About Analogue Synthesis - Novation Super Bass Station Owner's Manual

To understand synthesis of sound it is necessary to have some understanding about sound
About Analogue
itself. Sound is a vibration or Oscillation. These vibrations create changes in air pressure
Synthesis
that is picked up by our ears and perceived as sound. When dealing with musical sounds
the vibrations or oscillations occur at regular intervals and are perceived as the "Pitch" or
"Frequency" of a sound. The simplest musical sound is a sine wave because it contains only one "Pitch" and is perceived
as a very "Pure" tone, similar to a whistle. Most musical sounds consist of several different "Pitches" or "Frequencies" The
loudest is referred to as the "Fundamental Harmonic" and determines the perceived "Pitch" of the note. The other frequen-
cies present are called "Harmonics" and in musical sounds usually occur in multiples of the fundamental harmonic's fre-
quency, i.e. If the fundamental note is 440Hz then a musical harmonic series would be, 2nd Harmonic = 880Hz, 3rd
Harmonic = 1320Hz, 4th Harmonic - 1760Hz, 5th Harmonic = 2200Hz etc. etc. The number and loudness of these
"Harmonics" determine the "Timbre" of a sound. This gives a sound character and is why a violin sounds different from a
guitar and a piano sounds different again. In an Analogue synthesiser you have the choice of several different waveforms.
Each waveform has different amounts of harmonics and so the "Timbre" of each one is quite different. Below are descrip-
tions of some of the waveforms and indications on what they can best be used for.
Sawtooth waves have all the harmonics of the fundamental frequency. As you can see every har-
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monic has half the amptitude of the previous one. This waveform is pleasing to the ear and is useful
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Sawtooth Wave Harmonic
for Basses, leads and synthesising stringed instruments.
Square waves have only the odd harmonics present. These are at the same amptitude as the odd
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harmonics in a saw wave. Square waves have a hollow / metallic sound to them and so are useful
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Square Wave Harmonic
for creating unusual synthesiser sounds and oboe like sounds.
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