Classic FM Sounds Reimagined on the Elektron Digitone - with Free DX7-ish Sound Pack for Digitone
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- Опубликовано: 19 июн 2024
- In April 2022, I bought my first FM synth: An Elektron Digitone. To learn how FM sound design works, I decided to try to recreate some classic FM sounds, mostly from the 1980s; more specifically, the years 1984 to 1986, which were drenched in Yamaha DX7 sounds. You can hear some results in this video, and download most sounds for free here:
drive.google.com/file/d/1ZZUz...
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - Money for Nothing (Dire Straits)
02:28 - Mild und Leise (Paul Lansky)
02:55 - Idioteque (Radiohead)
03:37 - Africa (Toto)
04:11 - What’s Love Got to Do with It (Tina Turner)
05:15 - Don’t Leave Me (Blackstreet)
05:51 - Axel F (Harold Faltermeyer)
06:36 - Matching DX7 sounds with DEXED
07:41 - Take On Me (a-Ha)
08:20 - Nightshift (Commodores)
08:56 - Got A Match? (Chick Corea)
09:12 - Sound matching, part II - Strings 2
09:59 - One Vision (Queen)
10:45 - If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Sting)
11:07 - Sound matching, part III - E-Piano 1
11:53 - Shadows in the Rain (Sting/Kenny Kirkland solo)
Sorry for using DT as short version of “Digitone” in the vid ... DT is normally rather used for the DigiTakt, Digitone would be DN instead.
All songs © by their original writers and publishing companies; covered here in the framework of fair use for educational purposes.
Next to researching on Google and Wikipedia, I got a lot of background info from this video: • ORIGIN OF THE DX7 & FM...
Video and included versions © 2022 TheGuacamoleXplosion 
Видеоклипы
I have watched thousands of gear videos over the past 10-15 years, and this is one of the best I've ever seen in terms of the preparation and execution. Props! The sound pack is also phenomenal.
Hi Mike, thanks, glad you liked it 🥳
That Dire Straits improvisation killed it 😮
It is an absolute tragedy that I can only give this video one thumbs up! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
thanks! Feel free to check my other recent vids instead 😇
I love YT for this. Just wow.
Thanks for this! Really fun to watch and great sounds 😊
At this moment I am completely flummoxed about the RUclips algorithm. How has this video existed for an entire year without appearing in my feed?! I watch (and search for)countless Digitone and Rtym MKII videos. Maybe I can find comfort in the fact that it’s a sign that AI bots aren’t able to replace us. They can’t even deliver decent search results?!
Outstanding Guac Dude! I subscribed without looking at any of your other videos.
thx ... feel free to look at the other videos, too, though 😁
Great video. I clicked on it to get a demo of a synth and got an entire history lesson.
Wow, you have put so much effort & time & skill into making these sounds, learning the songs, recording the tracks, filming, editing and you’ve come up with a great tutorial in music, fm synthesis, 80’s sounds & more. Thankyou!
glad you appreciate it! Was lots of fun, too :-)
This is so true! I‘ve really learned a lot and had great fun as well!
Shoutout for doing I got 5 on it as number 2
the lansky mild un leise sounds are mind blowing. this whole video fascinates me endlessly
thanks ... it was a joy to make it, too ☺
Harmonica one cracked me up
This is absolutely amazing. Great work my friend!
Bro is cold blooded with the keys and the bass.
Really cool stuff. Thanks for doing this!
I'm like No.900 and you're the man
thx 🥂
very very pleasantly surprised by this
Dude, you‘re the Wizard!
Wow! Outstanding programming skills, both for tones and sequences!
Hearing some of these in such high quality is kinda wild
Bravo, sir! I never realised that Radiohead track sampled something FM from the 70s. Mad...
Excellent, thanks for sharing this.
nice work. impressed. I have one - after three years, I still feel like a neophyte. It's an curiously amazing machine.
EPIC just loved this…thanks so much. I just got my first Digitone……after watching you I am excited and a bit daunted...
thx ... don't be daunted, most good things in music come from open-minded experimenting 😊
This was a masterpiece
thx 🎉
Wow nice free content!) Thank you so much) Cause it just sounds perfect!))
That Money For Nothing Intro was superb !
Your CS80 brass sound is my favourite. It's almost more analog than most analog synths available today.
supe renaît idea, labour of love, really enjoyed the super nerd detail.
