Yamaha FB-01 | A Cult Classic Sound Module! 

SysEx editors are probably the best thing to have happened to vintage synths like this. These sounds have always been possible, but they seem to be WAY easier to (re)create, once we were no longer constrained by user interfaces designed in the 80s. Great sound, as always. 👍

And now I’m gonna go have to rewatch the Bad Gear episode from the beginning of the year (Audiopilz) on the FB-01 Then go play my reface DX for a bit. Mood.

I love the way each company have certain flavours, which seem to magically linger from machine to machine, whether it’s a high end synth or a more modest module. Those Bass and Marimba-esque patches have that lovely, warm-yet-plastic-sounding Yamaha feel, which instantly remind one of the DX7 or TX81z. When I was at school in the 80s, there was a boy a few years older than me, and he had been given a little box room by the head music teacher, where he had a small studio. I instantly made friends with him when I discovered that his mother and my mother knew each other, as they were both nurses at the local hospital. The poor chap couldn’t get rid of me, and most lunchtimes I would head straight to his little room to listen to him composing. I remember him having a little Yamaha module like this, plus a Yamaha drum machine, probably an RX of some description, plus a Korg Poly 800. I never did get one of these kinds of modules myself when I started making music myself, but they can deliver some lovely sounds, especially in expert hands like yours Mr Kraft!

When a man gave this one for free when I bought his D-50 for cheap 10 years ago there was no indication that this would become a classic... and also the D-50 🙂

When the FB01 was released in my young days, the most astonishing feature was multi-timbrality. We didn't know the DX1 or DX5 of course (too rare and too expensive), but we knew the DX21 and of course the DX7IID/FD. Their duo-timbrality was already an awesome feature. And then came this little rather affordable module and provides up to 8 synthesizers in one (monophonic ones then admittedly). We were blown away!

Picked one of these up at a car boot sale for pocket change. Upgraded the output chips and replaced the capacitors in it, put in the latest firmware. Became quite a capable and fun little FM machine. Not quite as nice as the TX7 but fun.

Wow! FM sound is a special magic! I am always happy when I come to your channel! And every time I find something new here! Thank you Espen!

Mine never sounded that good but I loved that little box (my first multi-timbral synth), When I picked it up I spent the whole weekend in the spare room with my Atari ST and then proudly showed off my first piece to my GF, her response "Is that it?" - so that became the title of the track.

Sold my FB-01 in the early 90’s. When I hear this, my first thought is.....Why?

I had one of these FB-01's about 20 years ago, got it second hand. Never got to explore it fully because there wasn't decent editing software for it back then. Gave it away and wish I hadn't now. 😁

In the mid 80s my setup consisted of a CZ-1000, FB-01 & MIDI soft synths on the Amiga such as sampling including my Mirage emulator. Things have really advanced, but I'm grateful for what I had at my start. The FB-01 was the poor man's DX-7 alternative. Also highly portable, and I used it with my bands for decades after.

And on the same day, AudioPilz releases a video about the FB-01’s nemesis: the Roland MT-32.

3 and a half minutes in and I realized I should hit “like” on this vid.

What a gorgeous track, beautiful major 7ths, and with more Kraft than a major haberdashery retailer.

I love my FB-01! i got it off ebay probably 15 years ago for $12.50. It sits on a shelf much of the time, but every once in a while i'll need good ol- fashioned 80s 4-op FM, and it never disappoints.

I owned two FB-01s back in the day, but I never got on with them as I didn't have any editing software for the sounds. Maybe I will try another one now I know about the editor! Thanks for another great video

You can still get a Yamaha FB01 for a reasonable price. I'm considering buying an FB01 in the future especially after watching this video and learing it's a lot more capible than many people give credit.

Thanks for another video Mr. Kraft. I used to use my FB01 mainly in multitimbral mode. It is very flexible that way for getting ideas down quickly and trying different patches whilst a song is playing. I'd then record the parts separately. Also, very useful live.

This video reminds me to the Kawai PHm video you made some months ago. Interesting facts and nice music made with a cheap piece of gear. Well done ,again.

