How To Achieve KeyTracking For FM Modular

[dawman]

I love the FM Oscillators and the new DX Router. I can achieve a wealth of sounds w/ high polyphony, and using a pair of Sine LFO's I can also have some excellent Amplitude Modulation & Phase Modulation.
I have been trying to get a variation of KeyTracking to take out the overkill amount of upper octave FMA but to no avail. Is there a way to achieve KeyTracking in Modular?

After a big fat Turkey and everyone went to bed I broke out the XITE-1 and thanks to the BC Key module I didn't have to drag a controller along back East.... A USB stick and the 1U XITE-1 and PCI-e 1X connector.....Ankyu. I must have the exe. on 5 computers now.

The patch below is uncluttered due to the combined modules ( nice job Roy ).
You can hear how careful I have to be not to use too much velocity in the upper ranges.
I chose an appropriate song from the old German group Passport from years ago.

01-091127_2204.mp3

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[wayne]

Hey Jim - generally it's connect the note out from your MVC to a KeyFollow input on a filter.

[dawman]

Hey Wayne thanks for the heads up.
I was thinking that I had to find a solution w/o a Filter.
I should stop referencing everything from the Nord Manual, it's confusing me more as they use many modules that are re named.
Well now I can make it more like a DX200..
I wish there was a way to control the FM Oscillators themselves. For example a great sounding low end on FM Osc 1 having a note range up to C3, so it would leave the sound as is on that Oscilallor.
I tried Flexor's Aqua LP w/ it's MultiStage options and it works pretty good, but with 6 x FM Osc's a way to limit the note range of muffle the selected areas through Filtering would be cool. Maybe I can insert low dsp filters on each Oscillators' path.
I shall see what I come up with.
This is an excellent way to achieve FM sounds. I quit using NI's FM8 once I heard Modular's EPianos. Although that was a very basic patch the tone was much fuller than the FM8.

[dawman]

O.K. I tried looking under j9k's Modules as he was always really geeky and unique,....but no joy. Perhaps someday he will return as it took me 4 years to understand WTF he actually made. Some I'm still not sure of like the Trapezoid.....sounds like a siren or something.
At any rate I went to Wolf's MIDI Tool Box....Nadda......
JBowen's RDII Modules had the KeyLevel devices which I tried. They should have worked but I only heard the audio w/ no FM modulation.
So I figured I would try something else and thankfully it works.
It's a major PITA but it does work. I wish there was an easier way to add KeyTracking per Oscillator but until then I have a patch I made.

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Above, the standard connection using an FM Oscillator and the DX Router is shown.
I have the FM Patch in an 8 x 8 Shell now. 6 x outs go to 6 x KeyLevel devices. The 7th & 8th output go to my Modular Phase Shifter, then to the Tape ins of the mixer since no further effects are needed. Needless to say, this passes audio through but doesn't work.

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Above in figure #2 is the proper way, but a major PITA as each Filter must have it's KeyTracking set.
Using Roy's VU Meter II's I can monitor the corresponding Oscillators Inputs so there's less chasing. This is a time saver as I can also look at the DX Router's GUI and confirm the signal paths. The KeyTracking patch verifies this also. Nice to see which Oscillators are carriers, couldn't do that w/ the Yamaha FM gear.

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Above is the final fixes and using a nice quality Channel Strip adds the finishing touches...
Plus the usual SpaceF controls for Cfm 1 & 2.

[dawman]

Well this is how they do it on the big jobs.
Roy came and saved me after I tried everything else with semi-success.
The goal is using combination modules that take less space, and lower dsp counts.
I did like having 6 Flexor LP Butter's but it was killing me, and an unwise use of space.
This is a very powerful sounding 6 Operater FM Synth. I can use 16 voices if need be but 8 is fine.
Anyone needing FM should delve into these Oscillators. They have built in VCA's and Envelopes, and the DX Router also combines esync to save even further space.
What a great way to enjoy FM Synthesis.

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[irrelevance]

Thanks for highlighting the solution would never have thought of that. Ever mess with microtuning? I've actually brought my old sy77 back into service. Replaced the old display for a nice new blue LCD so I can see whats going on now and I have made my kenton control freak a permanent envelope editor (the control freak faders can send sysex commands nicely) so now programming is very quick. I have yet to mess around with micro tonal scales however.

[dawman]

Yes I have, but we were taught to read it and play certain intervals as close to the original Western 12 tone Tempered Scale as possible.
This belief is similar to practicing Sight singing, Solfeggio. Where you see the notes and sing the syllables. Personally I thought it was a useless excercise that turned any music into an overly complex excercise, but I suppose it is a vital study for upcoming Conductors who sometimes use the double sharps and double flats for conveying certain passages to players.
I actually was congradualted by the Instructor for performing my peice. It was just a Bach Invention in E Flat that ended up sounding like a Steel Drum.
What's cool is one can make many mistakes and not even the instructor could hear it unless he can sight read perfectly, and also have perfect pitch.
I can see where tuned percussion would benefit from microtonal, but Tympanis use Glissandi which actually will hit most of the 1/4 steps of a microtonal scale.
The SY99 is unique and a great FM synth. Reminds me of the Grey Matter E/ DX7-IIFD w/ samples.
What are you going to try with Microtonal Tuning...?

[irrelevance]

Yeh the Lucy tuning system developed by John Harrison and rediscovered by Charles Lucy is a very intriguing system derived from pi and something I would like to incorporate into some psychedelic compositions

http://lucytune.com/

Useful midi tunings for various software:

http://lucytune.com/midi_and_keyboard/pitch_bend.html

[irrelevance]

If anyone else is interested and you haven't a micro tuning table type synth or host as it seems possible to use scala with a loopback device to snd correct tunings through a host.