[sdiy] Walsh Generators / static waveforms

[Tim Parkhurst]

So in case anyone cares, here's my $US.02 on the matter:

The ability to create 'any' waveform, while technically interesting, is not
necessarily musically useful. Why? Because

1) VERY few people know how to draw or specify a waveform to get the sound
they want. At best, it is a hit and miss proposition, and 

2) STATIC waveforms (even very interesting looking ones) are boring and
loose their sonic appeal very quickly.

"So," I hear you cry "what's the solution then, Mr. Know-it-all-Servo?"

Well, how about this: create a limited set of sonically / musically useful
waveforms, and set up a user interface that would allow a variety of time
varying modulations. For example, you might have one class of modulation
that would be simple 'stretching/skewing' effects, like PWM or going from a
triangle to a saw. Another class of modulation would be a smooth morph from
one selected wave to any other, like a sine into a complex wave (this would
also include being able to smoothly modulate between several waves). I know,
this is a lot like wave sequencing/Prophet VS/etc., but I still think the
smooth interpolation feature has not been well implemented, and the user
interface is what really needs work. Both classes of modulation would need
repeating (like LFO) modulation, non-repeating (like EG) modulation, and
perhaps even a third random variation element so that the wave sequence
didn't sound exactly the same every time (might as well have a simple
sampler), or an EG style modulation that would repeat over several triggered
events (rather than a standard EG that repeats at every triggered event).

I think you could accomplish some very powerful effects with a set of 20 or
30 waveforms. Basically, set up the user interface so that it is very easy
to modulate / animate the waves. Of course, the ability to add more
waveforms or even create your own would be a nice addition, but this should
be secondary to the ability to set up complex modulation with the existing
waves. The hardware could be something as simple as a Mini-Wave that read
from two wave EPROMS at once, with a little additional processing to control
the interpolation between the 'source' and 'target' waves. Of course, during
a triggered event, there could be several different 'target' waves. 

I'm sure this has been done before (look at the Korg DW series, or the
Prophet VS, or even the Casio CZ), but I don't think it's ever been
presented in an 'easy to grok' user interface. Again, I think this is where
a LOT more work needs to be done. I don't pretend to have the ultimate
solution, but hopefully I've provided some inspiration. 


Tim (if this van's a grokin') Servo

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein

*********************************************


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Harry Bissell Jr [mailto:harrybissell at prodigy.net]
> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 9:47 AM
> To: Barry Klein; Glen; music.maker at gte.net; synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: RE: [sdiy] Walsh Generators
> 
> even more naive... if you were to make a walsh
> generator with equivalent 16 bit accuracy, what
> would you produce with it. A sampler is a far more
> effective way of specifying the waveform.
> 
> Do you really mean to figure out all the coefficients
> by hand ?  What about time-varying envelopes etc...
> 
> walsh functions (to me) scream FPGA, because the
> essentially '1 bit' nature of the process is ideal.
> 
> The multiplications are very easy as well... but as I
> posted earlier (and got no good answer)... what is the
> 'magic bullet' in the operating system. The one, two,
> or ten parameters that define an set of musically
> useful sounds ???
> 
> (not just being a wise at ss here... but fourier
> synthesis
> has not worked yet, imho. neither will walsh until
> this issue is addressed)
> 
> H^) harry
> 
> 

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