[sdiy] Waveform mixing - normalization?

[Mattias Rickardsson]

On 6 May 2016 at 07:10,  <eidorian at aladan.net> wrote:
> 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.

Only if oscillator sync is available.

> 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.

There is no reason why the different waveforms would have the same
peak-to-peak levels.

> 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.

This is not the normalization that Neil was asking about. He was
referring to normalizing mixes of more than one waveform.

> 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.

That's an interesting way of using them! :-)

/mr


> ----- 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 possibilities, but maybe that's an outdated idea like you suggest?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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