Hi Espen. Very cool exploration of an highly underrated Yamaha sound module. Kinda remember that editor, don't know why ;-)

I've had one of these since the 90's, used solely as a sine bass in an old band. Tried selling it a number of years ago and literally couldn't give it away. Glad I still have it now! Tonight I will dust it off and muck about with editors! Good times!

I just got one of these - a really great unit! Surprised it gets some criticism online. It’s really cool - especially when run through my Behringer FX mixer.

But that was time to see on this channel! :) my FIRST FM Synth, first love :)

Glad I grabbed one before this video came out 😉

The FB-01 is pretty good. In the 80s, a friend of mine had one. He demoed it with a sequencer of famous 80s songs when it came out, making decent FM sounds. A year later he was selling it as he needed to pay some bills. I showed interest, but didn't much much money at the time, so he asked if I had anything to trade of similar value. So I traded my Commodore 64 & disk drive which I barely touched anymore as I had an Amiga, Apple ][, Atari 1200XL and other systems. So he sold that instead and gave me the FB-01. The FB-01 for me was a much more economical alternative to adding DX7 FM sounds to my rig, which consisted of two Casio CZ's and my Amiga soft synths (including Ensoniq Mirage emulation an 30 disks). FB-01 turned out to be a great addition to my setup. It's very small & compact too, ideal for the gigs I was doing. In the late 90s, after playing a gig at the "infamous" Station Night club (the one that burnt down with 100 trapped people inside), we played a multi-band show and my gear was rushed off the stage. Friends were helping move my gear, and a crate containing my trusty FB-01 was never to be seen again. I figured, why not upgrade and buy a TX-7 which would have 6 operators and add full DX7 compatibility to my rig? So I did. I went through thousands of sounds I loaded in. I had heard rumors the FB-01 was capable of some sounds the DX7 was not. Seemed to prove true as I could not locate some of my favorite FB-01 sounds, especially some of the great sound effects like the helicopter and thunder, both of which I made great use of in my bands with a phaser pedal and reverb, and some other sound effects I could never find in DX7 format. The more musical instrument sounds I did pretty much find DX7 equivalents, like the FM electric pianos, marimba, low strings, electric organ and others I used. I decided to buy another FB-01 missing some of the sounds. My replacement did not work. So I bought another one. This one worked most of the time, but sometimes made no sound even with proper display. If I heard sound, it would work fine until I turned it off, but not trustworthy enough for a live gig. My original was rock solid. It even survived a flash flood. At one gig on a sunny day, a storm moved in with golf ball sized hail and collapsed our stage. The guitarist said not to turn anything on, and I let my FB-01 dry out for a week that was water logged. Zero problems with it. My other synths & laptop of soft synths (in the 1990s this was), made it into the house quick enough. The FB-01 is a better synth than people give it credit for. Also capable of making many of the famous DX7 sounds (but not all), and it has a few great sounds you probably won't find in DX7 sound collections, especially some really awesome sound effects I haven't found in my other synths or numerous soft synths. While an FB-01 VST does not exist (yet), I did notice on the MAME arcade emulator which emulates various components now including some synthesizers as some powered arcade machines, FB-01 emulation is now included in MAME and under the status of working, I think it said "100% working". I haven't been able to get it working so far, but did get the Ensoniq SD-1 emulator (partly working) to load, but haven't connected it to MIDI. If you use the MAME emulator, obviously unlike a VST, it will take over your PC and not run concurrently with other soft synths, a DAW, etc. If I can get it running, for my live band this could still be of some use for a song or two.

I remember having one of these years ago. It has a Pizzicato sound that sounds mad as a kick drum !!

i had this beauty back when it came out, and got another one a few years ago and use it regularly in my new music

Wow I'm very impressed with this.

Sounds really nice , I love the way the circuitry sounds on 80's and 90's gear.

10:08 Crockett's theme from Miami Vice. 😎👍

Crockett’s theme... Will get You a thumbs up from this 80’s kid every time. 👍

You made one of the best demo tracks for that brick. Essentially, this is a souped up PSS keyboard, and you know it when you play it. If you have only a four track, no DAW and one MIDIVERB, it might be terrible. But multitracked and processed - very nice.

