Frequency Modulation

SuperCollider tutorial

go through the first very fast paced SuperCollider Tutorial

Materials

(the original paper by John Chowning is: "The Synthesis of Complex Audio Spectra by Means of Frequency Modulation". Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 1973).

Concepts

  • Simple Frequency Modulation
  • Carriers, Modulators, Modulation Index
  • Spectrum, Bessel functions
  • Complex FM
    • Parallel FM
    • Cascade FM
    • Feedback FM

Code Examples

fmmod.sc
very simple frequency modulation example
simple-fm.sc
simple frequency modulation with a control panel
cascade-fm.sc
feedback frequency modulation with a control panel
feedback-fm.sc
feedback frequency modulation with a control panel

some clasics...

and a different approach (with a look at reverb) from Polishook's frequency modulation tutorial

Music Examples

a little bit of Bill's music

  • Water Music I, 1985-86,

    The first movement of „Water Music“ grew out of ist first note, a long FM violin note reverberated beyond any reasonable bound. The “out of tune” portions are actually based on a diatonic 13 tone tuning with occasional forays into 48 tone schemes. Although most composers interested in microtonal music say they are pursuing perfect consonances, the desire here is to create ear-catching dissonances. The underlying music is obviously tonal and diatonic.