Back in the days when I was using a Yamaha SY99, most of their preset
FM sounds used six oscillators, often in three pairs of two, sometimes
in two sets of three (Modulator-->Modulator-->Carrier). Many had
feedback loops. I'd say experiment and keep what works. Think also of
using VLOs as modulators--can be very interesting when the frequency
of the modulator is below 20 Hz. And I do agree that adding some
randomness gives life to the sound. I don't know if any of the old
Yamaha manuals are online, but might be worth a look. They were pretty
good tools for learning about FM.

--David Mooney

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 5:22 AM, Stefan Thomas
 wrote:
> Dear community,
> I have question concerning FM-Synthesis. Unfortunately my owninstruments
> sound rather dull.
> Do You think it's possible to make interesting sounds with 1 or 2
> oscillators using fm, or would You suggest to use more oscillators?
> I thought, the following parameters could make the sound more lively:
> Index depends on register and amplitude (key-velocity, when You use midi)
> Index is slightly influenced by random-opcode
> Duration depends on register and amplitude
> Would You suggest to add more dependencies?
> I'm courious about Your opinions/suggestions.



-- 
Opaque Melodies
http://opaquemelodies.com

Frankly, I find that some rather simple FM patches, with just two
oscillators, can make sounds that I like. It takes a lot of
experimentation to find FM indexes and frequency ratios that do
something interesting. Having an exponential envelope that affects
both dynamics and FM index is often a good idea. I suggest you create
a GUI in QuteCsound to control a very simple FM instrument and
experiment with it until you get a feeling, not just an intellectual
understanding, for what is going on. Then you can add additional
layers of modulation, feedback, etc.

Regards,
Mike

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 6:48 PM, David Mooney  wrote:
> Back in the days when I was using a Yamaha SY99, most of their preset
> FM sounds used six oscillators, often in three pairs of two, sometimes
> in two sets of three (Modulator-->Modulator-->Carrier). Many had
> feedback loops. I'd say experiment and keep what works. Think also of
> using VLOs as modulators--can be very interesting when the frequency
> of the modulator is below 20 Hz. And I do agree that adding some
> randomness gives life to the sound. I don't know if any of the old
> Yamaha manuals are online, but might be worth a look. They were pretty
> good tools for learning about FM.
>
> --David Mooney
>
> On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 5:22 AM, Stefan Thomas
>  wrote:
>> Dear community,
>> I have question concerning FM-Synthesis. Unfortunately my owninstruments
>> sound rather dull.
>> Do You think it's possible to make interesting sounds with 1 or 2
>> oscillators using fm, or would You suggest to use more oscillators?
>> I thought, the following parameters could make the sound more lively:
>> Index depends on register and amplitude (key-velocity, when You use midi)
>> Index is slightly influenced by random-opcode
>> Duration depends on register and amplitude
>> Would You suggest to add more dependencies?
>> I'm courious about Your opinions/suggestions.
>
>
>
> --
> Opaque Melodies
> http://opaquemelodies.com
>
>
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-- 
Michael Gogins
Irreducible Productions
http://www.michael-gogins.com
Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com