Add Creative Effects With The FM8 Envelopes

In part four of this month’s series, Johnny finishes up his in depth look at the FM8 envelopes by creating a filtered bass that rises in pitch.

Over the past three tutorials, Johnny has covered the different FM8 envelopes and their features as well as how to use them to make various sounds. By applying what he went over in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 and put that all together with what he covers in this tutorial (part 4), you can create interesting effects with the FM8 envelopes.

I have a love hate with automation. I know that seems like it came out of no where, but bare with me. If I’m in the groove of laying down parts for a track or song, the one thing that can squash my creative flow is doing all the little effects, automatons and mix edits. And we all know it can be hard to separate the two work flows,  composing and mixing, which is why I like using synths like FM8 and the FM8 envelopes to the fullest extent to save me from having to do edits like automation. Johnny walks us through how to create a bass loop and then how to use two different envelope types to create an unique effect.

First, Johnny uses the filter envelope to create a sort of subtle sweep effect and then he applies a unique shape to the pitch envelope that make the sound pitch up like a riser over time. Because of all the handy dandy features of the FM8 envelopes, it’s really easy to key and tempo sync that pitch effect. In less than a minute, you get a great effect that would take about 3-5 minutes doing in the mix.

Check out the video to see how it’s done!

Cheers