[sdiy] Waveform mixing - normalization?

[Tom Wiltshire]

Depends on the synth. I've never seen any analog hardware that implements compression at the mixing stage, but there are various schools of thought as regards "correct" levels. Some assume that you never want distortion in the signal path and are designed for sufficient headroom with all sources maxed. Others have decided that a bit of "drive" is a positive, and allow you to set the signal level high enough to push following filter stages into distortion. Op-amp distortion in the mixer is generally avoided at all costs (at least, I've never seen/heard an example).

HTH,
Tom

On 26 Apr 2016, at 01:38, neil harper <metadata at gmx.com> wrote:

> Hey everyone,
> 
> I have a question about synths that allow various waveforms to be mixed together (like the minibrute), instead of a single waveform being chosen (like the minimoog) for each oscillator.
> 
> Do any implement any normalization/compression to keep the resultant waveform at a consistent level?
> 
> I checked the minibrute schematic and do not see this, it just goes into a simple op-amp mixer.
> 
> Do any synths implement normalization/compression, or is the purpose to allow the user to overload the subsequent stages by maxing out all the waveforms in the mixer?
> 
> 
> -- 
> //neil harper
> every wave is new until it breaks
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