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What is your Favorite Waveform

Just trying to pick brains, and find out from ya guys, what WaveForm you guys like to use most.

also, why aren't there more OSC on Hardware Keyboards, from the most I see is 3 OCS and maybe a Sub OCS. Also, are there other WaveForms out there other then

Saw
Square
Sine

or are those all we need to make our awsome sounds.

Granted you got Double Saw and SuperSaw, and Noise, Feedback, and im sure others, but im just seeing what all ya guys use most outthere.

Everybody is going to say either Saw (incl doublesaw, supersaw,etc) or Pulsewave (square with pw control) most likely, since these are the basic waves that almost all famous synth sounds come from. There are only a handful of good songs with sine leads (PPK). Most other waveforms are variations of the four basic shapes (sine, saw, square, triangle).

Noise isn't really a waveform because its completely randomly generated. There's no set pattern.

quote:

Originally posted by State of Matter Everybody is going to say either Saw (incl doublesaw, supersaw,etc) or Pulsewave (square with pw control) most likely, since these are the basic waves that almost all famous synth sounds come from. There are only a handful of good songs with sine leads (PPK). Most other waveforms are variations of the four basic shapes (sine, saw, square, triangle). Noise isn't really a waveform because its completely randomly generated. There's no set pattern.

Cool Cool. so out of these basic waveforms, we are pretty much going to overlap on sounds from time to time? or is there enuf to make a new sound that everyone will be like woah!!. I guess it get's down to the nitty gritty of a waveform, and how you change it around? I just hear about some sounds being overused, and if that's all were able to create then, nonthing we can do right??? Unless we invent a new wave form ehehe Will Math allow us to do that

I like SuperSaw.....

State....: Can you put a sample of DoubleSaw?

Doublesaw is a waveform of the Supernova I think. Don't have one of those. Assuming its just two saw waves with one detuned. Pretty easy to make on most VST's I'd imagine.

quote:

Originally posted by Shahar I like SuperSaw..... State....: Can you put a sample of DoubleSaw?

Shahar, soon as I get my ass off and learn the SuperNova II, i'll try and record what a Double Saw sounds like.

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa I just hear about some sounds being overused, and if that's all were able to create then, nonthing we can do right??? Unless we invent a new wave form ehehe Will Math allow us to do that

There's a lot you can do, especially if you have 2 independent osc's, things like nice modulation sources (LFO's envelopes), features like osc sync, FM, filtering, self-oscillating

Everything messes up the basic waveform

oh btw, an old fairlight synth allowed you do draw your own waveform sounds cool....but really cool modulation allows for more possibilities.

Cool, so synth's with some sort of Modulation, it takes the basic wave form, and makes it look different depending on the modulation. so a Sinewave with the look it has, when modulated, it won't have the same look no more? Am I picturing this right?

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G oh btw, an old fairlight synth allowed you do draw your own waveform

there a couple vst's that do that.. at least in absynth you can i think

My favorite by far is the sine wave.

It is mellow, warm, and bassy.

Listen to Insigma - open our eyes (original club mix)

That warm sinewave sub bass that can be heard in the background of the breakdown is what makes that song perfect.

As for leads, I find most saw epic/melodic arps are a little trite, and quite dated now and prefer not to use them or hear them in new tracks.

I don't find sine very interesting as an osc waveform, because of it's (lack of) harmonic content. That rules out nice filter effects (unless perhaps raw high resonance weird stuff). As a modulation source however it's nice . And to make organ sounds.

Sine waves are not generally warm at all, because they aren't harmonic. They're actually very cold and digital. Saw waves contain all harmonies, so they are actually the warmest and thickest sounds (there's a reason they're the most used). Most things you think are sine waves are actually filtered saw waves with a round LPF and some resonance for more warmth. I use a sub bass that sounds like a sine but it's actually a saw.

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Cool, so synth's with some sort of Modulation, it takes the basic wave form, and makes it look different depending on the modulation. so a Sinewave with the look it has, when modulated, it won't have the same look no more? Am I picturing this right?

