Chapter 2: Making Waves

I gotta admit, that first chapter was brutal to write. The purpose of my tutorial is all about learning synthesis, not menus! Anyway let's get to it.

Let's begin a new song and go to the SYNTH page. There are knobs separated into different categories. Be wary, the text above the knobs is the category name, while below it is for that specific knob. Let's just focus on the VCO category, which means Voltage Controlled Oscillator. Some other synths call this OSC. VCO is kind of a misnomer for a digital synth, but the naming is meant to emulate the knobs on the Korg MS-10, so it is forgivable. For the knobs VCO1 and VCO2, you will notice they do not glide, but jump to four different selections, these are your waveforms. From left to right, they are triangle, sawtooth, pulse (sometimes called square), and noise. If you press the B button, you can see the waveform on the upper screen matches what you selected (assuming you did start a new song and didn't change anything else!).

I should mention, the noise on VCO2 is different than VCO1. To hear and see the difference, put both on noise and use the balance knob to go back and forth (straight up plays both at the same volume), pressing B to play the sound. The VCO2 noise is looks like a bunch of random pulse waves, which is great for simulating chiptune type sounds.

VCO1 has a Pulse Width knob, which only affects the pulse wave. The PW can go from 50% to 0%. Notice how 0% is just silence. Something to note, on the NES soundchip you could have a pulse wave with 75%, 50%, 25%, or 12.5% even though 75% and 25% sound exactly the same. Why is that? I'm afraid that's not an easy answer, but I can give that it's own tutorial if anyone really wants to know. For now, I just want to mention that 0-50 is all you really need here.

VCO2's pulse wave is a true square wave, with a 50% duty cycle. VCO2 has a pitch knob, which can be used to detune it from VCO1. I am a bit sad that it doesn't show how many cents it is detuned (this app is digital, it would be easy!). Instead you just have to play it by ear till you find something you feel sounds good. VCO SYNC keeps the two VCOs pulsing at the same rate, but for me I prefer the way things sound if they are not synced.

Play around with the keyboard or kaoss pad to hear your waves across different notes. Go nuts!

If you want to know more about what these waves really are, I suggest reading this article. In fact, that entire series is a good read and I am starting to question if my series is even needed. Doh!

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