[sdiy] Timbral musings

[jhaible at debitel.net]

> ..wave shapers are often 'disappointing' because the
> harmonics produced have a constant phase relationship
> (exactly what a real-world instrument DOESN'T have).
> I'm not knocking wave shapers, they are a terrific tool,
> but running a static program source into them is not 
> terribly useful... they rally shine for LFO modification, though!


>From my own experiments with waveshapers:

There are basically two ways to "breath life" into a waveshaper:

(1) modulation of the waveshaper's transfer funtion

(2) finding a transfer function, and "sweet spot" along 
    this transfer function, where a pleasant change of timbre
    comes from varying input level. 

#1 is quite obvious.

#2 has it's most prominent example in the classic guitar - distorting 
   amplifier configuration. It's advisable to always have a VCA between
   the VCO and Waveshaper. If you modulated the VCA with an envelope
   and with a controller like velocity, you have a similar control 
   over dynamic waveshaping as an average guitar player has. (And
   the git player has a lot of other means for expressive playing ...)

Bottom line: Waveshapers are a great tool to get interesting sounds,
but it needs a VCA and a few controllers _at least_ to get them
out of the "boring static" domain.

JH.



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