King Of FM is a free Mac and iOS synth that gives you classic DX7 sounds that have been used by Herbie Hancock and producers for Drake, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar
Does it deserve to wear the Yamaha-inspired crown?
Back in 2017, AudioKit Pro’s Matthew Fecher released FM Player, an iOS app packed with samples of a Yamaha DX7 from a famous studio. This ended up in the hands of some pretty serious players, including Herbie Hancock and producers for the likes of Drake, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar.
Now we have a new and improved sequel - King Of FM - and the very pleasing news is that it’s being given away for free. It now runs on the iPhone and Silicon Macs, too, so it’s not just iPad owners who can have all the ‘80s-inspired fun.
King Of FM lives up to its name by including presets from not only the DX7, but also the DX7II, TX81z, and SY77. More than 300 presets, in fact, which are derived from more than 10,000 samples. That equates to in excess of 2GB of sounds, but AudioKit Pro has managed to compress them down to less than 400MB.
There are effects, too - Phaser, Chorus, Reverb, Ping-pong delay, Crush and Stereo Fatten to name just some of them - while an audio recorder enables you to capture your performances and export them as WAV files.
As we mentioned, King Of FM is completely free - there are no in-app purchases and you get a lifetime licence for iPad, iPhone and Mac. You can grab it now from the Apple App Store.
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I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.