home contact

Thursday, October 16th, 2025 06:40 am

Synth Glossary

Frequency Modulation (FM):
Frequency modulation allows the output of one oscillator to drive the frequency of another oscillator. It can generate very complex sounds from very simple waveforms and is the basis of the Yamaha DX range of synthisizers and OPL range of synthesizer chips (used in Adlib and most other soundcards)....

more...




Matrix-6
This synthesizer was based on the popular Matrix line. The Matrix-6 is basically a stripped down Xpander with a 5-octave, 31-note (C-C) keyboard, which features on and off velocity, as well as channel aftertouch. It features 6-note polyphony and pitch and modulation levers (not wheels) to the left of the keyboard. Each voice has two DCOs (as opposed to the Xpander's VCO), a VCF, three envelope generators (5 stage: Delay, Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release), two ramp generators (simple envelopes), tracking (not just for the keyboard but for remapping any modulation source), portamento and FM controls, three LFOs, and two VCAs. Along with other "Matrix" products from Oberheim, the Matrix-6 features what Oberheim called, "Matix Modulation System", which makes for very flexible and powerful modulation programming. With this much programmability it is unfortunate that the only user interface is a single slider and a keypad.

Hosted by Jesse Mullan