FM8

Frequency modulation (FM) synthesis allows professionals modify waveforms and enrich the sound of music tracks and control a multitude of parameters, provided the appropriate tools are at hand. Among the utilities that especially created for this purpose, FM8 aims to offer the best experience.

From a user friendly interface, the impressive range of instruments, effects and functions included in this software solution can be put to good use. Neatly organized in their respective categories, all the features are easily accessible and highly customizable.

FM8 puts at your disposal several soundbanks with an astonishing diversity of components (more than 1,200 presets are available), like percussion, bass, drums, soundscapes, guitar or piano, most of which come with several subtypes. The effects include distortion, pitch shift, delay, flanger, chorus, panning and many others.

The adjustments for master input and output levels, as well as those for polyphony, pitch, arpeggiator, quality and a couple more, can be made from the same area. It also has a MIDI controller assignment module where the parameters can be load and saved.

If you are interested in sound morphing, FM8 can cater to your needs and thus enable you to make the music sound even more sophisticated. Timbre envelope and amplitude envelope are also ready to be used, alongside velocity and stereo width calibrations.

One of the most important tools of FM8 is the Arpeggiator, a dedicated module that is able to transform MIDI input and create sequences from scratch or starting from one of the four dozen built-in templates. The notes from the loaded MIDI can be rearranged, sped up, shortened or lengthened, while sequence tempo can be altered.

Thanks to an attractive interface and a very strong feature set, FM8 is able to put up an impressive performance to earn one of the top spots in its category. It is mostly aimed at users with lots of experience in sound synthesis, but learning how to use it is not too difficult a task for other users as well.