Waldorf Q Synthesizer User Manual

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Contents

Waldorf Q Synthesizer User Manual Manual pdf 65 page image

Sound Parameters – OscillatorsWaldorf Q User’s Manual 66OscillatorsThe Waldorf Q is equipped with three oscillators that have almost the same functionality.Oscillator ShapesThe oscillator is the first building block of a synthesizer. It delivers the signal that is transformed by allother components of the synthesizer. In the early days of electronic synthesis, Robert A. Moog foundout that most real acoustic instrument waveforms could be reproduced by using abstracted electronicversions of these waveforms. He wasn’t the first who came to that conclusion but he was the first inrecreating them electronically and building them into a machine that could be used commercially.What he implemented into his synthesizer were the still well-known waveforms sawtooth, square andtriangle. For sure, this is only a minimal selection of the endless variety of waveforms, but the WaldorfQ gives you exactly these waveforms at hand. Plus other classic waveforms like pulse (which is thefather of the square waveform) and the sine wave (which is also part of each other waveform).Now, you probably know how these waveforms look and sound like, but the following chapter givesyou a small introduction into the deeper structure of these waveforms. Let’s start with the most basicone.The Sine WaveThe Sine Wave is the purest tone that can be generated. It consists only of one harmonic, thefundamental, and has no overtones. The following picture shows the sine wave and its frequencyrepresentation:1 4 8 12 16 FrequencyMagnitudeTimeAmplitudeHarmonicsThe Sine WaveThere is no acoustic music instrument that generates a pure sine wave, the only instrument that comesclose to it is the pitch fork. Therefore, the sine wave sounds a little artificial to the ear. However, thesine wave can be an interesting oscillator waveform to emphasize a certain harmonic while otheroscillators are playing more complex waveforms, or as fm source for frequency modulation.The sine wave is the most basic building block of each waveform. Any waveform can be brokendown to several or many sine waves that are arranged with different frequencies and magnitudes.These sine waves are called partials. In most waveforms, the partial with the lowest frequency isdominant, meaning that this partial is used by the ear to determine the pitch of the tone. This partial iscalled fundamental. All other partials are called overtones. So, the second partial is the first overtone.Cyclic waveforms such as the waveforms in the Q only feature sine waves in integer frequency ratiosto the fundamental like double frequency, triple frequency and so on. Those partials are calledharmonics because their frequency is a harmonic multiple of the fundamental.Confusing? Let’s generalize it to cyclic waveforms: a cyclic waveform like sawtooth, square etc. onlyconsists of harmonic partials. The harmonic with the lowest frequency is dominant and thereforecalled fundamental. All other harmonics are called overtones.