Nord User Forum

Do you know of NS3 have the fm synth like NS2 ( op + feedback )?

You can check the manual which can be downloaded from the Calvia site.

I could not determine from the manual whether the NS3 had quite the same FM capabilities as the NS2, I'm curious about this as well.

Ok, the three of you got me curious, so I took a look at page 31 of the NS2EX manual and page 34 of the NS3 manual, and to me, it looks like the short answer is that the two engines are completely different.

The NS2 appears to use a series of preset sine wave configurations as the base oscillator for its FM synthesis, while the NS3 applies FM modulation as part of the secondary oscillator to modify the primary oscillator selected (samples and super waves excepted).

So, while you may be able to approximate an NS2 FM sound on an NS3, you would have to go about it in a different way. Also, it looks like the NS3 offers a broader set of options since you are not limited to the sine wave as the primary oscillator as with the NS2.

I could be wrong, but that’s what it looks like to me.

probably, they're different. the stage 3 is derived from the lead a1, not the stage 2.

If I correctly understand, they are diferent. There is no Main FM Oscilator on NS3, it's on OSC 2 (like NS2) in order to shape or mix with OSC1. You have more synth power on NS3 but NOT a dedicated FM OSC.

ajstan wrote:Ok, the three of you got me curious, so I took a look at page 31 of the NS2EX manual and page 34 of the NS3 manual, and to me, it looks like the short answer is that the two engines are completely different.

The NS2 appears to use a series of preset sine wave configurations as the base oscillator for its FM synthesis, while the NS3 applies FM modulation as part of the secondary oscillator to modify the primary oscillator selected (samples and super waves excepted).

So, while you may be able to approximate an NS2 FM sound on an NS3, you would have to go about it in a different way. Also, it looks like the NS3 offers a broader set of options since you are not limited to the sine wave as the primary oscillator as with the NS2.

I could be wrong, but that’s what it looks like to me.

I read the NS3 manual, which indeed is "not so rich of info" in that respect and I think you are right.
NS3 Synth implements FM but in a pretty different way compared to NS2; according to the manual there are two FM modes:

- DUAL FM, where OSC1 is the carrier and OSC2 the modulator, amount of modulation is determined by the OSC CTRL (which in turn can be modulated by LFO or the ModEnv); both OSCs can use any waveform except S-wave and Samples.

- TRIPLE FM: where OSC2 represents a pair of modulators (unclear if series or parallel, I presume series = cascaded 3->2->1), the rest is the same as DUAL. Unclear also if the modulation control influences both 3->2 and 2->1 at the same time and with the same amount (I would think so)

So to me basically the NS2 has a more "traditional" FM with more configurations (andsome with feedback) while the NS3 has less configurations, no feedback but this is partially compensated by the ability to use different waveforms than just the sine wave, more similar to the FM you could find on some analog synths.
This also means that for FM sounds it is not (in general) possible to do a 1:1 "parameter copy" between the two synths.