This is the most impressive and underrated video using Electron devices on You Tube. Bravo!
This was really enjoyable.
Very nice video? I learnd a lot! :) and dude you're a very good pianist as well like kenny! Thx for this video!
I absolutely love Kenny Kirkland's piano playing and Sting's solo albums of the 80s and 90s.
Thank you so much for this.
Incredible
this blew me away....omg thxx
Wow, this blew me away. I feel like I’m totally underusing my Elektron gear! Great job! I loved every minute of it! So nice to hear real music with these machines. I can’t take anymore glitch/techno
What a great video. Thank you.
Brilliant show! Digitone is something I've strongly considered, thanks for the demo!
Thanks for soundpack
This video was hella tite ❤
It must have been a lot of work to create this very impressive result. Thanks!
Unbelievable !!! 🙏❤️🙏
This is soo cool
Recreating the mild und leise synth sound is highly appreciated. It's not super complex sounds, but they are very refined sounds (which is a territory I usually end up blasting past and let everything modulate everything until crazy)
Thank you so much :)
production so on point and mix all sounds great.
02:55 - Idioteque (Radiohead) SO GOOOOD
thank you
What a fantastic video!
Man, that's awesome! Great work!
Just. Wow.
Brutal!
Amazing video! And thanks for the music history lesson. I'm listening to Mild und Leise now, and it is incredible. I never knew that was a sample in Idioteque!
apparently Jonny Greenwood himself had forgotten it was a sample first ... according to de.wikibrief.org/wiki/Idioteque, he recorded 50 minutes of improvisation on a modular system including some samples, and gave the recording to Thom Yorke. Yorke found the piece that then became “Idiotheque” and loved it; and Jonny first thought he had also created the synth part on his modular. Later he realised it was one of the samples he had taken from the 1975 compilation “First Recordings - Electronic Music Winners”, which he had found in a 2nd hand vinyl store
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion is this preset available to download?
@@damienwebb3689 My re-made version of those few bars from “Mild und Leise” is included in the Digitone project file that can be downloaded from the link in the video description text. The additional RYTM stuff I added for the Radiohead remake is not in the download, since my focus was on Digitone/FM here. It’s some analog drums and the sample from Arthur Kreiger’s “Short Piece”, which you can easily sample from here: ruclips.net/video/ybBkrZZBdx4/видео.html
Fantastic covers !
Not to forget that Digitone can be played also without FM. It can be configured to play as 2 oscillators per voice analog synth. I think there was already some some sounds in this clip very analogish in nature although I can't be sure how patches were created. However very good demo of versatility of the DN.
Yes and no ... ANY Yamaha FM style synth can also be played without FM, if you only use carriers and no modulators. But on most of them, you will only get sine waves then. Some more modern FM synths offer additional basic waveforms. Digitone offers an additional waveshaping feature; but it has its limits. To my ears, you cannot get very close to an analog osc square or saw sound with this waveshaping. The classic FM trick of generating saw by same octave modulator with feedback, and square with one octave higher modulator with feedback, works much better for me on the Digitone. And you can do this same trick on the DX7, and even better, since stacking 3 operators can also get you a useable saw wave, and the DX7 can give you a stack of 3 operators PLUS a stack of 1 operator + 1 modulator w/ feedback. So, on the oscillator side, a DX7 can get closer to a 2 VCO per voice analog synth.
However, the Digitone clearly wins in the filter department. Digitone has a decent virtual analog filter. And running two parallel carrier/modulator pairs (one with Feedback, the other with some waveshaping) into that filter can give you quite good virtual analog sounds. I created the “Money for Nothing” lead and the “Africa” synth brass sound in this vid that way.
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion Interesting insights. I haven't got that much into FM. Usually finding new sounds is kind of trial and error. For me that is OK as many times I'm not trying to reproduce any specific sound just to find something interesting. I had to take my DN out to try and you are right that it is not that similar with true analog saw if you just run modulators parallel and dial waveshape to look like a saw and keep all ratios as 1. It seems to lack higher harmonics and also it has still little bit of that "bellish" FM timbre. That FM trick with feedback seems to do a better job. Setting waveshape to 0 (sinewave) and then fiddling with feedback and operator level can get closer to a true analog saw.