Great processor Synth Sounds ufff like to much. Greatings Mr. Kraft

During the pandemic when I (like many of my musician brethren) was insanely underemployed, I finally dug into programming Yamaha FM synths. I’m glad I did. I have two FB-01 units installed in a weird 3 rack unit FB-01 rack mount bracket that Yamaha made. I wouldn’t exactly call this pandemic “good times” but I did have some not horrible times playing with this gear over the last year. I used my first FB01, which I got in high school, as a “band in a box” (with my Amiga 500) to practice jazz tunes on my trombone when studying music in college. I wouldn’t say it was swingin’ but it did what I needed at the time. Thanks for the nice video and the reminder that (with a little reverb, etc) one can really make some nice sounding stuff with these little boxes. Espen, you certainly can!

When I got to New York City to stay at the end of 2010, the household where I got to live had an FB-01 module. That was the only FM synthesizer I have owned or had access to so far in life, and it made its way onto one of my solo tracks called “The Grand Deception” as a bass synth. It was usually connected in our home to one of those early Roland MIDI keyboards with multiple MIDI outs, a stackable chassis and a monophonic function. I was a kind of dunce and let the module go when I decided to part with the controller. The musician who took the controller has said he wanted me to have the module back, but I haven’t tried really hard to get it back.

I got a Korg DS8 which has the same Yamaha chipset. Sounds very good. Early FM goodness!

I have had several of those and also a Korg 707 and an Elka EK-44 which has the same sound chip. They suck dry but are kinda good when effects are applied. The buttons tend to get stuck a lot on them. And nice demo as always!

Still my favourite FM synth (The PSR-36 and PSS-480 are close runners-up.) It's the module I used in high school music composition class circa 1987 and it was the second synth I ever purchased. Still use it to this day.

nice video ! I have also this guy! or girl... Knobs are a little clunky but nice sounds. The Jazz guitar preset is used by Last Christmas ... Wham. It looks like... maybe the DX7

I bought an FB01 with a D10 in the 80’s. This really turned me on to FM. I wouldn’t do without an FM synth now - I’ve got the Montage 8.

It’s also a great unit to learn FM synthesis by analyzing the patches on this unit with the software

I've got one of these in my rack, and I love it! All of the sound banks out there make it easy to find something cool to work with.

When i got my first FB01 about 12 years ago, it was dirt cheap, no one wanted it and everybody hated it. Today its a classic synth because it sounds fucking huge and great! I love it so much, i own two units. FM forever

It takes you right back to the late 80's Amazing irreplaceable Like your videos very informative I never knew about this Yamaha chip Thanks!

Once again, it shows it's all about the musician and the music, NOT about the gear. Sure, some will say "but it's processed with effects and multitracked"... and so is basically every song and every instrument, including those with a €10,000 price tag ;)

Sponsored by PCBWay, at 8:33 you decided to play the PSBWay as well! Great video, dude! 💥

Thank you, Aspen. Your videos are like the honey to the soul ;)

Thanks so much Mr. Kraft. This music is ideal for some Space Shooter game, in the style of 1980's.

This video made me pull the trigger on buying one of these on Ebay. Thank you for showing what this thing can really sound like.

damn I have this synth and recently had the batery mod done, and I also just so happened to purchice a pair of adidas beach shorts brand new with tags that were also made the same year this synth came out! Now I can feel all badass like I am right in 1986 while I jam out making vaporwave, futurefunk, and all kinds of retro and experimental aesthetic synth music! Man the 80s were so cool. Maybe sucked a little bit cause no internet but still cool none the less! I may be from 1993 but I will always have the biggest love and appreciation for 80s aesthetic and 80s inspired music. Even if people hate on this synth, a great artist will make good music no matter the equipment. Thanks for the inspiration and keep making the great music!

