 Hello oscillators in here and welcome back to another video in our series where we're exploring sound design on the lovely Korg Volcker FM. Now in this video I want to talk about algorithms. Now when you hear the term algorithm it's probably a bit of a turn off for people who just want to make cool sounds on a synth because it sounds very mathsy or computer science-y. But it really isn't and it's probably one of the most important concepts to get your head around when it comes to designing sounds on FM synths when you're trying to get a sound in your head onto the synth itself. Now we're familiar with the concept of operators and we're familiar with the idea that the operators can be doing one of two jobs. They can be acting as a carrier the thing that we actually hear or they can be acting as a modulator which is the thing which affects the timbre of the carriers. But simply the algorithm describes how these operators are arranged and what job they are actually doing. So over the course of the last six videos we've been using this basic init patch here. Sounds like this. Well we've had two operators operator one acting as a carrier the thing that we hear and operator two acting as the modulator altering the timbre of operator one. Now that describes what operator one and two are doing but of course the Volcker FM like the DX7 is actually a six operator synth so there's another four operators that we can account for. And the choice of the algorithm is going to tell us what those operators are going to do. Now in this case we're using algorithm five and Korg very helpfully provides you with a little card here which explains what's going on with the different algorithms. I'll flash this particular algorithm up on the screen now. So in algorithm five we can see that just as I described operator two is sat above operator one modulating it but we've also got operator three and five acting as carriers as well. So if we wanted to when we're working in this particular algorithm we could bring those operators in so we could hear them we could tune them differently and then we've also got operators four and six acting as modulators for operators three and five respectively. And we can apply all of the sound design ideas that we've used so far to those operators. So we can apply our LFOs we can apply our envelopes to shape what we're doing timbrely and what we're doing volume wise and we can bring those operators in and out independently of one another. Now Volcker FM supports 32 different algorithms so that's 32 different ways that we can arrange our operators and tell them what job we want them to do whether we want them to be modulator or a carrier and that can seem kind of overwhelming at first I think but there are I think three basic concepts that once you understand it makes choosing the algorithm that's right for the sound that you want to make a lot easier. So I just want to look at three patches which looks at these three main concepts. So the first patch I want to talk about is using algorithm five. Now algorithm five personally I think is the algorithm which is most familiar to those of us who come from sort of an analog synthesis background. So what we've got in algorithm five is three carriers and each of those carriers are being modulated by their own modulator. So what we've kind of got here is this idea of a three oscillator synth works great for jobs where you would use a three oscillator analog synth. The nice thing here is that each of our oscillators essentially has its own if you like filter section. Obviously that's been done by our modulator instead but that gives us a little bit more flexibility than you would have on a normal sort of mono synth with three oscillators you know which synths I'm talking about. So here we've got a patch at the moment I have got all three carriers turned on but none of the modulators. We've got a sound like this. It's kind of got a nice little wobbly to it. So what we've got here essentially are three carriers and each of those carriers are detuned and one of them is in a different octave as well. So we've got quite a nice rich sound. It's perfectly pleasant I suppose. So if I go into the edit menu I have prepared each of the modulators already. So we've got carriers are just sort of doing a organ style situation where we've got sort of notes on and then notes off instantly. What I've done with the modulators to varying degrees is I have put in a sort of a very quick rise on the envelope and then slightly slower release and as we bring in the modulators. So that's the modulator for Operator 5. Turn on the 1 for Operator 3 and finally for Operator 1. And we can just kind of get to that sort of classic monosynth style sound but very much in the FM sort of sonic template. It's quite a cool sound and because we can apply different modulations to all of the different operators we can tweak how they react. So for example if I wanted to I could have Operator 2 come in a little bit slower so we have a bit more of a ramp up. So you can hear here that we've got a situation where we can replicate this with an analog synth typically because all of our oscillators will be going through a single filter but here we've essentially got a filter per voice which we can treat separately which is really quite cool. So the concept I want to talk about with this patch is all about how you want to stack up your carriers. So in this case I've gone for a nice rich bass sound which I've used a bit of octave shifting and some nice detuning as my sort of basic part of my sound and then I've applied essentially a different filter to each of them. Now we've got all sorts of operators which fall into this kind of category. Some of them give us three operators like Algorithm 5 but then we also have things like probably the other one that I use the most for this sort of thing will be something like Algorithm 22 where I can stack up four different operators and really start to build up that richness and 21 as well. So in Algorithm 21 we've got