User library FM12 Questions and Answers.

Before using FM12 turn the volume down as some patches might be loud.

I realize FM sound programming is a real groove busters but only good things come out of a little work. Let me know if you have any questions. Most of the info should be there but I may have missed something or the info is not clear. However to get started there are two thing you should become familiar with.

On the top right, set the cal to the cpu usage with no notes playing or simply turn off the Cpu button which reduces Cpu when a lot of notes are playing.

The second thing is in View B and is used to customize your Keyboard Velocity Curves to get the dynamics set properly. Play your keyboard soft to hard and adjust the curves to get the proper dynamics for that keyboard. There are 3 adjustable curves to work with, select one with the orange light and all adjustment are in a row. They are velocity gain, velocity offset, followed by two choices of curves; the log curve and the hyperbolic curve. I have a lite action keyboard and a weighted action keyboard. I use a different curve for each one. Recommend adjusting it with the basic Electric Piano patch.

Once these two things are taken care of, you are good to go. I'll check back periodically and try to answer any other questions but do this first before trying other snapshots.

One final note, 2 of the 3 demo's use FM12 to generate the "Sympathetic Resonance" of a sampled piano when the sustain pedal is depressed. Have fun!

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The Envelope generator master.

This is a way to easily change all operator envelopes at one time. This makes it very easy to modify a patch. Without you having to change each operator independently. Note that it adds or subtracts from the individual operators but all operators still have full control. The Pitch Master works the same way.

The global envelope modifiers.

This is how you use the key velocities to change the Attack and Decay times. Basically it can raise of lower the attack or decay times of all operators depending on how hard or soft you play. The invert switches the direction around. Meaning if the attack time increases the harder you play then if inverted the attack time gets longer if you play hard. Same think applies to the Decay. In general you can shorted the decay time on weak notes. As an example this can simulate hand muffling a base guitar string. Tip, these controls interact with the master attack and decay times so if you use this feature you may have to adjust the other. As an example, decreasing the decay time will also decrease the master decay time so you need to readjust them to get the correct span your looking for. You can play hard and get really long sustain and play soft with little sustain or if inverted you can play really hard and get a short sustain. That's a nice feature there because a loud sustaining chord can be too dramatic compared to a loud attack followed by a short decay. Most keyboardist have to release the keys when that happens but like this the fade out is can start as right after a hard key or cord is played. The Vcrv is used to make soft keys louder or softer. It is a hyperbolic curve identical the one in the key velocity calibration.

The midi compressor.

This is a velocity compressor. If the slider is moved to the left all velocities are the same. The UP/DN is a velocity offset that raises or lowers the outgoing velocities. The clip light indicates full midi velocity and the soft button drops the velocities like the soft pedal on a piano. The Vcrv is a global hyperbolic velocity curve and is similar to the four master keyboard adjustments but this one can be saved with each patch. Those are reserved for when a different midi controller is used. You can set those to follow the patches if desired.

The Pitch Change per note module.

This module changes the pitch of the midi notes. It's extensive and for full info read the info in the ensemble. In general this is how the instrument creates vibrato. Vibrato is accomplished by using two operators with the same harmonic settings. The different operators will have the pitch changed equally but the trick is to make the pitch go up on one operator and down on the other. That's done in the pitch envelopes.

As shown Operators 3 and 4 BOTH change pitch but in opposite directions. The amount the change is determined by the sliders. Also there is a master pitch on the bottom right that affects all amounts.

The Master Pitch Change, Globally reduces the amount of vibrato but reducing the strength of the individual operators detune amounts. I assigned it to the mod wheel once and it was kind of fun.

The pitch change compressor

As shown the key velocities are almost all the same. With CMP fully clockwise strong key velocities can offer more pitch change as the pitch envelope generators move. An example is a drum that grows in pitch the harder you play or if detuning is used for vibrato soft notes can have little vibrato and hard notes a lot or vibrato. The Pcvr control just does what it always does, making soft notes louder or softer but in this case if the CMP is set to 0 it makes no difference.

