[sdiy] Waveform mixing - normalization?

[eidorian at aladan.net]

Horses for courses.  Plenty of synths (both new and old) offer
waveform mixing, but in a multi-oscillator synth I suspect it's not so
important since you can combine different waveforms from different
oscillators in order to get the same effect.

Yes, waveform mixing is not as sonically startling as modulation
effects.  But like I said somewhere (here?) recently, sometimes
subtly is important :)

Regarding waveform normalisation - yes, I think plenty of (generally
modern) synths must use it, because a triangle or sine with the same
waveform height (i.e. peak-to-peak voltage difference) is very
different in perceived volume to a square wave or sawtooth.  So a
vendor might well adjust the volume of different waveforms to match
human ear expectations to avoid sonic accidents.  On synths where
this isn't the case simply changing from one type of waveform to
another results a significant and sudden change in volume.

I have often been known to patch multiple waveforms outputs from one
oscillator into different filter/amplitude/other modulation paths on
my modular, mainly when making drone music.

Cheers,
A.

----- Original Message -----
From: "neil harper" <metadata at gmx.com>
To:"Mattias Rickardsson" <mr at analogue.org>, "Tom Wiltshire"
<tom at electricdruid.net>
Cc:"synthdiy diy" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent:Fri, 6 May 2016 00:23:05 -0400
Subject:Re: [sdiy] Waveform mixing - normalization?

 I've never seen any normalization either.
 >
 > Can't make up my mind about free oscillator levels & mixing, it
seems 
 > like the advantage is often lost. In a way I'd prefer normalization

 > and a filter overdrive control at a later stage.
 >
 > To be honest I've never really missed waveform mixing in a 
 > one-waveform-selection-synth either. It feels like a relic from the

 > dawn of synthesis, an additive timbre shaping method that is rarely

 > very useful or interesting compared to waveform modulation,
audio-rate 
 > modulation and subtractive shaping. Do you guys like and use
waveform 
 > mixing?
 >
 > /mr
 >

 I got the impression that waveform mixing would allow a lot more
sound 
 possibilities, but maybe that's an outdated idea like you suggest?

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