Carriers, Modulators, Sawtooths, & Ramps oh my
1999-10-25 by Dave Bradley
Dear Crank: > Many synth modules have two inputs that act upon each other, and these are > typically called the "carrier" and "modulator." Now common sense says that > the "carrier" ought to be the signal that is being modified, and the > "modulator" is the one doing the modifying. At least whenever such a > distinction can be made. I totally agree with you. We are right and the rest of the world is wrong. The voices inside my head told me so. I was beaten into calling > positive-going waves "ramps" and negative, "sawtooths," with full > knowledge > that these were arbitrary names for otherwise identical waves. But I was > told that these were agreed-upon conventions in the E-Music world to help > make things simple. > > Yet years later, I seem to be the only person who's ever heard of > this. And > it seemed like such a good convention. Did my mentors make this > up? It would > seem to be a pretty localized convention. Never heard that one. In my world, ramps go both up and down. Moe