Frequency Modulation was discovered by John Chowning back in the 60s, while experimenting with vibrato. Basically in FM-Synthesis the frequency of one oscillator (carrier) is modulated by the signal of another oscillator (modulator). The great thing about FM-Synthesis is that it can produce a wide range of sounds with relatively little computing cost, cause we only need to generate 2 basic waveforms to get started. Ideal for environments like flash where you have to watch your fps carefully.

Here’s a little test. Please turn down volume first. Needs the latest Flash-Player 10 (rc of 091508).

To do FM-Synthesis in flash we could fill the (more…)

In this post I was experimenting with waveforms. Playing sounds constantly on the same pitch gets a bit boring after a while, however simply introducing random pitch isn’t too charming either. I started to twiddle (more…)

It’s been quite a while (back in 2002, flash 5) since I did some serious work using oscillators and waveforms. I’m writing this down while trying to get back on track. The stuff described here is definitely no secret. It’s basic, but relevant to create some tunes in flash. Maybe you’ll find some of the stuff useful.

Through the introduction of the SampleDataEvent (more…)