roboctopus — LSDJ & You: Collapse of the Waveform (2014)

The introduction to drawing waves rather than generating them, aimed at players who can already write a song: "My goal is to help intermediate users learn techniques to really fill out their songs and take their sound design to a higher level." Three instruments, each a small edit to a stock lsdj waveform.

Key claims#

• Set-up for all three: a WAV instrument with PLAY set to MANUAL — "manual play means that unless you use an F command in conjunction with that instrument it will play the static wave in the first frame of the synth" — then edit that wave in the WAVE screen.
• A meaner saw: take the default saw and "alter [it] into something more angular and vicious" — more bite and more low end than the LSDj default.
• Volume is height. "The overall height (amplitude) of the waveform determines its volume … decrease the height even more for lower volumes. This works for any waveform you draw." Note it is the wave's overall height, not its height above the bottom of the screen — the drawn equivalent of the frame-envelope method (instrument-envelopes).
• A painfully narrow pulse: start from the synth's pulse signal at VOLUME 40, then drop every sample to zero except the first. "The sound of this wave is harsh — not much low end, pretty abrasive sounding. It can be useful for a section of the song where you want low notes but no low-end. It works very well for distinctive table arpeggios." Widening it is just moving more samples up from 0 toward F.
• A sine with a notch: from a slightly clipped sine at VOLUME 40, cut a notch out of the top of the peak. The result is "a bass with great low-end but enough definition to cut through the mix more than a sine wave".
• The rule that ties shape to sound: "the more angular the wave, the sharper its edges, the sharper and harsher the sound is." Deepen the notch and the tone gets harsher; narrow it to one sample and it sharpens; round its contour and the sound smooths out.
• A mixing note, stated as the fix for a common complaint: "if you find your WAV channel sounds to be too quiet, turn those pulse and noise channels down! I rarely have anything on pulse above A8, and pulse volumes are usually lower than that." The warning attached: doing so "will increase the apparent volume of panning and envelope clicks".

Practical takeaways#

• Three usable instruments in one sitting, all by nudging samples in the WAVE screen: an angular saw, a one-sample pulse for arps, a notched sine bass.
• Draw the volume, don't command it: redraw the same shape shorter.
• The wave channel is quiet by design (game-boy-apu); bring the other channels down to it rather than fighting it.

Notable quotes#

"The more angular the wave, the sharper its edges, the sharper and harsher the sound is."

Relevance to the wiki#

The hand-drawing school that the wiki otherwise only meets through the ghost-channel: what the shape of a single wave does to the sound, in plain terms, with three instruments to copy.

Pages touched#

wavetable-programming · instrument-design · chip-samples · lsdj · roboctopus · levels-and-headroom