Sound Synthesis Basics
Blofeld User´s Manual
90
partials
. In most waveforms, the partial with the lowest
frequency is dominant, meaning that this partial is used by
the ear to determine the pitch of the tone. This partial is
called
fundamental
. All other partials are called
overtones
. So, the second partial is the first overtone.
Cyclic waveforms such as the waveforms in the Blofeld
only feature sine waves in integer frequency ratios to the
fundamental like double frequency, triple frequency and
so on. Those partials are called
harmonics
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. only consists
of harmonic partials. The harmonic with the lowest
frequency is dominant and therefore called fundamental.
All other harmonics are called overtones.
The Sawtooth Wave
The Sawtooth Wave is the most popular synthesizer
waveform. It consists of all harmonics in which the
magnitude of each harmonic descends by the factor of its
position. This means that the first harmonic (the
fundamental) has full magnitude, the second harmonic
has half magnitude, the third harmonic has a third
magnitude and so on. The following picture shows how
the individual harmonics build up the sawtooth wave:
Additive components of the Sawtooth wave
The sawtooth wave was thought as an abstraction of the
timbre of string and brass instruments. You can easily
understand that when you think of a violin. Imagine a
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