Trying to create an acoustic piano sound on an FM synthesizer (Elektron Digitone)

In this video, I'm trying to create an acoustic piano sound on the Elektron Digitone -an 8 voice, 4 operators FM synth-, with mixed results. Table of contents below! Watch this if you're interested in the capabilities of Digitone's synth engine. There's a listing of all the settings at 20:19.

Table of contents:

00:00 sound demo, so you can judge if this video is worth your time :)
01:05 hello
01:24 overview, loading default patch
01:58 amp envelope, drive / saturation
04:43 algorithm & operator setup
06:17 operator volume & envelopes
08:14 harmonics & tuning
09:48 ratio offsets
10:39 filter frequency & resonance
11:31 filter envelope
12:32 base / width (band pass filter)
13:19 lfo setup
15:07 key scaling & velocity sensitivity setup
20:00 effects (chorus, delay, reverb)
20:19 parameter settings overview
20:50 announcing the next video (zoom arq 96 vs digitone)

Want to buy some of the stuff in this video? Please use the followings links and support me:

[mr_floydst]

Well, at least you can use this sound to make announcements at an airport. :-)

[filipswiniarski]

Woow, thanks man! Great that you wrote everything down at the end. Thank you!

[martinsebbesen]

I am new to FM synthesis and and your explanations of what the different parameters does to the sound is very valuable to me. To analyse and imitate acoustic instruments is a great and very interesting way of learning it. Makes it musical..

[howardanderson]

Thanks Floyd for creating all of these very helpful videos. I have a Digitone and I got it because I really liked the sound.
I did not even know what FM synthesis was, however now I'm really starting to understand it.
I am really becoming a big fan of FM, as well understanding more about musical synthesis...Thanks again!

[XavierRadix]

Interesting! The final result sounds great for a FM synth, dare I say this sounds way better than the DX7 acoustic piano's :P.

[lundsweden]

Wow Floyd, great job, soundsvery good. Probably as piano-y as a Digitone can get.
I remember trying something similar when I owned a DX7 about twenty years ago. IMO the DX7 is a little more complex than a Digitone, I think my results were pretty good if my memory is right. Somehow I have lost the patch data, sadly!
I remember thinking at the time combining multiple FM synths, each one making different parts of the sound, would give the best results. I think someone tried this back in the 80s with a 8 part FM synth, the Yamaha TX816.

[zpinkLondonBelow]

Great tutorial with some excellent explanations
Thanks for posting this!

[NickCapron]

Great video, can't wait to try this out on mine tonight, thank you!

[lergeworkman]

This patch doesn't really suit the style of music I make with the DN, but I think you did a great job with the sound design and the tutorial was very clear and concise. Great job!

[johnmoser]

You use a lot of filtering and DSP. Can you try doing this on Dexed?

[nottieru]

great patch! I can't help the feeling that demo sounds a little more like an acoustic piano than what you had at the end of the patch. Is it just because the part you're playing in the demo is more natural for a piano, or was there some post-processing involved?

[shadowhenge]

Can you do other classical instruments? I have an idea to do an entirely digitone based orchestral track and cant seem to dial in string, wind, and brass ensemble sounding packs.

[BramBramsBerg]

Do you think it is possible to get a similar patch in the 4-op DAFM synth Genesis? 🤨

[direktexe]

Is this linear FM? Also, this sounds like a more modern version of one of the piano patches from the Sorcerian and Y's games