Design your own waveform synths?

[Gene Zumchak]

List,

    May I add my own two cents.  Moog may have been the first to recognize back
in the sixties that what is important about a sound or waveform is NOT its shape
or frequency recipe (spectrum), but how it changes in time.  A plucked string,
for example starts out with lots of harmonics.  The higher the harmonics, the
faster they die out.  Eventually you are left with just the fundamental.
Hitting the Moog LPF with a transient, accomplished this.  A brass sound, on
the  other hand, starts with the fundamental.  It takes some millieseconds for
the harmonics to build up.  Sweep the filter from low to high and it gives a
brass sound.  Accordingly, fabricating waveforms whose spectrum is constant is
an exercise with little promise.  Instead fabricate waveforms digitally that
change in time, and then you'll get interesting sounds.

Gene Zumchak



Martin Czech wrote:

> > Actually, to do this you can do one of at least two things.  One, download
> > a program called "Smorphi".  It allows you to draw your own waveforms and
> > play around with them.  Two, a program called "Goldwave" allows you to
> > directly edit the samples that make up a .wav file.  Just make a tiny .wav
> > file (like 100 samples), direct-edit the waveform to your heart's content
>
> Right, sorry forgot about that.
>
> @ www.shareware.com
>
> And dont forget "granny" granular synthesis tools.
> Cool, works even on my 100MHz P5.
>
> m.c.