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TOPIC: A4 waveform scopes and some tips
#209098
Game & Watch
Posts: 3930
0
A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
since day 1 I found th eA4 very different sounding to other analog synths I own and owned

with wide open filters the oscillators got a very characteristic flavor that vary from octave to octave

I specially found the saw wave got thinner and "grainy" at the lower range, and the triangle became somewhat "saturated"

this characteristic sound (kinda "nasal") could be taken as a good thing if you like it, but some users could miss a more "rounded" sound, similar to the classic analog synths we all know and love like a roland SH or a moog one.

So I attached a scope program to see if there is some evidence that support what I hear and also see if I can get close to the round bass tones of this classic synths

This is what I found when looking at the saw wave:



Downward octaves are represented by the number in each picture
A the left of the white line you can see a series of waveforms that not just change their period according with the played octave but also they change their shape

From 1 to 5 you can see how the initially more symmetrical saw change into a spike-like one, making it sound more thin at the lower octaves

Curiously, in octaves 6 the saw splits into 2 peaks that become very separated in octave 7...this adds even more "grain" and less "cream" to the bass end of this waveform

At the right of the white line you can see a direct comparison between the shapes of octave 2 and 5. I stretched octave 2's waveform to fit the wavelenght of octave 5 in order to make them the same pitch and just see the change in shape. Beyond the picture's line distortion when stretching it, it's evident that the waveform shrinks to the left, making it more asymmetrical and spike-like, thus thinner sounding

As weird as it could be the MnM's saw wave (in the supersaw machine) is very similar in shape as you can see at the top of this column in green


Last column shows a little trick that I found to make the A4 saw more symmetrical and full-sounded in the low register: at the top you can see the saw in octave 4, below it you got the same but with filter overdrive = 20...you can see how the wave is becoming thicker (and you can hear it for sure) and at the lower figure you can see a much more classic saw wave when you rise filter 1 resonance to 74 and lower the overdrive to 12, with the cutoff wide open

Then you can use the LP mode of filter 2 to classic filtering...OK, you lost 1 filter but anyway most classic monosynths just got a lonely LPF.

Try this new "oscillator" sound and you can get much closer to an old roland synth...you can add the sub oscillator to make it fuller sounding.

BTW, in this kind of sounds when you' re looking for just one oscillator and one square sub (typical Roland stuff) it's better to set your wave in, say, oscillator 1 and then use oscillator 2 for the square sub oscillator (with no main wave in this one) so this way you can set the sub oscillator's level


Now for the triangle wave, you got a similar behavior in the fact that the waveshape change with the octaves



At the higher ones (1) it's a triangle but the low octaves shows a heavy distortion of the shape, like as a kind of "windowing" is happening. I found this is kinda nice sounding though and also that if you rise the pwm parameter to 25 you can get another saw-like waveform that increase the sonic palette of the A4

Now try it yourself and tell me if you can got the same kind of round and deep classic bass tones I did with this settings
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#209109
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
Excellent research there! Great use of the first filter to effectively waveshape the saw.

It's stuff like this that keeps nudging me towards getting the A4 sooner rather than later.
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#209127
Goomba
Posts: 36
0
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
I quite like the variation in shapes across octaves. A bit like an acoustic instrument; only a bit of course

This is good stuff! I'm definitely going to exploit your technique with the overdrive. Thanks!
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#209128
Goomba
Posts: 33
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
Very nice input ! And here comes heavy bass lines, THANKS !!!
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#209130
Killer Beez
Posts: 1080
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
Great science. I am loving the overdrive. Now I know why.
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#209135
Cappy
Posts: 92
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
one sound just got the name anselmi-baSS....
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#209233
Chain Chomp
Posts: 352
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
Thanks for sharing. I've always wanted a scope.

Now if elektron came out with a scope....
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#209235
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
Nice work, Anselmi. I'll try it out tonight.
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#209354
Game & Watch
Posts: 3930
0
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
I'm happy you like it guys...for me this is a way of getting the A4 into another sonic territory

Make this big basses and post back!
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#210519
Boo
Posts: 141
Re:A4 waveform scopes and some tips 11 Years, 1 Month ago
Thanks. Very useful info!
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