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Origins of sound synthesis: Oscillators and oscillator waveforms

Origins of sound synthesis: Oscillators and oscillator waveforms - Ableton Live Tutorial

From the course: Learning Ableton Analog

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Origins of sound synthesis: Oscillators and oscillator waveforms

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- One of the first decisions that needs to be made when programing a synthesizer is to choose an oscillator waveform. In order to understand why this is important, let's start by discussing how waveforms are related to tone or sound color. So, have you ever wondered why different instruments playing the same note sound different? To explain, we think that we are hearing just a single pitch when we hear an instrument like a violin or clarinet play a note, but, really, we are hearing that pitch, the fundamental, and many other pitches which are whole number multiples of the fundamental's frequency. These multiples are referred to as harmonics. For example, if we play Middle C, the frequency of that note is 261.6Hz. The 2nd harmonic that is generated would be two times that frequency, or 563.2Hz. Now, in Ableton Live, Middle C is designated with (C3), so, that C that's an octave higher would be (C4). The 3rd harmonic, which would be three times the frequency of Middle C, would be…

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