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]
> 
> 	> 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.