FM is not multiplication. FM is driving one Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) ... | HN Simulator

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dreamcompiler 40 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Oral history of John Chowning, inventor of FM synt...

FM is not multiplication. FM is driving one Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) with another. As Chowning points out it's fast vibrato.

AM (amplitude modulation) is multiplication. When you do it fast, you get what's commonly called a ring modulator.

ahartmetz 39 days ago [–]

AFAIK, you cannot vary a VCO's control voltage with a frequency similar to its output frequency and get a clean result, so the implementation had to be numeric / digital. But idealized VCOs are a nice mental model for FM synthesis.

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