Zoë Blade's notebook

DX21 guide

A brief guide to Yamaha's 4-operator range of FM synths. This information applies to the following synths:

Frequency ratios

There are four sets of ratios to choose from. For simple mathematical ratios (doubling, tripling, etc), stick to a single column for a carrier and its modulator. For more complex mathematical ratios (basically unrelated), jump to a different column.

1 √2 π/2 √3
0.50 0.71 0.78 0.87
1.00 1.41 1.57 1.73
2.00 2.82 3.14 3.46
3.00 4.24 4.71 5.19
4.00 5.65 6.28 6.92
5.00 7.07 7.85 8.65
6.00 8.48 9.42 10.38
7.00 9.89 10.99 12.11
8.00 11.30 12.56 13.84
9.00 12.72 14.13 15.57
10.00 14.10 15.70 17.30
11.00 15.55 17.27 19.03
12.00 16.96 18.84 20.76
13.00 18.37 20.41 22.49
14.00 19.78 21.98 24.22
15.00 21.20 23.55 25.95

Electronic music making guides: Aphex Twin guide | Creator guide | DX21 guide | DrumStation guide | MCV-24 guide | MicroVerb III guide | S1000 guide | ST guide

Electronic music making tables: BPM to milliseconds | DX21 guide | Interval | MicroVerb III guide | Pitched tempos | Pitches | S1000 page map | ST MIDI sequencer timeline | Transposing tempos

Yamaha: DX7 | DX21 | DX21 guide | NS-10M | TX81Z