Tracktion has called its F.'em 11-operator FM synth one of the most powerful and versatile ever made. And indeed, there’s plenty to love about the new offering.
A hybrid quad-timbral synthesizer that can function as an FM, VA and Sample based instrument, the cheekily-named F.’em has the added bonus of featuring a dual multimode filter, a complex effect section and an incredibly flexible modulation matrix.
What else do you get? For starters, there’s four Layers, each with four effect slots; two multisample operators; a noise operator that can frequency-modulate any other operator; two filters with overdrive stage; two Flow LFOs with freely editable LFO shapes; and tempo-synced, loopable envelopes with up to 32 stages.
There’s also keyboard level scaling of each operator; a modulation matrix with up to 200 entries; a modifier matrix with up to 32 modification algorithms; a quick edit panel for quick and easy adjustment of timbre and overall envelope; and automation of most continuous parameters.
And F.’em does all this – and much more – via an incredibly user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing interface.
To see the F.’em in action, check out the above demo video with guitar and production ace Sarah Longfield.
She begins by giving a quick tutorial on FM synthesis, “a form of synthesis in which the frequency of an oscillator is modulated by another frequency,” Sarah explains.
She continues, “FM synthesis is particularly awesome in recreating bell and mallet sounds as well as really aggressive, fat, punchy bass lines.”
To that end, Sarah says, “F.'em is an insanely powerful synth organ and it's capable of some huge sounds. I absolutely love it and the presets are really well crafted.”
To illustrate just how capable and easy-to-use F.’em really is, Sarah puts it to the test, unveiling “a quick song that I made using my voice, multiple instances of F.’em and one Logic stock drum kit,” she says.
After we take a listen to her song, Sarah breaks down how she created the awesome sounds..
“So, yeah, I really love F.’em,” Sarah concludes. “I think it’s an awesome plugin. It sounds so good and I love using it for dynamic bass lines.”
To learn more about F’em, head to Tracktion.