With quick googling Africa's brass stabs were originally created with CS80 (analog) and that calimba with GS-1 (FM synth). Money for nothing intro's synth pad with DX1 but not quite sure about those stabs along the song. Anyways you did great job creating those analog style synths with DN and they worked great in musical context although they might lack character in closer inspection if compared to true analog synth. Usually they are few who actually listen actual sound of synths that closely that they are bothered with such small details.
You already listed those synths in the video. I should have watched it again before answering..
OH MAN GOOSEBUMPS ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE VIDEO NOW THATS FANTASTIC WORK THANK YOU
Wow im super impressed THIS IS PURE GOOOOLD!!!!! excelent work cant thank you enough for sharing it
8:58 god DAMN bro
have to admit I cannot actually play this Chick Corea tune at that speed ... recorded it at half the tempo into a Cubase MIDI track, then played back at double speed, recording the audio from Digitone at that speed. Combined this with the vid played back at double speed. Same with the Kenny Kirkland solo at the end (there, this “cheating” is also revealed in the captions :-)
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion hey man it still sounds and looks badass.
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion that's so funny how you did that (I still think you're a great keyboard player though)
This is awesome! I'm getting my Digitone in the mail tomorrow. Excited to try this out. Thanks for making these and publishing them for free
great stuff, thanks!!
Thank you very much, cool Man :)
Fantastic work, music history lesson and demonstration - thank you!!
Thank you very much for the Pack. Very interesting Video.
You’re a legend for creating and sharing these. Thank you. Happy holidays!
thx, happy holidays to you, too 😊
Money for nothing was so spot on, just the snare did not really match, but everything else was heaven to me!! Excellent!!!
Had me feelin' like Top Gun there for a second...
So fooking brilliant, I'm astonished, amazed and more than a bit jealous! Well done!
Awesome job! Very influent video, thank you!
Stunning video ! 👏👏 such an education as well as incredible sound design and playing on DN. Bravo ! 👏🙏
thx 😊
Awesome, you started of with Queen!
Amazing! Great work on the patches and the video. And great guitar playing. :-)
thanks! I’m actually more a guitarist than a keyboard/synth player :-)
great video, thanks!
Thanks for this amazing video. Good job
I own both machine and didn't know was possible to reach a sound so closer
great work, these sounds are killer - and whether or not they’re perfect matches is besides the point, they’re great and i’ll get a lot of use out of them, thanks for doing this!
glad you like them, have fun with those sounds :-)
Amazing!
Incredible work 👏
this rules! more of these style videos please
I've personally tried to recreate the Mild und Leise sequence so I'm pretty much astonished by how perfectly you've done it. I believe you're the first person on the internet to fully close the case. Are there tools that helped you reverse engineer the sample into the distinct FM synth voices? Or is it all down to knowledge and a spectrogram? Thank you! 🙇
Hi Riley, thanks! No tools involved, not even a spectrogram, only my ears and about 45 years of making music 🙂 But yep, the DEXED software really helped me to learn FM, as shown in the vid ... being mainly a guitar player, I’ve occasionaly been programming synths since like 1988, but never really delved into FM synthesis until recently when I got the Digitone
Impressive! Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed all the tracks.
Wow the demos sound so good and have a video that matches.
Thank you for sharing us your work (including the patches).
Love all your research and esp. stats!
Incredible stuff my friend :)
Nice sounds!
Man, what an elaborate video / demo! I recently bought Digitone and I am currently in a learning phase, you made me excited about the purchase once again. You made it sound perfect.
Awesome work and instasub for the generous samples
Wow! Great content!
thanks for this great Patches and Video !!
Fantastic job, instant subscribe.
Great work! Thank you, love it.
impressive sounds & performance!
Fantastic!!
Outstanding !!
This is a really excellent video.
Thank you very much for these excellent sounds.
Oh holy moly. This is excellent.
This is AMAZING
Excellent video and pack - thank you!
thx :-)
These are amazing!!!!!!! Great Job!!!!!!
Loving this pack
classic hits and sounds, you destroyed it!
Dude! That was honestly the most incredible analysis and replication. Thank you so much for that and I’ll be sure to check your other content out!
cool, glad you liked it!
😮 Well that was totally impressive. Really enjoyable and can't wait to try out the presets. Thank you for the effort to put into the video!
my pleasure :-)
Woah this video was very insightful and educational. Thank you, I’m going to subscribe and check out your other videos!
thx :-)