Divergence from the Synth - DOS/Chiptune/More Digital Synth Stuff

As I've noted before I get distracted pretty easily. Whether that's through social media or Youtube or whatever dumb entertainment letting my thoughts escape, a curse, I must push on. While continuing my synth journey today down the Facebook road, something caught my eye.

This Dude Makes Better Music in MS-DOS Than You Do in Ableton

http://thump.vice.com/words/Diode-Milliampere-ms-dos-interview

Now so far in my sound adventures, Ableton is all I know. When I saw this title I thought "of course he does" but had to click to find out more information. The guy talks about how he made all of his sounds from "scratch" using synths. He goes into FM synths and how it's the basis of electronic sound. Most people today just use samples from other things! 

Then he goes into his setup. I realized that this is key in what makes each musician unique. What pedals, software, synths, guitars you use and how you use it can either make ethereal ambience or harsh power-violence. Listing his gear, chips and cards are important pieces to synths. When talking about the Soundblaster-16 soundcard, he explains that even though it's digital it has a very real quality to it.
"When you're tracking with FM, you're more or less sending a crazy math equation at the Digital Analog Converter of the soundcard."
Digital Analog Converter (DAC) converts digital data into analog signal. ADC does the opposite.

Resources:
http://chipmusic.org/
Started following this - http://www.youtube.com/user/ManiacSynth?feature=watch , a ton of synth/chip 80's inspired contemporaries!

Equipment Research:

Yamaha DX7 - FM synth

YMF262/OPL3 chip - Yamaha's 18-channel 2-operator FM synth (18 voices!)

SammichFM / MIDIBOX FM - sequences via MIDI

Adlib Tracker II - Needs DOS and Soundblaster-16 soundcards.

More to cover, but I'm sleepy.

So Far : Digital Synths

I am most acquainted with digital synthesizers so far. I took the same class twice in college (by mistake) and it was mainly focused around digital. The teacher told us to go look up analogue stuff on our own, so here I am a year later.

I should know a lot of this by now, but there is of course a lot I need to note because I don't really understand it all.

"In 1975, the Japanese company Yamaha licensed the algorithms for frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis) from John Chowning, who had experimented with it at Stanford University since 1971." - Wikipedia

What is FM? When audio waves are changed through frequency. Tone waves are called timbre (square, triangle, saw-tooth).

Oscillation is repetitive variation in time. 

What is PM? Phase modulation is a patterned wave. Looking it up there are math equations tied to it. I feel overwhelmed, might need to go back to this later.

Back to FM. John Chowning invented FM synthesizers in 1971, and Yamaha took on the idea. I read an interview and discovered Turenas, a piece he worked on for years using FM


Totally improvisational sounding, but actually took a long time to compose. The sounds are natural droplets and something I would like to figure out how to acquire with today's systems.

Interview:
http://www.o-art.org/history/LongDur/Chowning.html
O-Art has a lost of other interesting articles in the experimental sound realm.

The main thing to know is digital is using processes and software that is way more visual, while analog focuses on circuits and modulators.

The beginning: I have no idea what I'm doing

Thought it would be good to log my progress in understanding synth music in general.

As of right now : February 10 2014

My knowledge is very thin, but I have experience with Ableton and Logic. I most recently went to school working on sound through Arduino/Processing. I forgot a lot though, but Ableton has best stuck with me, so somehow working from there would be good.

I also have an electric guitar and would like to do something with that, but I want to get through my analog knowledge first.

I'll probably forget I made this and get embarrassed but I'm trying...