Ruismaker FM released – FM Drum Machine for IOS AU

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Ruismaker FM is a very easy drum machine for IOS AudioUnit. It’s based on two operators (1 oscillator and 1 modulator) and comes with essentials parameters to create your own sounds. You can load Ruismaker FM perfectly in Modstep and any other IOS AU Host App. 
If you purchased already the first Ruismaker app and you love it, than this one you love also. Same concept, same easy layout and a great sound. 

Ruismaker FM is available here: 















Ruismaker FM is like the crazy twin-sister to the classic Ruismaker drum synth. Instead of using virtual analog modelling, it sports a single, custom FM (‘Frequency Modulation’) synthesis engine capable of creating a vast bandwidth of different types of sounds. The theory behind FM is too complex to go into right here, but essentially it works by taking an oscillator (called ‘the carrier’, like a sine wave or a pulse wave) and changing its frequency so fast that all sorts of overtones – known as ‘sidebands’ – become audible in the signal. 

Although FM can be done using analog equipment, the most effective way to do it is using digital algorithms (analog’s charming quirkiness tends to introduce side effects that sometimes makes FM hard to control properly in a musical way). Ruismaker FM uses this type digital FM synthesis to create percussive sounds. It is capable of creating powerful synth kicks, noisy snares and metallic hihats, but truly comes to life when doing more unconventional sounds (zaps, blips, whirrs, clicks, hollow or metallic effects) or even bass lines. 

Because it is designed to do percussion, it comes with some specific parameter behavior and waveforms that are optimised for percussive sounds and effects – typically not found on other FM synths.

Ruismaker GUI design: 

  • Oscillator – This is the main waveform responsible for the basic sound of the instrument. 
  • Waveforms – Sine, Triangle, Square, Sine Pulse (hash hybrid between a sine wave and a pulse wave), Sample & Hold (randomises the modulation effect at variable speeds), Noise, Metal (complex stream of pulse waves) and Pitch-drop (lets the modulator drop or raise the oscillator pitch) 
  • Pitch – This is the frequency at which the oscillator waveform will be played when the sound is triggered. Pitch values are chromatically tuned in Ruismaker FM, making it easy to fit sounds in your music in a music way (or even to create simple melodic bass lines, etc.). 
  • Modulator – This is the waveform of the modulator signal. It determines how the frequency of the oscillator changes. 
  • Speed – The speed at which the frequency of the oscillator changes can be adjusted with this control. It can range from low frequency changes (like a pitch LFO, or vibrato) to ‘audio-rate’ changes, resulting in the typical FM overtones. 
  • Amount – Use this to adjust how much the oscillator is modulated by the modulator. 
  • Attack – This parameter changes how the envelope affects the start of the sound. 
  • Decay – This does what it says on the tin. It applies a decay curve to the sound and the value of this parameter determines how long the decay will take (from very short to pretty-long-for-a-drum-sound). 
  • Saturate – This takes the raw signal (before EG, filters, and VCA are applied) and uses a combination of sof-limiter and overdrive to add high frequency harmonics to the sound. 
  • Pan – Changes the stereo image of the sound. Level Controls the output level of the sound. 
  • HPF – Applies a high-pass filter (without resonance) to the output signal. 
  • PKF – This is a peaking filter, which adds strong emphasis to a narrow frequency band. 
More Informations, sound design examples and midi mapping explications can be found in here: Ruismaker FM Manual

Here is also my preview video of Ruismaker FM for IOS AU

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