Waveform drawing for synth

David · Post by **David** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 6:57 pm

I would like a synth that enabled me to draw my own waveforms to play.

There could be a drawing window, which would allow freeform drawing with the mouse (maybe the mouse pointer changing to the pencil tool)
Standard wave shapes could be selected or a clear button would give a blank drawing area.
Drawing over or correcting the waveform overwrites the displayed waveform.
A frequency controller knob (it would be grand if it enabled positive and negative values / forward and reverse playing of the waveform).
All the other functions which the 'Multi LFO A' module has.

I would truly like to play with a 3D waveform window, which allowed the 3D waveform to be played across different planes of the 3D image. Perhaps the waveform plane could be rotated by three midi assignable knobs representing the (x,y,z) axis. Again with all the functions of the Multi LFO A module

I couldn't see where to post "wants", so I've ended up posting here. My appologies if this is not the right place, my brain isn't working properly of late:)

eliam · Post by **eliam** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:08 pm

I dreamed of this idea during my nap earlier today. It is indeed very interesting and vast as a concept. I'd be surprised if the idea has never been developed, but what would be really amazing would be to actually be able to look at the wave-form through stereoscopic vision -in real 3D! That would be incredible; of being able to mold the 3D form into the shape that we choose, like a virtual sculpture...

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:33 pm

I thought the fairlight synths did this.. Or, it's basically a wavetable synth, but you get to draw your own wavetable. Doesn't Vecteron do this also? It's not fancy in 3d or anything tho..

Actually I'm wonderin'.. you got time x frequency for a 2d waveform.. what would the 3rd axis be if you were to make it 3d? Err.. actually I guess it could pretty much be anything that can be defined as numbers..

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2002-03-05 19:35 ]

dblbass · Post by **dblbass** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:48 pm

This would be great fun. In theory, it should not be very difficult. all you'd need is some sort of graphical drawing thingy linked to wavetable data.

but where could this most easily be implemented? I mean, several leading sequencers generally already have good curve drawing tools for things like expression controllers etc, but don't have wavetable synthesis except maybe in plugin VSTis.

Mod2 is of course a nice DIY synth environment which include wavetable components, but it has none of the right graphical interface stuff to expose the wavetable data to graphical-like user modification.

Though I don't have Scope, I'm fairly sure that its toolkit does not include the right bits for doing this in a dedicated Pulsar synth, so I doubt we'll see this within pulsar anytime soon - though it would definitely be cool.

In a realted idea, a few months ago I was hoping I could inspire a scope developer to attempt an oscilloscope in Pulsar. (no one jumped on the idea ) Though its not as good as drawing your own wave, even looking at it would be useful. Imagine two tunable oscilloscopes devices plugged into a signal path before and after a filter or some other effect, so you could actually look at what the impact on the waveform. This is of course a different way of looking at sound than in frequency domain such as with FFT-type displays, and I've always thought it would be useful.

Ah well, so much for day dreams. Maybe someday the developers will get around to this idea.

dblbass · Post by **dblbass** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 8:00 pm

hi ken, your post above went up just as I was composing mine

you wrote

Actually I'm wonderin'.. you got time x frequency for a 2d waveform.. what would the 3rd axis be if you were to make it 3d?

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but 2D waveform should be time x amplitude (or voltage or something) and 3D is time x amplitude x TIME, where the first time scale is essentially in the range of one cycle of the fundamental (repeated many times by the waveplayer)and the second TIME scale is coarser, allowing the waveform to morph through the lifespan of the note. At least that's my understanding

[ This Message was edited by: dblbass on 2002-03-05 20:06 ]

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 8:46 pm

oh yeah, you're right dblbass.. It's time x amplitude. I was thinking of a static fft.. 2d, but quite useless if it's static. duh.

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2002-03-05 20:47 ]

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 9:17 pm

I don't know about 3d waveform, but 2D really exist within Pulsar! Try downloading the real Vectron demo, and your able to draw that waveform a keep it in your wavetable!

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 3:39 am

I remember a Mac program

back from the days of diskless 68k machines doing this.
There was even a smoothing function to make that 8 bit 22 khz stuff a bit more standable - and it did additive synthesis, too

But seriously : a couple of years ago there was a software called Visual Synth or something like, for transforming all kinds of graphs to sounds.
It's fun on a first glance, but not very useful imho - one doesn't hear by the eyes

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2002-03-06 03:40 ]

David · Post by **David** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 12:56 pm

[quote]
one doesn't hear by the eyes
-----------------------------

I remeber back in old Amiga days they had a synth called Sonic (or something like that) that allowed you to draw a 2D waveform and make alterations in realtime - enabling you to hear the changes made. You could modify certain areas of the waveform to create interesting/experimental distortions and harmonies - not like trying to hear by the eyes at all.
I mention the Amiga because if it could be done on that machine, I find it hard to believe that Pulsar is not capable of it.

Another addition to the 3D waveform synth would be to read the waveform as envelope data. Allowing the same selection of x,y,z axis of the 3D waveform for use as an envelope.

Please anyone build this to play with.
Until then I'll check out the Vectron demo

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 8:34 am

NI Absynth has 2d waveform drawing, so does the Vectron I think.

_________________

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2002-03-07 08:35 ]