<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div><br></div><div>On Dec 16, 2024, at 1:30 AM, Adam (synthDIY) <synthdiy@adambaby.com> wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 16 Dec 2024, at 16:48, Donald Tillman <don@till.com> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><meta charset="UTF-8"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;">And I've found significant musical benefits mixing waveforms with this approach. But that's me. </span></div></blockquote></div><br><div><br></div><div>OK, I'll bite.</div><div>Like what musical benefits?</div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>In your basic Minimoog patch the low-pass filter is responsible for almost all of the sonic character, while the oscillator waveform is less important; it's basically there to provide raw harmonic content for the filter to sculpt. (Which is one reason why we've been using the same four waveforms for 50 years.)</div><div><br></div><div>So consider setting the filter aside, and seeing what's possible with oscillator waveforms alone.</div><div><br></div><div>(Note that Buchla's original modular didn't offer an especially interesting filter, so he made his oscillators pan the waveforms to sines. Similarly FM synthesis uses no filters and instead warps sine waves.)</div><div><br></div><div>Bright waveforms with 1/n harmonic content are way too bright to use without a low-pass filter, so you have to use mellower waveforms, say with 1/n^2 harmonic content.</div><div><br></div><div>I've found that creating and mixing a set of mellow waveforms to be especially musical. Perhaps add in just a little of a bright waveform for seasoning. And the phases matter a lot for this sort of thing.</div><div><br></div><div>This is a little like mixing guitar pickups. The guitar pickup signals are all in phase because they're coming from the same vibrating string, and you're free to mix, add, or subtract, the pickup signals to create all sorts of timbres, and fade musically between variations.</div><div><br></div><div> -- Don</div><div>--<br>Donald Tillman, Palo Alto, California<br>https://till.com</div><div><br></div></div></body></html>