Design your own DW8000 synths?

[Bissell, Harry]

Check out the waveforms on the Korg DW-8000, an early wavetable synth. What
we (analoggers) need is a good wide range high-frequency VCO. Then we could
do someting like it. The waves mostly do not sound like sine, triangle etc.
Run the VCO at 16x (32x?) the desired fundamental and read waves from RAM /
ROM. Hard-sync by counter reset. 
Why not just use a computer?

Because: The fundamental reason for the "analog" sound IMHO is that the
oscillators are continuous waveforms... even though we may turn notes on and
off with VCA, or filter. The waves are continuous, they don't "retrigger"
every time you hit a key. Think of instruments like woodwinds or brass, they
don't always retrigger, the air is still vibrating as you shift from one
vibrational mode to another. I think I can tell the difference between a
wave that is retriggered and one that was still oscillating. (I may, of
course be hallucinating).     :-) Harry Bissell
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Martin Czech [SMTP:martin.czech at intermetall.de]
> Sent:	Thursday, February 25, 1999 7:28 AM
> To:	will7370 at tao.sou.edu; synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl;
> jorgen.bergfors at idg.se
> Subject:	Re: Design your own waveform synths?
> 
> 
> > F> The main reason is that odd waveforms generally don't sound nearly as
> interesting as they look. No matter what waveform you draw, it sounds
> rather similar to the classic standard waveforms (saw, pulse, triangle and
> sine)
> 
> 
> In most cases you're right.
> 
> but if you know how waveforms of other synthesis machines typically look
> like, you can try to draw something like that, and these waveforms can
> sound considerably differnt then saw, pulse, triangle and sine.
> 
> 
> m.c.