Published on June 10th, 2007.
Author: Devon.Brent
Category: Virtual Instruments.

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It’s hard to believe that FM-7 originally came out in 2001. It’s also hard to believe we had to wait nearly 5 years for an update to be released for this fine instrument. With a market now replete with FM based synthesis machines such as Big Tick Rhino, Toxic 3, Sytrus and various other FM synths and FM-based hybrids, what could they do to make FM-7 stand out above the competition? Let’s find out.

 

 

What is FM-8?

FM-8 is an FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesizer that takes FM to a whole new level of flexibility and power. (I would like to note that the term “FM” is a bit of a misnomer. Almost all synths that are claiming to be FM synths really employ PM (Phase Modulation) synthesis instead, including the original Yamaha’s. They are similar in sound characteristics, but different in technical implementation.)

 

To take it directly from NI’s own mouth, here’s the list of included features provided with FM-8 from their website -

• Award-winning FM synthesizer with extended sound architecture and high-quality mode
• KoreSound™ Browser for easy searching of 960 KORE-configured presets (Incl. FM7 Sounds Vol I & II)
• FM8 uses the KoreSound™ format, ensuring perfect integration with KORE
• Optimized user interface for quick and convenient sound editing
• Powerful, graphical sound morphing feature for easy creation of sophisticated, evolving sounds
• Extremely versatile arpeggiator for intuitive generation of intricate patterns
• Quick-access effects rack with 12 high-quality effects, such as phaser, flanger, tube amp, overdrive, delays, EQs
• Enhanced graphical envelopes with 32 stages, looping and tempo synchronization
• Full-matrix modulation: freely adjustable algorithm structure with 6 operators plus distortion and analog filter operators
• Reads and reproduces classic FM sound programs of yesteryear such as the DX and TX series

FM-8 is available in stand-alone and plug-in formats in VSTi, DXi, and RTAS flavors for the PC and Macintosh with Universal Binaries now included. FM-8 is compatible with Windows XP for the PC and OSX 1.4.x for the Macintosh.

 

Copy Protection

 

The new copy protection schema with the whole Native Instruments family seems to be either very easy for some users, like myself, or very difficult for other users. I’ve fallen into the “works very well” camp with my quite vast collection of NI plug-ins.Since I have had issues with wireless networking in the studio, I’ve had to resort to ‘sneaker-net’ authorization (copying files onto a USB storage key and running back and forth between my internet-connected browsing box and the studio.) Thankfully, even that was fairly straight-forward to do.

 

In Use

 

FM-8 has had a dramatic face lift compared to its older brother, FM-7. With its slick blue/grey-on-white color scheme, it really stands out quite nicely and is easier to read. Being a long time owner of FM-7, it took me a bit to re-orient myself to the new interface, but not too terribly long.

While NI says the interface is easier to use, I feel it’s neither better nor worse; it’s just merely different. (FM synthesis is still nowhere near as easy as subtractive synthesis, no matter which way you slice it.) But with the addition of the arpeggiator, a handful of insert effects, a morphing square, the new standard KORE preset browser system with 960 presets, there isn’t that much new, but enough to make things interesting.

 

What I found to still be very appealing about FM-8 is just how CPU efficient this plug-in is. Even its old sibling, FM-7, was quite the efficient little beast, so it was no surprise to see how CPU friendly FM-8 was. On my AMD 3800+ X2 dual core processor system, most presets hovered in the 5% CPU range, which in these days of CPU beasts of burden, that’s phenomenal. Even deep evolving textures and fast arpeggio runs were still in the very minimal CPU drain department.

 

What’s also a breath of fresh air too is the new Native Instrument’s KORE preset browser system. This new system is offered in most of the new Native Instrument plug-in offerings. While I ‘sort of’ miss the nice display of 64 presets per page, we’re also not forced to have to load in bank after bank of 128 presets; a welcome change indeed, especially if you had the additional expansion packs for FM-7. While I really don’t like having to scroll up and down a list, at least it keeps its selection in position in the list even after you browse around to other pages.

 

While KORE makes finding and managing presets easier, I was annoyed by how complicated it was to change the rating of each preset. For those of you who haven’t seen the new browsing system, each preset has a rating and a color scheme that can be assigned. Unfortunately, from the Browser section, you cannot modify the rating.

 

You have to switch to the Attributes section, select the rating you’d like to give the preset, and save out the change in a different directory. I found this process to be so frustrating, I just plain ignored this wonderful feature and saved off to My Favorites list instead. It’s really too bad. I’ve been assured by NI that this feature will be improved in a future update, which makes me quite happy.

 

The arpeggiator in FM-8 is really the highlight of the synth for me. It’s immediately accessible, tweakable beyond belief, and very inspirational. The arp is comprised of 6 options; Note On, Tie, Accent, Note Order, Octave, and Transpose. Not only is the accent feature a nice touch, Note On gives a nice feature that allows all notes played in a chord to play for that specific step in the sequence. So let’s say you hold down a C major chord of C E and G.

 

Note order will play the notes in order (and/or in whatever order you choose, which also is very cool) and also allow the full chord to play when All is selected for that step. Native Instruments has re-written the history books on how a good arp should be implemented and I hope other developers will follow.

 

The morph square is an interesting new addition, but just like in the Korg Wavestation VSTi, I tend to ignore its power. Without a good real time controller in my arsenal for an X/Y manipulator such as my old Korg Wavestation that I sold some years back, it ends up being a grossly underutilized feature of the synth for me. Not a fault of NI. You can just as easily program and sent it automation MIDI data from your host and use it too. It would be nice of their own KORE hardware interface had a Joystick controller, but it doesn’t.

 

The 12 effects in the effects section are really an icing on a pretty nice cake. I found none of them to be spectacular, but they weren’t bad either. While it seems the vocal majority of synthesizer enthusiasts enjoy replacing effects with their own, build-in effects really do shape the sound of the synth, and usually for the better.

 

I was a bit disappointed with the new presets included with FM-8. Out of the 256 new presets in the bunch, I only marked 3 as a Favorite. What I did find though is the new presets are useful for showing off what FM-8 has added. This is not to say the whole collection is a bomb, but it just didn’t stand up for me to how many good and musically useful sounds came with the original FM-7 and its 2 expansion collections.

 

If you had bought FM-7 when the add-on packs were $49 apiece and never bought Volume 1 and 2, the price of the upgrade to FM-8 is worth it. Make no mistake, FM-8 sounds significantly better in my opinion than the old cheesy sounds of the Yamaha original preset selections with its wonderfully complex and beautiful crystalline sounds.

 

Conclusion

 

With a glut of virtual analog synthesizers in the plug-in market, FM-8 is a breath of fresh “digital” air. FM-8 is a worthy update to the original FM-7, even if the new feature list is a bit on the short side. Then again, how much could we improve on such a powerful and versatile digital synth?

 

If you’ve never owned FM-7 in the past, FM-8 is a fantastic choice for an FM synthesizer if you love the synthetic sound of FM synthesis.FM-8 is also a worthy upgrade if you happened to have purchased FM-7 when the expansion packs were an extra charge, as they are fantastic pieces of work. If you already have all the above though, it be worth your time to play with the demo first to make sure the new features is something you’d really dig into and take advantage of. FM-7 is still a very worthy synthesizer, even 6 years later.

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