you can see it has eight algorithms
and depending on which algorithm you
choose you can choose which operator is
going to be a carrier in which which of
them is going to be a modulator so for
instance in number one operator one
would be the carrier operator two three
and four would all be modulators if you
look at number six operators one two and
three or carriers and operator four is a
modulator another thing that you can add
that's pretty pretty common in FM since
is feedback and that's what's going on
on the fourth operator in each of these
algorithms the signal of the fourth
operator is actually being fed back into
itself now usually at low amounts can
add a nice sort of like resonance to the
signal much like a red like at you know
adding resonance and a filter what it
kind of boosts the high end and gives it
a little bit more of a kind of a ringy
sound all right so that's just the
basics of FM synthesis we're now gonna
move on to how to use the EFM one but if
you're really interested in
understanding FM synthesis more than
what I've given here and just you know
an eight minute portion of a video I
would highly recommend you check out
Simon cans synthesizer bootcamp he's got
a few videos in his synthesizer bootcamp
series that pretty thoroughly explain
how FM synthesis works and also he shows
musical examples as well so that's Simon
cans synthesizer bootcamp and I'll make
sure I put a link to that in the video
alright so from this point on we're
gonna start working with the EFM one so
i'll be right back alright we're back
and let's work with the EFM one now like
I said before as long as you understand
the basic concepts of FM synthesis that
I introduced in the beginning of this
video you'll have no problem kind of
understanding how the EFM one work
so to start this is just what the what
the stock setting sounds like it's
really basic sound what I'm gonna do to
start is actually reset everything so
that I'm just get a sine wave so if you
want to follow along with me I'm gonna
turn off this fixed button here I'm
going to set both the harmonic of the
modulator and the harmonic of the
carrier to one I'm gonna option click on
both of the fine knobs to set them to
default I'm gonna option click on this
FM depth knob to set that to default I'm
gonna option click on the transposition
to set that to default and I'm gonna do
the same with the main level with a
velocity stereo detune and sub
oscillator level not all of those I mean
depending on what setting you're using
you may have to you may not have to turn
all those off I'm just being safe and
also on the LFO the where it says
vibrato FM you can option click on that
as well and then for the FM knob I'm
also gonna option click on that and so
we should get now is just a sine wave
there we go so the way this synth works
is exactly like I explained in kind of
the presentation at the beginning of
this video we have two oscillators two
operators one that's called the
modulator one that's the carrier so the
idea is that the signal of the modulator
is being fed into the signal of the
carrier and depending on the the tuning
of the modulator and the volume of the
modulator it can affect the signal of
the carrier right now both the carrier
in the modulator are both sine waves and
so what I'm gonna do just so you can
kind of visually see what's going on
here is I'm going to open up a EQ so I
open up an EQ and turn on the analysis
just so you can kind of see that this is
indeed a sine wave so just play middle C
and you can see we're just getting a
sine wave at about two hundred and sixty
one point six three Hertz which is
middle C what we can do is we can make
the signal of the modulator go into the
signal of the carrier and create FM
synthesis by pulling up this big FM knob
in the middle here essentially what this
does is it adjusts the depth of the FM
synthesis so it's essentially affecting
how much it's controlling how much of
the signal of the modulator is being fed
into the carrier so all the way down
were just hearing the carrier wave we're
not hearing the the modulator wave at
all so if I play a note and then slowly
turn up the FM knob you'll see this so
the higher the FM knob the higher the FM
depth the louder the modulator is the
more signal from the modulator is going
into the carrier and the more complex
our signal gets down in our frequency
analysis here what's happening is with
FM synthesis the whole idea is that
you're able to create artificial kind of
extra overtones from the FM synthesis
and these extra overtones are called
side bands so we just start with again a
sine wave
[Music]
and as we pull up the FM depth we get
these extra side bands so I'm going to
pull that about a third of the way up
one of the other things that we can do
is we can adjust the tuning of the two
operators like I we said in the private
in the presentation at the beginning of
this video you can adjust the frequency
ratio between the two operators the way
the tuning system works for these
operators is in harmonics so right now
with the carrier set to one it's
basically on the fundamental frequency
of the harmonic series if you put this
up to two it's up an octave if he put it
up to three it's up an octave and a
fifth you put this up to four it's up an
