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These statistical games are always amusing.? Yes, FM synthesis has millions of sounds, based solely on the numbers.? Many of them, though, sound similar, while others produce results that aren't all that useful in practice.? One can create a harpsichord sound with a carrier of 1.0 and a modulator of 4.0, using short envelopes and the proper algorithm.? Maybe add a couple of modulators to simulate the quill strike, etc. and you are ready to compose/perform.? The patch might sound more authentic by changing the modulator to 5.0 or 6.0, etc., but it's still going to mimic a harpsichord.

One can then boost the modulation level -- or add more modulators -- to move through 'angry harpsichord,' to 'lunatic harpsichord,' to a point where the result resembles white noise.? Every one of these sounds is arguably different, but not always significantly so; nor are all of them musically useful.? I would suspect that factoring in usable timbres that don't mimic other instruments, the palette of a DX7 is still somewhere around a couple thousand sounds.

The Hammond Organ claim is even more ridiculous.? The original claim was "over 100 million different sounds" -- a number found by multiplying 9 drawbars * 8 levels.? But 808000000 and 505000000 aren't really different sounds; and 888000008 sounds a lot like 878000016.? There are probably a few dozen basic Hammond sounds, and most players use the same 5-6.

The one that always struck me funny was the claim (by Dr. Chowning?) that FM synthesis would ultimately replace all other synthesizers, since it could simulate anything.? Fourier Analysis states that any waveform can be expressed as a collection of sine waves at different frequencies and phase relationships.? So, 'all' one needs to simulate a Bosendorfer Imperial is a limitless collection of FM operators, and a formula to decide their proportions and phase delays!? In practice, though, this is far more difficult to achieve than practical; so, we have sampling keyboards.

That said, though, FM synthesis has a wonderful, glassy sound that is very difficult to simulate by other means.? I have pared down my gigging rig several times over the past couple of years, but a TX802 is still in the mix!