Thanks for your thoughts @3ple and @oscwilde
I’m not after a specific sound but was getting a little confused when making sounds from scratch. I have a habit of reaching for FM as shortcut to get somewhere quickly and started to wonder about the implementation. Especially when in series - the way the freq knob also seems to act as a cutoff for the preceding signal. But your explanations make sense.
Very interesting read @oscwilde. What you describe would be incredible. I’d settle to be able to modulate one VA source with another VA source. But as you say there are endless ways to arrive at fm-y and other interesting timbres.
A little modulation of freq/mod/feedback knobs opens things right up. It’s kind of possible to emulate the way FM8 has seperate envelopes for each operator. The modulation + the additional waves result in sounds I haven’t made in FM8 before, even with the limited implementation.
Yes I must admit I haven’t gone too deep on the additive engine yet. I had an a-ha moment the other day when I realised each partial can have it’s own envelope. With only a few partials a lot is possible.
I've not downloaded @3ple FM template but will make sure I do!