Whats PWM and how does it affect the sound?

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Pulse Width Modulation.

Can be useful in giving a lead or pad a more natural sound, like orchestral type pads... from my experience anyway.

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I believe I'm correct in saying that it only affects the Square waveform. Turning the knob changes it from a square waveform to a pulse waveform (and anywhere in between).

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quote:

Originally posted by alanzo I believe I'm correct in saying that it only affects the Square waveform. Turning the knob changes it from a square waveform to a pulse waveform (and anywhere in between).

right!

and if you modulate it very fast you get something similar to a saw but with less harmonic content (so it uses less space in the mix which is very nice for a clean mix )

PWM is, as mentioned, modulating (changing) the pulse width.

think of a normal square wave. with no PWM, you've got 50% full positive cycle, and 50% full negative cycle.

as you modulate the width of the pulse, you end up with a smaller and smaller.shorter positive duty and a bigger/longer negative duty - which can make the sound thinner if kept static, or add a bit of atonal chorusing (if that makes sense - you'll know it when you hear it). if your synth will let you pwm by envelope you can get interesting effects by setting the attack and decay to short times as you might do with a VCF on a bass sound. hope this helps, sorry if its complete crap.

it's not complete crap
thanks
now whats VCF?

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My tracks:
The Darkone - You Come With Power
The Darkone - Falling Stars Part 1 (Original Mix) *NEW*

vcf = filter, voltage controlled. though they rarely are these days.

quote:

Originally posted by alanzo I believe I'm correct in saying that it only affects the Square waveform. Turning the knob changes it from a square waveform to a pulse waveform (and anywhere in between).

It's possible to do it with the saw waveform too, though it's rarely implemented, short of a modular synth. You can modulate the saw to go from a downard saw to a triangle to an upward saw. Goes from rich to hollow to rich again, harmonically speaking.

The "Alpha Junos" (Juno-1, Juno-2, MKS-50) had a pulse notching of the saw waveform where the width of the notch was modulatable. U can get some pretty cool sounds from that.

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