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Table Of Contents
Creating Distorted ES2 FM Sounds with Monophonic Unison
The FM Megafat setting is well-suited for distorted basses and guitar-like sounds. This
sound gets rather “rude in the upper key range. This cannot be compensated for with
key scaling, but not every sound has to be nice” across the entire keyboard range!
Check out extreme detunings by adjusting the Analog parameter.
Check out the Flanger with this sound.
Engage the filter envelope by lowering the Cutoff Frequency of Filter 2 down to 0.
Add some Glide to lead sounds.
As always when it comes to FM, you can dramatically alter the sound by varying the
frequencies of the oscillators. Make sure you check out the odd intervals, as well.
Creating FM Sounds with Unusual Spectra in the ES2
If you’re unconcerned with the pitch of your sound, you can get the weirdest spectra out
of odd frequency ratios—oscillator intervals.
The FM Out of Tune setting offers a bell-like sound, reminiscent of a ring modulator. It
was achieved through a setting of 30 s 0 c, with the modulator set to a value of 0 s 0 c.
Sounds like this were commonly used in the electronic music of the eighties and have
had a resurgence in popularity in ambient and trance music styles.
You can further develop the sound by applying filtering, envelope modulations, and
effects. There is, however, one small problem—the sound is out of tune.
Use Oscillator 3 as a reference for the tuning of the FM sound by dragging the square
icon in the Triangle.
You’ll notice that the sound is 5 semitones too high (or 7 semitones too low, conversely).
Transpose both Oscillators 1 and 2 five semitones (500 ct) lower. Transposing them
upward is not practical, as youd need to select 37 s 0 c for Oscillator 1, which has a
maximum value of 36 s 0 c.
Its important to maintain the frequency ratio (interval) between Oscillators 1 and 2.
This means that Oscillator 1 will sound at 25 s O c and Oscillator 2 at −5 s 0 c.
Setting Pulse Width Modulations with Oscillator 2 in the ES2
Pulse width modulation (PWM) is one of the most essential features of any analog
synthesizer.
Choose the PWM Start setting, and move the Wave control slowly back and forth
between the rectangular and the pulse wave symbols. Both are green. What you will
hear is a manual pulse width modulation.
Choose the PWM Slow setting. Here, LFO 1 controls the pulse width modulation source,
not your manual movements. The result should be quite similar.
116 Chapter 5 ES2