two sets of carriers each with their own modulator. Still build things up in a really nice way though. So let's move along to the next patch I want to talk about and this next patch is built by using Algorithm 12. So Algorithm 12 is quite interesting so looking at it we can see quite clearly that Operator 3 is actually being modulated by three different modulators. Now why on earth would you need that sort of ability? Well this brings me to the next idea here. Multiple modulators per carrier gives you an opportunity to create harmonic, more sort of a tonal richness actually. So let's take a look. So at the moment I've got all of my modulators turned off I've just got a bit of an envelope on that to give us kind of a nice little pingy thing going on there. So let's head into the edit menu and see what we're doing. So if we head over to one of our modulators here, so Operator 4, we'll ignore what we're doing on the envelope for a second. Let's move over to our tuning. So of course I've got it tuned to 2, but more importantly for the fine I've got it set somewhere else. So this is where I'm going to be getting some bell tones if you remember when we're looking at the original Operator's video and as we look at the other three you'll see that all of them are tuned slightly differently. Now what this allows us to do if we head over back to the on off switch here, so this is without any modulators. As I bring in the first modulator we're going to start here in some those bell tones. Quite nice sort of electric piano kind of sound, but as we bring in all these other detuned modulators starts to build up quite a complicated tonal picture and we get some very convincing kind of bell sounds. And the nice thing about this algorithm is we've still got Operators 1 and 2 available to us if we wanted to have something a little bit more basic sat underneath as well. So this is the second concept that I want to talk about. If you have multiple modulators all firing into a single carrier we have this opportunity to create very complex tonal ideas. Now you can overdo it and things can get quite atonal and clangy. Hey, that might be what you want as well. Let's not rule that out. But if you're careful and you keep the relative levels of your different modulators to nice points then you can build up these lovely bell sounds. Sounds that you can possibly achieve with analog synthesis. It's simply impossible. But it really is in the wheelhouse for FM. OK, so let's finally move on to the third patch that I want to talk about. So this is using algorithm 2. Now algorithm 2 on the face of it is a scary looking algorithm because here we have modulators modulating modulators which sounds insane. But it allows you to do this third kind of concept that I want to talk about. So let's take a look. So this is with our modulators all turned off. But our two carriers kind of doing different things. So how I've got the modulators set up is so let's just bring them in one by one. So the first modulator that's set above operator 3 is operator 4. So let's bring that in and take a look at what we've done. So here we've just got an operator that's sort of tonally related, which has a nice sort of sweeper at the start of the sound. It's a cool sound. OK, so that's one of them. So at this point we've just got a carrier modulator by modulator which is normal. So let's bring in one of our first modulators that are modulating the modulators. So what we've got here is an increase in harmonic richness, especially around those upper harmonics. This is not the same as us having our multiple modulators or modulating one carrier and getting those bell tones. We're just getting pure additional harmonic content here. OK, let's go to our last operator here. So by this point we've got a modulator modulating a modulator, which is also being modulated by a modulator. Is that right? Something like that. Anyway, when you get to this point, the things can get pretty wild. A huge, huge boost in those harmonics. Buzzy, almost electric guitar, distorted. I've also added some LFOs to this final operator to make things even more interesting. So this demonstrates this third concept, which is when you have modulators modulating another modulator, that's when you create more harmonic richness, especially in these upper harmonics and you can get things which are buzzy and cutting and sort of pseudo-distorted sounding and the device, quite honestly, starts to operate at the extents of what it can actually do and you get aliasing and all sorts of other weird stuff happening as well. Very, very cool. So with those three ideas sort of in the back of your mind, it makes it a lot easier for you to decide which algorithm you want to start with when you're building your sounds. That all being said, there's something to be said for building a sound that you kind of like. So let's just turn on these operators again. So we've got that nice bass sound here and you know, sometimes it's nice just to change which algorithm you might find some other cool things. Buzzer. Kind of a similar sort of flavor, a bit different. That's kind of cool. Oh yeah. And you can find all sorts of other interesting sounds that way. Despite saying, you know, pick your algorithm carefully, think about the sound you want to make. Sometimes it's just fun to poke about and explore. Thanks for watching, guys. I hope you find that interesting and you've got a bit more of an insight on how the algorithms work on the Volcker FM. The next video I'm posting on the Volcker FM is going to be a little bit different just because I've been working on something in the background that I'm really excited to share with you guys. I think it's going to make building sounds on the Volcker FM maybe a bit easier and quicker to get into. As soon as it is ready for me to share with you, you will see a video. So make sure that you subscribe to the channel. And if you enjoyed this video, please do give it a thumbs up as well. Until next time, guys, take care. I'll see you again soon.