The pitch decay module

Decreasing the decay will decrease the decay rate of the pitch envelope generators on weak key velocities. If inverted it increases the decay rate. As an example playing hard to can not only increase vibrato but the decay time of the vibrato can be longer. This is an expression module.

The decay per note module.

This is a global module that affect the decay time of all operators. There are two break points. As shown note 74 has just been played. So it above 63 and the decay time will be a little faster. If the note played were below 59 the same would happen on the low side. As shown note between 21 and 59 progressively become shorter in decay as they approach 21. The strength .1533 means not much change, at 1 the decay rates can be pretty fast. An example of this is typical faster decaying high notes than low notes. Loud and long sustaining high notes can be real irritating. Sometimes its best to fade them out fast. The -exp can be switched to - linear which makes different notes respond differently. There's also flat, + linear and + exponential which increases the decay time. Low note can ring longer like this. The on switch is for easy comparisons when switched off.

The operators volume per note module.

As shown nothing happens in volume between notes 64 and 21 but the volume of the operator will decrease between notes 64 and 108 in an exponential fashion. Note that the break point 64 can be changed as well as the high note 108. If 108 is set to 81 then the notes reach full attenuation at note 81. .24 is the strength of the attenuation and if set to 0 all notes above 81 will be off, as shown though the high notes don't completely turn off as the strength is set to .24. The curve can be change from flat to linear and exponential. If EXP+ is chosen the notes rise in volume beyond the break point in an exponential fashion as they approach note 108.

Global fine tuning

You can fine tune the instrument here.

The audition module.

If the snap button is on the volume of new patches come up to normal volume depending on the speed. This is a convenience feature for trying out new presets. Some can be quite loud if programmed that way. This give you time to mute it or try another patch. Nothing more irritating than a loud patch to shatter your nerves.

The micro tuning module.

Each note can be tuned. This is useful when you are trying to blend in with a sampled piano that is stretch tuned. You can create Just tunings as well as others too. The tuner is disabled with the orange light on top is off which saves CPU.

The safety is there so you don't accidentally reset your tunings before saving the patch.

After pressing the safety switch the RESET button appears. Press it and all tunings revert to 0. Note the undo function does not undo a reset. This is also a new feature and it is possible you can call up another patch and carry another patches detunes with it since that patch didn't save this module beforehand. It won't happen again once you save the snap. If you want to carry over the presets to another path you can enter edit mode and delete the tuning module. Then change patches and press undo. When it loads the tunings then just save the patch.

I think that's it. Let me know if I missed something. I just feel that modulation should be tied in with expression and that's pretty much what I tried to do.

Freeform Jam demo appx 25minutes long. This is a mix of a sampled piano and FM12. FM12 fills in the sympathetic resonance when the sustain pedal is depressed. Sympathetic resonance occurs when a note is played and the sustain pedal is depressed. In this state harmonically related open strings start vibrating and build up in volume. This adds richness and improves the overall feel of the piano. Without it, as many sampled pianos have done, a piano can sound very drab. Note that in this mix the sympathetic resonance a bit too loud so you'll know what it is. The resonance also builds up if pedal up notes are played and the sustain pedal is depressed afterwards. Many sampled pianos have separate recording for notes played without the sustain pedal off or on. But few if any actually bring in the resonance if the sustain pedal is depressed after the notes have been played. That's the whole point of using FM12 to generate it.

Currently adding several filter choices that follow each operator.

Here's the latest version with low pass filters to help remove the raspy sounds. Seems better for some things. There are 2 new dials per operator. One is the type of filter, 0 is very subtle 1 is a single pole LPF. 2 is a double pole and 3 is a sharp 4 pole filter. The other dial defaults at 24 which is 2 octaves above the second X harmonic.

FM12 Rev 3-15-2025.ens

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