I have one of these arriving tomorrow. I can't wait to play with it. Thanks for the link to the editor. I am happy to see that it runs on Linux.

bought one of these on reverb for under €100, savage little beast of a thing. Great sounds! :)

I always forget I have one. Got it for free. I loved playing with it when it was new. I'd go to the store and play with it all day.

this was my first module in the 80's together with a TR-505 a Yamaha QX21 sequenser and casio FZ1 keyboard, was a fun setup back in the days :)

Great video. I still have my SY 99 with the same sounds from the 90's. I miss those days.

OMG, this video reminded me that I owned an FB01, but I don't recall it sounding so good!

Love my FB-01. Got it really cheap some years ago. A really capable machine, despite the limitations. Got some fun sequencing it with a QY-70 😁 Thanks for your video and the awesome links, tips and tricks! Cheers!

Scooped one of these units up during quarantine. Paired it with a Yamaha R100 reverb as well as a Boss Space Echo and was immediately taken back in time. Kept me from purchasing a DX7 for now. Been a lot of fun cycling through those presets (with help from it's original manual) and found it surprisingly easy to stir up a song or 20. Cheers from Texas.

So pure and beautiful, i wish i could feed my FB-01 with some nice songs !

Blown away Espen! Great demo. I never thought this module capable of these sounds.

Good musicians are never limited by the tools they use.

Haha, I tought after seen the TX81Z video: Will Espen Kraft have a video with the FB01? And Yes 🙂 I also have had 8 pieces of them, for detuning and having a lot of multitimbral posibilities. My youth is coming back 🙂

Wow, you really made that sing. Nice work. Interesting backstory on the Yamaha chip. I'm guessing games like Gauntlet or Marble Madness had that chip?

I really liked the first track...Perfect electro-disco!

Great video! The Yamaha FB-01 remembered me always on a clock radio or small sat-receiver. In that time I decided for a TX-81Z.

I use to own two of them at the time which I added to a borrowed Proteus-1 and to my Juno 106. For drums I had the ALESIS HR-16. For recording I had the TASCAM 234 Syncaset. For digital sequencing I had the Roland MSQ-700. An MC-500 was borrowed from a friend at times when he was willing to part with it for a day...lol. Curiously, the FB-01 had a bass voice that had a soft to hard dynamic range. Meaning, sounding soft and if hit harder it sounded like a loud clunk. Personally I thought the FM sounds from the FB-01 were great and versatile modules. I used these on some of my original compositions for the girls gymnastic competitions which had to be strictly timed at 1 minute and 28 seconds and heavily dynamic with quick to slow musical movements as the music was choreographed with tumbles, back flips, runs, dance, etc so the music had to be very precise. This was back in the late 80's. Actual sound example here that I am referring to: The bass plunk sound begins roughly at 0.99. It is from the soundtrack for the 1986 Anglo-French cinema film Captive is the only solo album to date by The Edge, guitarist of U2. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HxBl1UJ-ur4.html

I had the Yamaha CX5M and a few cartridges including the FB01. Then moved up to an Atari ST running Dr T's and a DX21, TX81Z(2), TX7 and FS1R. Still have all the synths along with an RX11 and a couple of QX sequencers. I've kept one foot in the '80's. We can be thankful that the original MIDI spec has held on for as long as it has.

This is the "More elegant" brother of the TX81Z and it sounds quite good tbh (even if it lacks the other 7 waveforms)

I had 2 of them! love them. especially the FM Bass!

Love this little guy! I haven’t had much luck with the software editors, so I bought a Novation Zero SL mk2 for $90 and it works like a charm for live editing sysex. Highly recommend it if you have one sitting around

Timeless Yamaha FM - who can't feel from a simple emotion to crying when listening such sounds? I don't remember if the FB had 2 or 4 operators engine. But I remember when I bought my PSR-6300 in 1988, was offered by the vendor as an accessory voice expander. I didn't got because the 6300 was enough expensive for the time. Memories.

Sounds great. I`m quite amazed with the sound of this small module.

There’s sound great sounds on that. They Came together lovely.