octave a fifth and a fourth and so forth
and so on all the way up the the
harmonic series for this video just to
keep it simple because the harmonic
series gets quite complex passed an
octave a fourth and a fifth a fifth and
a fourth rather I'm just gonna stick
with basically one two and three the
first second and third harmonics so
right now with both of these set to one
we have a one to one frequency ratio
it's mean which means that both the
modulator in the carrier are at the same
frequency so we had a very musically
stable sound if we pull the modulator up
to to the modulator is now one octave
higher than the carrier so we get a
little bit more complex signal and if I
pull up the FM depth we'll hear that
even more it's a little more wooden
quality to it if we do a three to two we
have a three to two ratio that means
that the modulator is one a perfect
fifth higher than the carrier so we get
something like this
and then the last frequency ratio that I
introduced in the presentation was four
to three which is a perfect fourth
[Music]
now you're free to experiment with any
frequency ratio you like but the more
complex the free frequency ratio is the
more bell-like and the less musically
useful it's gonna be so you can see a
seven to six ratios are very right
bell-like sounding and if you pull it up
wait a little further there's a whole
plethora of different sounds we can find
in there so I'm gonna go back and I'm
gonna keep it simple I'm gonna go back
to a three to two perfect fifth there we
go another factor that we can control is
the modulator x' waveform as i've said
in the presentation the carrier wave is
always a sine wave the modulator we can
modulate between different waveforms the
way this wave knob works is all the way
to the left it's a sine wave as you turn
it up you get more of like a triangle
wave sort of sound and then it kind of
morphs into a sawtooth and then into a
square wave and so you can kind of pull
this up and pick the point where it
sounds good to you
[Music]
so stick with that
[Music]
[Applause]
there we go
there we go other other things that we
can control there's some global controls
at the top you can adjust the tuning and
sense you can just the entire tuning of
the entire synthesizer and semitones you
can bump the whole thing up an octave
down an octave so this is more like a
bass type instrument you could try
bumping the whole thing down an octave
I'm not going to do that I'm going to
keep it at its root tuning you can
adjust the voice count if you are indeed
using it as a polyphonic synth you have
up to sixteen voices that you can use
and if you click on this you can also
load it in legato or mono mode just like
we did in the es too so if I go ahead
and load this in legato I can only play
one note at a time
[Music]
if you pulled the glide up it creates a
glide between notes just like it did in
the es too
[Music]
there we go I'm not going to utilize the
glide and I'm gonna put this back on
sixteen voices also like the es two we
have a unison option the unison option
in the EFM one is a bit more simple than
it was in the ES 2 because you all it
basically does is it doubles up the
number of voices on every key so instead
of one voice and every key you get two
voices on every key and you get a bit of
a bit of just a little bit richer chorus
effect
[Music]
so that's what the Unison on I'm gonna
leave that on next section I want to
show you are the volume controls there's
a volume envelope it's just a dedicated
volume envelope and there's a main
volume level so my synth is a bit loud
I'm gonna pull the volume down just a
bit so it's not so loud there we go and
the volume envelopes is a lot like the
third envelope was in the ES 2 video has
four stages attack decay sustain and
release and so if we want this to be
more of like a pad or a synth synth pad
or ambient sound we can pull the attack
up a bit and pull the release up a bit
it'll take longer for the sound of fade
in longer for it to fade out
[Music]
if I pull the attack and release time
down it's gonna be more of like a lead
or a bass type instrument where the
sound immediately comes in and meetly
dies out when you let go of the key so
I'm gonna go ahead and pull the attack
and release up a bit so I like that
there's also a velocity sensitivity here
with this all the way to the left
velocity will have no effect on the
volume of this overall of the overall
sound if he pull it to the right
velocity will have an effect on the
sound so all the way to the left
doesn't matter how soft or hard you hit
the keys you'll get the same volume if
you pull this up there will be a
difference of soft hard so you can get
some variation in volume I'm gonna pull
this down but not all the way down
there's also a sub oscillator you can
add to the signal and basically what the
sub oscillator does is it adds a low
sine wave below the lowest note you play
to kind of reinforce the bass so here's
without it
if I if I put actually I'll play a
different note there we go and if I pull
it in you can see that extra tone there
and the frequency analysis so again
without it and then with it
so it's basically just like another
oscillator that we can add into to
reinforce the base and there's also a
stereo detuned control which D Tunes the
