Swayed Brings Back an Advanced FM and PCM Classic
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Swayed takes us back to the 90s, where digital synthesis and sampling collided and showed us what both methods could do when used creatively!
A Little History
In 1983, the Yamaha DX7 burst onto the scene, changing the path of synthesizers forever. That dominance would only last a few years when, in 1987, Roland came along with the D-50 and all of a sudden, the DX7 was old hat after just 4 years.
Yamaha’s follow-up, the DX7-II, improved upon the original, coming out in the same year as the D-50, but it couldn’t compete. It didn’t have built-in FX, nor did it have sample-based presets, and both those things managed to persuade many players to switch teams.
The D-50’s synthesis method, labelled as Linear Arithmetic, was, in essence, a blend of samples and synthesis. It used short samples for the attack portion of the sound and then used synthesis to finish the sound off. It proved huge, with Roland using that technique across a wide range of instruments.
Real-time Convolution and Modulation
Yamaha had some catching up to do and, unsurprisingly, they chose to stick with FM, but do something similar by combining Yamaha’s AWM samples with a more advanced form of FM than that seen in the DX7. Now called AFM, it had many more algorithms, and it had RCM.
RCM stood for Real-time Convolution and Modulation and takes some explaining, but essentially allowed the user to use samples as modulators of FM tones. Martin Russ wrote an excellent piece on RCM in Sound On Sound back in 1990. Anyway, let’s get to Swayed.
Swayed by Stryde Audio
Swayed has been in development for some time. It first broke cover in June of 2024, when I covered it in our Synth Journal column. I spoke with the developer a few times, and then it went quiet until today. And here it is, and I have to say, it instantly transported me back to the early 90s!
The first thing we need to bear in mind is that, due to the use of AWM samples, recreating any of the SY series if synths was going to be difficult, but the developer, Sheaf, has managed to recreate the samples themselves. In their own words…
“The preset waveforms are approximations of the original hardware’s samples, recreated from scratch using a mix of custom recordings, public domain samples, and synthesis.”
In a hugely litigious world, and short of Yamaha doing something like this themselves, this is as close as we are currently going to get when it comes to recreating the SY77. And I’m happy with that. Sheaf claims that you can import SysEx data from the originals and vice versa, so I’d love to do a comparison one day.
Advanced FM
As for the FM engine, that has been faithfully recreated with 6 Operators, each having 15 waveforms and 3 completely configurable feedback paths. All 45 algorithms are there, along with a Freeform mode to create your own.
Swayed comes with a healthy amount of presets and 44 built-in effects, with flexible routings between voice groups. Time will tell, but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of the FX bugs that never got fixed in the SY77, but did in the later SY99.
My Thoughts
I have been stupidly excited about the arrival of Swayed, and at one point, I did wonder if it would ever happen, but huge credit must be given to Sheaf, who as a lone developer, has managed to pull it off and get it out to us. To my knowledge, this is the first true emulation of these classic digital synths that uses the original method of blending AFM and AWM. Hats off!
More Information
Swayed is available to buy now from the Stryde Audio website for €99/$99 and is available as a VST3/AU plugin on Windows 8 and macOS 12 and above.
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