Waveforms

Hey guys,

i'd really like to know what a waveform exactly represents and would like to take an in-depth look.

i understand that most waveforms look fairly similar, i mean they rise and fall in a way that you can clearly hear as well. but sometimes i get these really edgy, weird waveforms that look like abstract paintings with no round curves at all, but rise and full abruptly. and they don't come from synthesizers, they're no pure square waves or anything, but mostly noises that i recorded in my room and that i've been processing heavily. or while fooling around with my fx-units (i often deliberately wire them in a way that "doesn't make sense"). sometimes there is nothing above or under the x-axis, sometimes the waveforms go way over 0dB and still i can hardly hear anything, although they exclusively operate within an audible frequency spectrum. sometimes what's on the left side looks exactly like a negative picture of what is on the right and so on and so on.... often i don't really hear what i see there when i get these shapes.

Does anyone of you know this waveform thing inside-out and can tell me what's going on,

or help me with a link to a page that really explains the whole affair?

thanks in advance

p.s.:i will post some screenshots tomorrow to give you an idea of what i'm talking about.

a waveform is amplitude graphed against time. um.. that's the answer. it probably is no help at all though.

  JOSEF said:

a waveform is amplitude graphed against time. um.. that's the answer. it probably is no help at all though.

id have to say

good answer

a waveform is a repesentation of the amplitude over time yes.

the amplitude is basically air pressure, going up and down in a particular pattern that's sent from the speakers (that have internal hammer like things that create pressure, you know how heavy bass speakers look when they play stuff, they're basically pushing pressure out) and picked up by your ears.

the hz (frequency) is the amount of cycles(waves) per second. 20khz is 20,000 waves per second, while 20hz is 20 waves per second. a middle A for instance produces 440hz.

an abrupt waveform is a sound that's high pitched and percussion like in nature.

a pure oscillated synth wave is on its own fairly simple but when you put it through filters and the rest of subtractive synthesis hootenanny, it becomes complex. try FM'ing a sine wave and examining the results.

nature sounds and vocal sounds etc are usually complex different waveforms changing. take a spoken sample, take a tiny bit from it and you'll hear the waveform at that particular instant.

maybe the next step in synthesis is letting complex waveforms sequence in a predefined pattern? I know you can do it in LFO but i'm talking abut like really complex predefined stuff so you can practically create any sound from scratch, even though it might be hard as hell

  dr. drumatix said:

maybe the next step in synthesis is letting complex waveforms sequence in a predefined pattern? I know you can do it in LFO but i'm talking abut like really complex predefined stuff so you can practically create any sound from scratch, even though it might be hard as hell

Is it wavetable synthesis you're talking about?

he's talking about additive synthesis.

waveforms are one of the only things that are real!

wheee!!!

hmm.. so it really is that simple, eh?

i mean, i knew about what makes up these graphs, but still just can't believe my eyes sometimes.

thought there was some hidden thing behind there.

can't post screenshots, got no internet connection myself, and my mp3player is broken.

well, i'm just gonna take my screenshots to an art gallery and hit the big time.

  ULCRESHXOBG said:

he's talking about additive synthesis.

  277: 930-933 said:

  dr. drumatix said:

maybe the next step in synthesis is letting complex waveforms sequence in a predefined pattern? I know you can do it in LFO but i'm talking abut like really complex predefined stuff so you can practically create any sound from scratch, even though it might be hard as hell

 

Is it wavetable synthesis you're talking about?

no, what i'm talking about doesn't exist yet. i mean a way more complex form of wavetable synthesis.. wavetable synthesis sucks anyway

lol qtf