[sdiy] How Many Oscillators?

[Michael Zacherl]

Peter,

Peter Grenader wrote:
> It is a great idea and one I've screwed around with just for fun and where I
> realized that cents and mV of amplitude make huge differences on the timbral
> qualities and therefor, hard hard hard to do without digital accuracy.  

Isn't it the same with a ring modulator or four quadrant multiplier?
I put this in an analogue perspective - when I want Yamaha-type FM I'd 
take my TX-816 ;-)
When doing this I'm trying to turn analogue deficiencies into an 
advantage. Remember the arguments of the FM-haters back then? Cold. 
Steril. Harsh. etc.pp.
IMHO it's a nice start to copy a 4-operator algorithm and play with 
that. BTW, many useful FM-algorithms have two or more carrier in 
parallel. So again we got this groups of oscillators which becomes more 
handy.

> You
> would need an oscillator , super linear ADSR and VCA per operator, totaling
> 6 of each for the 32 algorithm configuration of Yamaha's early years. The
> VCOs  would require scary-tight tracking and extraordinary sines.

IIRC I remember Robert Rich doing a pretty nice Marimba-like sound on 
his MOTM with FM ... it was quite useable for his sequences.
IMHO it's managable - within limits of course. Of course always one 
could go over the top.

    ;-) Michael.