Sound design tutorial with FRMS, a bottle and a harmonica
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This week we’re mixing things up tutorial wise, as we’re back with another ‘FRMS from scratch’ experimental sound design video from Lucas. This time armed with just a harmonica and an empty bottle of Super Bock (other beer brands are also available, which will work just as well!) Lucas sets about sampling them both, to synthesize something special using FRMS. Once again Lucas is using a combination of FRMS’ granular and FM synthesis engines, to create a final sound that has character and movement, while remaining tonally pleasant.
Before importing the samples, Lucas outlines the basic plan for this patch, which will make use of all four of FRMS’ layers; two granular and two oscillators. With the FM algorithm mode set to a vertical stack progression of 4>3>2>1, Lucas imports the samples to layers 3 and 4, (ie the first two layers in the FM algorithm) as they have the most harmonic content, which will be used for FM modulation of the sine wave oscillators on layers 1 and 2.
Getting the right amount of FM modulation for each layer/stage is key to controlling the overall sound, which takes a little bit of gradual adjustment, as we can see in the video when Lucas shows us how things can get “very noisy, very fast”.
We hope this series continues to inspire you with the wilder side of sound design, and if you have any suggestions for interesting sample sources for us to feature in future FRMS videos, then let us know in the comments!
Wind For The Win,
Team Imaginando