With FM8 Native Instruments has harnessed the power of FM synthesis.
Features:
Reviewed By Swordnspade1 [all]
October 23rd, 2022
Version reviewed: 1.4.4 on Windows
Got this for $10. Probably the best $10 i've ever spent.
The modulation is super straight forward and easily modulatable via envelopes. Much easier than Dexed IMO.
Very nice sound quality too, even though the effects are bit meh (The grain-delay is good at least).
Ok, This will be a review in 2017 of this great FM8 synth.
I'm a long time user, like this synth from the beginning when it was called Fm7.
First things first, I cannot hide my bad feelings about the existing bugs NI don't repair.
FM8 should deserve some little development to complete the almost perfect realization of a modern FM synth.
Here's the "bad" list - critical things need to be fixed :
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1) IF YOU PUT MANY PRESETS IN YOUR PRESET DATABASE, YOU MUST TURN OFF THE OPTION "DATABASE HIT COUNT" - IF YOU DON'T DO THAT, PRESET BROWSING WILL BE REAL SLOW.
2) IF YOU INSTALL THE LATEST VERSION, AND YOU USE THE 64-bit PLUGIN, THE ARP SIMPLY IGNORES THE FIRST STEP - SO IF YOU WANT PERFECT FUNCTIONALITY, YOU WILL USE THE 32-bit PLUGIN, EVEN IF YOU HAVE 64-bit OS AND 64-bitDAW.
3) IN REAPER, IF YOU USE 32-bit PLUGIN (EVEN IN 64-bit REAPER), IT'S OK - IT WILL BE BRIDGED. UNFORTUNATELY ONE MORE LITTLE WINDOW APPEAR. SO YOU HAVE TO CHECK "RUN AS"/"EMBED BRIDGED UI" OPTION - AND FROM THIS POINT, THE 32-bit PLUGIN WILL APPEAR JUST AS YOUR 64-bit PLUGINS APPEAR.
Here's the "Nice to have" list of things that are not critical like the things above:
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- FM7 colorful look disappeared with the new version. FM8 should look not white imho - it should be just as colorful like a JUPITER synth. In FM8 you can find great piano sounds, great guitar sounds, great synth sounds - so many different instrument and how does the software look like? It's white - nonsense.
- GUI resizing, or option of change between different sizes. A feature we can see in many synth, even those that considered being "old". If we can see a resizable Sylenth1, or change the size of the ImpOSCar gui, why can't we do the same in FM8? If Arturia can update their synths to modern GUIs, why can't NI?
- Skinning possibilities. Think of it like outsourcing : the plugin developer only need to create the possibility of skinning, and from that point, any gui designer can create nice skins to that plugin. I'd like to see this in fm8.
Show-stopper list : FM8 is just one fm synths, many great are existing - maybe the newest you can find is from Arturia.
So if fm8 won't be developed, people will start to buy more modern synth like the one from Arturia, or perhaps a synth that is just partly fm, like Zebra or Bazille. So this list is about real new functionality:
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- Layering & defining keyboard range: FM8 is on the list of synths that can use very small amount of CPU. So why can't we use it in 4 or more layers defining the key range of each layer (with overlapping)? Like the zone editor in Avenger.
- Locking : if you lock some part of a preset, after changing to another preset the locked parts remain the same. Locking arpeggiator, locking effects, etc.
....... I could sit here and write many things, but won't. To sum up things, FM8 is quite good synth, with some annoying silly things (this is why my rating is only 7). It has a great "fanbase" (like Massive), and therefore I don't see why NI don't publish the "roadmap" for its development. Maybe NI will handle FM8 and Massive like they did with Pro-53 and B4 and Kore.
Read ReviewReviewed By AnotherBob [all]
March 28th, 2004
Version reviewed: 1 on Windows
THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED
To Miroslav, about the archive files with extension .sit:
The archive files with the extention .sit are a nightmare! Above all for all the people using Windows or Linux.
AVOID the archives .sit files!!.
You compel to install a specific expander for these files which are in a proprietary format! The standard archive/unarchive tools are ALL incompatible with this proprietary format! And even worse, even the specific tool itself change its specifications from a version to another.
To unarchive .sit files, first you compel to install StuffIt Expander... that generally we have not on our systems. So we install this tool... but it's then necessary to know that the last version that expanded the .sit file was the 2010 version. Starting from the 2011 version... Stuffit expander expands only the .sitx version, no more the .sit version.
So you compel your readers to install Stuffit Expander 2010! Not the later versions.
And above all, whatever your operating system... use .zip files or .rar files to stay compatible with every body.
Even you Stuffit tool can create .zip and .rar files to stay compatible with everybody.
To avoid the bothering installation of this specific expander totally unnecessary in the daily use of our systems and so to give access to these four files to EVERYONE, some minutes ago I just reuploaded the four files in the universal standard format that everybody can read natively, the .zip format! And I have set the four files in a one package.
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