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Frequency modulation of
a waveform or signal was originally used in radio,
hence FM radio and has been in use since the early
1900’s. Dr John Chowning of Stanford is credited
with creating FM synthesis in the early 1970’s,
but only really analyzed the mathematical relationships.
This lead to Chowning being able to predict the
results of FM and he published his findings. It
was not until the early 1980’s that Yamaha
used Chowning’s FM design and released their
extremely popular DX series. FM synthesis is possible
on analog synthesizers, especially modular systems.
There were a number of people creating FM sounds
on analog synthesizers long before Yamaha released
the DX series.
At the most basic level FM synthesis
uses two oscillators; one is called a carrier while
the other is modulator. The modulator is used to "modulate" the
frequency of the carrier (the oscillator you hear).
By modulating the carrier you can create harmonically
rich waveforms not possible by other types of synthesis.
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