Powerful, Unique... Joyless

So strong was my love for Yamaha FM back in the early 00's, that one day, MIDI implementation chart in-hand, I built a complete set of real-time patch-editing profiles for my TX81z. I used a Kenton ControlFreak as my development environment. Every 4-OP synthesis parameter was lovingly and thoughtfully mapped using the hexadecimal backflips needed to address a unit with (if memory serves) a pure sysex-based MIDI implementation... meaning none of the easy single-MIDI-CC to single-synth-parameter mapping we've all come to expect...

... So, I thought all this might mean I was ready for an FS1r...

Nope.

The Good:

The FS1r does everything it says it does on the tin. It sounds cool in a digital-meets-high-impact plastic kind of way and (in the right hands) it sounds a bit different than anything else that came before and possibly since. In my experience, it had a unique presence that made pretty much every sound it produced want to stand apart in a mix, which meant it could give you (for example) a slightly different, 90s hi-fi coloration on any well-worn DX7 presets you load in. Bonus: it's rare, so you're pretty much guaranteed to NOT sound exactly like anyone else if you can find your way around it.

The Challenging:

I fully embraced and enjoyed the nerdy, myopic pursuit of building those pages of edit profiles for the TX81z in hex, and I got around it's tiny front panel OK for years before that... but the FS1r was just too much... too many pages, parameters, and matrices to consider in the FS1r for even MY FM-loving tastes at the time. I tried the limited software front-ends available then (early 00's), but they proved either awful, unstable, or both (I can't recall exactly why they were unworkable, but they were). I truly hope there are now better editors available for the FS1r, 15+ years later. On top of all this, the aforementioned "presence" of the FS1r contrasted with the (comparatively) muddy crunch of my well-preserved TX81z, and the general neutrality of my Nord Modular in a way that wasn't flattering for any of them, including the FS1r. I can't fault the FS on this point though, as Squarepusher's Go Plastic album from the same time period has enough FS1r-meets-legacy-DX-synths to prove that at least one person (far more talented and musically productive than me) found this kind of texture clash workable. I won't pretend to know which exact Squarepusher songs of that period use which FM synths, but the first few minutes of "I Wish You Obelisk" sound pretty damn FS1r to me... even if that's not FS1r, it's very indicative of the type of "creeping up under your skin" sounds I kept stumbling on as I learned to integrate the FS's unique digital filters along with all the operators and algorithms.

The Conclusion:

Ultimately, the FS1r just didn't bring me any joy, and I never got to the point where I looked forward to using it... so I had to evict it from my rack.

I remember making a decent profit when I sold it a year or two later, which is truly the only good thing it ever did for me. (Sorry Team at Yamaha, I still love that this synth got made)

To all out there considering one, you can always resell it if you don't like it, and (like me) you might even make a few bucks... but know that being familiar/successful with other Yamaha FM synths or similar will only help so much in coming to terms with all that is the FS1r... maybe poke around for a robust and well-supported software editor before making your decision. ;)

Notes

Perhaps this is one of the most misunderstoood and under appreciated synthesizer Yamaha has ever built. If FM syntesis is complicated and hard to carry out with just 6 operators, let's imagine what might happen with 8 voiced and 8 unvoiced operators. FS1R is a real power, but almost impossible to operate with its tiny display. Formant synthesis is a great thing, useful to create particular sound textures impossible to reproduce with other synth engines. Without an editor with graphical interface FS1R can't be managed. Period.