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What is your Favorite Waveform (pg. 2)
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| Pappa |
| 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.. :) |
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| 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. |
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| KilldaDJ |
| saw and the supersaw, they just have such a nice sound to them, not too keen on the squares |
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| Pappa |
| 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. |
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| Pjotr G |
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 :D
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..... |
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| Pjotr G |
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 :D
It's funny how displayed on oscilloscopes waveforms in synths do not look like each other. Moog saw different from oberheim saw etc. Funny |
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| DJ Nuclear |
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. |
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| State of Matter |
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. |
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| Pappa |
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? |
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| State of Matter |
| Yes, but worry less about looks and more about sounds.:) Nobody buys a trance record to look at it under the oscilloscope. |
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| Pappa |
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. |
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| dj_inferno |
| I really like using a saw and triangle together or a saw and a square together. |
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