So is this correct, am I seein the right picture? I mean it don't have to be a Sine, it can be Saw.. Since Im reading Saw is the most juicest to play with..

It will still look exactly the same almost, just the frequency will be modulated so that the wave is stretched on the horizontal access.

For pulsewidth modulation, the distance between the pulse waves is modulated by the lfo to increase and decrease at a certain frequency.

FM and PWM are both equally useful, but imo they don't radically change the sound, they just give it warmth. The only way to change the actual wave is to EQ it and shape the sound. This will cut frequencies all over the wave, obviously, which will change the shape. Only so much you can do with this though, you'd be hard pressed to turn a saw wave into a pulsewave with EQ.

Don't worry though, there's a LOT that can be done with the basic waveforms to get different sounds.

saw and the supersaw, they just have such a nice sound to them, not too keen on the squares

quote:

Originally posted by State of Matter It will still look exactly the same almost, just the frequency will be modulated so that the wave is stretched on the horizontal access. For pulsewidth modulation, the distance between the pulse waves is modulated by the lfo to increase and decrease at a certain frequency. FM and PWM are both equally useful, but imo they don't radically change the sound, they just give it warmth. The only way to change the actual wave is to EQ it and shape the sound. This will cut frequencies all over the wave, obviously, which will change the shape. Only so much you can do with this though, you'd be hard pressed to turn a saw wave into a pulsewave with EQ. Don't worry though, there's a LOT that can be done with the basic waveforms to get different sounds.

Cool, I apreciate ya taking the time to explain a little about it.

modulation WILL alter the waveform over time. There's more in the world that osc modulation (fm?)

if you take a saw wave, and you apply a low pass filter (no resonance), the lower you set the cutoff value, the more you will approximate a sine wave. Until finally you end up with only the fundamental frequency, a sine wave. It's tough to get a nice sine wave out of a saw though, because of the character of filters...they tend to mess up stuff around the cutoff frequency

And if you take a whole lot of sine waves, you can create a saw wave. Just add a sine playing at the frequencies of all the harmonics, at a decreasing volume. There's nice charts of the harmonic content of waveforms, which you could rebuild with sine waves (lots of them though). Actually there are synths that use this technology.....

oh, and FM WILL change the waveform. Actually if anything sounds different, it will look different. Just check it in a wave editor. Talking about wave-editors, visualisation and oscilloscopes

It's funny how displayed on oscilloscopes waveforms in synths do not look like each other. Moog saw different from oberheim saw etc. Funny

frequency modulation will radically change the waveform, but it depends what program you're using for the modulation, and how much modulation you use. You can make very "wet" or "electric" noises if you modulate sine waves by themselves.

Also, there are different types of saws depending on what makes them. Some saws are based on linear relationships, others parabolic ones, other's exponential, and they all sound different.

Frequency is what determines pitch. As a waveform is repeated in more cycles (it's frequency, measured in hz or khz), the sound of the note is higher in pitch. Look at a bass and a really high pitched bell in a wavescope and you can see what I'm talking about. What FM does is modulate the frequency (which causes a sort of wavering pitch sound due to the rising and falling of frequency) so you get a kind of stretching and shrinking effect (which is barely noticeable unless you've either got a lot of modulation going or you're zoomed in really far when you're looking at the waves.

It will look different, but its shape will be the same.



Stretching and shrinking of a saw waveform with a ridiculous amount of frequency modulation with a tri-wave LFO.

The actual saw wave remains intact the whole time though.

So from what I understand know about Freq is. the Lower the Freq, the stretchy it will look like, and the higher the Freq, the Compacter it will look like?


Is this correct way to look at it?

Yes, but worry less about looks and more about sounds. Nobody buys a trance record to look at it under the oscilloscope.

No, that's true, but I'm more of a visual person, to try and learn on what goes on under the Hood

but your right, the main thing is

Trust Your Ears.

I really like using a saw and triangle together or a saw and a square together.

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