Reddit mentions of How to Make a Noise: Frequency Modulation Synthesis

I do have some recommendations which helped me. None of them use Sytrus, but the theory will translate right over.

This is a video that walks through making a generic FM bass patch:

https://youtu.be/1XbrTC0NndM

This is a longer video that covers FM more broadly, but then goes into some specific patch programming:

https://youtu.be/u9nuZvxukNI

And this is a pretty solid little e-book about FM which goes quite in-depth and contains some nice FM synth recipes for various sounds. It focuses on FM8. It's really cheap too. I bought it for $3, but it's only $1.40 right now apparently.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Noise-Frequency-Modulation-ebook/dp/B008H7CEQG/

I bought a $3 ebook off Amazon on FM and practiced with Dexed, which is a free DX7 clone: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Noise-Frequency-Modulation-ebook/dp/B008H7CEQG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502944537&sr=8-1&keywords=fm+synthesis

You can make some cool sounds with FM, it gets used a lot for metallic and glassy textures. The hollow / plucky bass sound typical of deep house is usually FM. Serum has FM too, actually a lot of virtual "analogs" include basic FM ability. If you want to go deep into FM, Native Instruments FM8 is a good choice. Serum is more about wavetables and wavescanning, which is where instead of having a fixed oscillator shape like a saw wave, you load up a table full of waves and can cycle through them on the fly, which creates some interesting textures too. Whereas FM is usually about modulating a sine wave with other sine waves to make a different waveshape instead, over a period of time that you define with an envelope. So yeah both do evolving sounds. FM is more like high speed LFO.

Should also mention the Korg Volca FM, if you want a hardware FM box. Costs about the same as Serum.

This is a pretty decent read for $3 if you have a Kindle or the Kindle app on a device. He uses FM8 for his examples, but it helped me understand FM a bit more.

The FM8 Power Reviews from Plugin Guru is pretty cool, too:

• Part 1
  
• Part 2

• I would recommend checking out Syntorial. They only have a short section on FM Synthesis, but it's a good one. Your best bet for starting out FM synthesis is not actually a full-blown FM Synth, but rather probably a subtractive synth that has an FM option. This is how it is taught in Syntorial, and it was exactly what I needed to wrap my head around FM synthesis.

• "How To Make a Noise: FM Synthesis" ebook:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008H7CEQG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482174604&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=fm+synthesis

I haven't had a chance to read this yet, but it looks like the absolute best explanation of FM Synthesis out there. I don't doubt it. Many many many moons ago I read his free e-book on subtractive synthesis, and until Syntorial, it was the best explanation of synthesis I ever came across. It uses Native Instrument's FM8 rather than Sytrus, but I'd argue FM8 is a better (and perhaps more important) FM synth to learn anyways.

• This guy did a good write-up on programming Sytrus:

http://blackhole12.deviantart.com/art/Sytrus-Synth-Creation-Part-1-75704794

I'd still recommend completing steps 1 & 2 before tackling this.

• This one always seems to be forgotten ... read the manual! Sytrus, like pretty much all of the native FL synths, has a really good manual.

• Don't bother? I mean, if you're just learning FM synthesis to learn to make trap bells, let's be honest - there are already enough good bell presets floating around out there. FM synthesis takes a looooooong time to get down, and the chances of you ultimately making a bell sound that's really all that different than all the other ones out there already is pretty minimal. I'm not saying FM Synthesis isn't worth it; it's awesome for bells, plucks, and basses, but also realize that you can't really try to learn it half-heartedly.

Edit: had this written up as a numbered list; Reddit always screws up the numbering on me so I made it a bulleted-list instead.

Double edit: formatting is still wonky. I guess it's as good as I'm going to get it.

If you are looking to learn synthesis methods (not history of synths) I recommend these three books. Each are $2.99 for Kindle and are quick reads.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Noise-Analog-Synthesis-ebook/dp/B005SGCD6A/ref=pd_sim_351_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PEZXT0XR36P3QHWN4D5C

https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Noise-Sample-Based-Synthesis-ebook/dp/B007Z682OI/ref=pd_sim_351_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PEZXT0XR36P3QHWN4D5C

https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Noise-Frequency-Modulation-ebook/dp/B008H7CEQG/ref=pd_sim_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PEZXT0XR36P3QHWN4D5C

I read this book, which is good for the basic approach: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008H7CEQG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1