Really cool! Some of those crunchier synth sounds remind me of the OPL2 YM3812 chip in early PC sound cards

Thank you so much for this review Espen! I just found an FB-01 for sale just under €200 and think I'm going to order it as a gift under the Xmas tree. Wishing you and your loved ones good health and happy holidays, cheers!

The YM2164 was also used in the SFG-05 module that was installed in the Yamaha CX-5M MSX computer.

Espen Kraft: The Man, The Myth, The Synthgod Legend

Back in the day, late 80's to early 90's, I used two FB-01's in my rack. The strings and organs are still great.

This has a real classic Italo Deep House feel to it. Nicely done Espen!

I bought one a few years back as they were quite cheap. I remember my school friend having one. He had a GEM organ with a MIDI expander (MIDIcoder, Musicoder? amazing how you remember these names) which let him control other sound sources, the music shop set him up with a FB-01 for some reason, perhaps to get some more interesting sounds, FM was still a big deal at the time.

Wow, you really make this boring looking box sing! The sounds are really nice, well demonstrated too!

Awesome video. You make me love my own Yamaha FB01 all the more🎹🤟

Back in the 80’s I saved up and bought the FB-01 and loved it greatly. I realized that if you have two of them, they can run in odd and even notes mode to double your polyphony. So, I bought my second unit and racked it side by side on a shelf. A poor mans DX11, but still very fun to have. So if you only have one, you should get it a mate so it is not lonely. ;-)

hah I got my FB-01 in 1994 second hand from Norway :D to accompany my Kawai K-5 and I even had an editor for DX21/FB-01 in my Atari Mega STE

great stuff once again thx!! love my FB-01, such a great instant 80ies vibe machine...great for a lot of genres like house and techno ;)

Nice track! I've seen a couple of these online recently and have been trying to decide whether to get one or not. You've convinced me to buy one! As a teenager in the '80s, I loved synth music; still do. And a lot of what I write tends to have that synth influence. One of my favorite bands was Naked Eyes. Also always loved Howard Jones. Love your channel! Keep up the good work!

I didn't know the FB01 was "cult"! 😁 It was my 1st synth module and I still have it on a shelf in my studio. If I'm honnest and don't be blinded by the memories of my youth I should say I was realy happy when I bought a TX81Z a couple of years after. 😉 My studio in the 80s: An Alpha Juno 1, an FB01, a QX21, a Torque spring reverb, a 6 channel Teac hifi mixer. And an aiwa "walkman" to record the, poor, results.

Incredible module I like very much, I have a Korg 707 has the same chip infact

I'm getting two of these very soon at a very reasonable price and use them as a poor man's DX5

Great use of this amazing pandora's box. Thanks for sharing

Amazing, dude! Made me pick up my FB-01 again for hopefully new adventures. Thank you so much for enlightening me on this one and keep up the good work!

i love mine ! esp that "lately" style bass preset... i used it on 100`s of dance tracks back in the day ! My TQ5 is just as nice !

I have the tx802,tx816 guess which i use most FB-01.I love the sound as its close to megadrive sound which i love also:) there is also a great number of max4live fb-01editors.

I never bothered to try and get a TX81Z but I got the FB01 to part replace my CX5M. I love the FB's presets & though simple is actually one of my favourite modules. Being half rack means I can also save space by pairing it with my main piano module the EMU proformance plus.

Finally something I own featured on your channel! I always think of it as Genesis/Megadrive type sounds in a box. Gotta try my hand at some 16-bit chiptunes. Love the upper register of the EBass patch. Get's those plucky Sega sounds right on! Great video as always Espen!

Wonderful module! Great review Espen

Interesting that it's an off shoot of the YM2151. I can definitely hear some of the classic arcade/X68000 like sounds. But it sounds like it has some amazing built-in in filters that can really make it sound warm.

Wow, getting some 1989 house vibes in the intro demo song. Just lovely.

Awesome Mr. Kraft... as always, the best info for the featured device.. the unit has some great sounds.. are the outputs really noisy like they say on other videos? Oh and cool Jan Hammer sounds. Cheers

Thx Espen made my day!!