FM Synthesis

FM synthesis music is music composed around the sound of frequency-modulation synthesis, above all the Yamaha FM chips fitted to 1980s and 1990s computers, arcade boards and consoles such as the Mega Drive's YM2612. Four-operator FM voices supply metallic bells, glassy electric pianos, plucked strings and aggressive basses unavailable to simpler square-wave chips, while limited channels force economical, loop-based writing. Composers including *Yuzo Koshiro* used the hardware to recreate house, techno and funk for game soundtracks, and the idiom survives as a recognised style among chiptune musicians and FM-synthesis revivalists working with the original chips and trackers.