left and right channel to create a bit
of a chorus effect but if you turn it up
too much it can just kind of sound like
it's out of tune so so if I pull it down
just a bit
[Music]
you can still hear sort of kind of a
beating chorus effect in there but if
you pull it up too much the left and
right channel are too far out of tune
they just sound like dissonant so I'll
just pull that just a bit next up is the
LFO unlike the es2 and unlike many other
synthesizers out there the LFO and the
EFM one only has two targets that it can
go to either vibrato or FM and the rate
cannot be synced and the rate actually
doesn't even tell you what you're
syncing it to you just kind of have to
or what what the rate is you just kind
of have to hear it basically just play
about here on the Fabri side it affects
the pitch of the modulator in the
carrier
[Music]
[Applause]
so the actual LFO knob itself controls
the depth of the effect and the rate
controls the speed I don't really find
that entirely useful for this synth but
the the other one the fm depth controls
the big FM knob so imagine an LFO being
able to sweep this FM knob back and
forth that's essentially what this does
[Music]
so it's kind of like a filter sweep but
an FM sweep instead of a filter sweep
[Music]
again the only downside is that it can't
be synced to the to the beat clock so
you can't tell it to be a specific
musical value I'm going to turn that off
and the last thing I need the second the
last thing I need to show you is the
modulation envelope the modulation
envelope basically can control the FM
depth just like the LFO can control the
FM depth so if you adjust this here
you're essentially playing with the
motion of the big FM knob here so if I
pull this up and then pull the attack
time up and pull the release time up
you'll hear essentially a one-time FM
sweep as opposed to a repeating FM sweep
which we did it the LFO
[Music]
[Applause]
so the sweep only happens once let me
pull that down a bit
[Music]
you can also do it inverted pull it to
the left and sometimes you have to pull
the amount up a bit more for it to make
sense
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
and then there's also just a modulator
pitch control where you can make the
envelope control the pitch of the
modulator I don't find this but like the
the vibrato I don't find it really that
musically useful
[Music]
maybe for special effects but other than
that you can also do this in inverse as
well so I'm going to turn that off as
well another way to control the FM depth
is to come down to this little arrow
here and this opens up a menu with a few
other a few other options the one I'm
concerned about is the control FM menu
and what you can do this is you can
assign a midi continuous controller to
the FM knob so you can either learn a
control like we did in the es too just
by hitting learn then moving a fader up
and down or what you can do is you can
choose one of the listed CCS so if I
want to use the modulation wheel now my
modulation wheel will control the FM
depth so modulation wheel down
modulation wheel up
[Music]
I pull the FM depth down a little bit so
now you have free control over the FM
knob with your modulation wheel one of
my favorite ways to do it is to do it
with the the after touch setting and
again you know only some keyboards have
after touch not all keyboards have after
touch it basically means that the harder
I pressed down on the keys after I've
already pressed the key so the key
pressure essentially will determine how
much that FM def goes up so I can hold
the key down and then press harder and
I'll get this sort of an effect so every
time you hear that filter or that FM
open up I'm pressing down harder on the
key so it's the e FM one is really great
for things like kind of glassy sounding
pads or kind of I hate to say wobble
basement more or less the kind of dirty
bass sounds or have talking bass sounds
it all depends on you know where the FM
depth is where your modulator is you can
go in and kind of customize this until
you find the sound you're looking for
and the amount of that modulation is
going to be determined right here it
says control FM amount so only 0.28 is
just a subtle effect if I pull this up
we're gonna hear even more so it's great
for basses sort of Bell tones glassy
tones things like that another thing
that you can do much like the es too is
you can randomize the features of the
EFM one once again it's it's not
something that's going to be that
musically useful but it's something that
might be useful for sound effects if
you're looking for sound effects and and
you know ambient sounds for film or
something like that here you don't even
get to control what you randomize pretty
much everything is randomized you just
pull up the randomize amount and then
hit the button next to it and it
randomizes everything almost like a
siren effect there hit it again like a
sci-fi siren so some of these are really
cool for fully you're looking for sound
effects for film
try one more so there you go so that's
the EFM one in a nutshell it's a really
simple synthesizer as long as you
understand the basics of FM synthesis
it's really easy to use so that wraps up
the video and I hope you enjoyed it and
thanks for watching
[Music]