Pairing waveforms is the basics of timbre/tone experiment. Of course there’s a lot of other steps. I would start with these parameters first, AMP Envelope, FENV, and Filters. This is because we’re looking for the timbre/tone it’s something stable. There is no movement at this stage. Still there can be movement on the waveform itself like PWM (pulse width modulation). Don’t forget your Analog Four can PWM every waveform. So you can kind make your waveform thinner (and the opposite) and it will have an impact on how the waveform sounds.
Pairing methods
Doubling Oscillators
If it’s the same waveform with same settings, you only get a volume increase. You can play with both phase if it’s at your disposal. When it’s 180 degrees out of phase it may result of phase cancellation issue depending also on the type of waveform.
Then when doubling oscillators with the same settings you can go with detuning each oscillator (the chorusing effect, somehow called Vintage on VST synth)
Let’s say -4 on OSC1 and +4 on OSC2. The more they are detuned the more the chorus effect is pronounced at some point you break this and they are just out of tune.
We can also go more in depth than two oscillators. On the analog four, you have 2 sub-oscillators they act fixed or they can help for one finger chords type of patch (refer to the post « one finger chords later in the course). One way to be free with let’s say 4 oscillators and detuning 4 main OSC is to use 2 voices (or more) with the USE TRK SOUND option checked. So you can do OSC1: -8, OSC2: -4, OSC3: +4, OSC4: +8 etc. and we can even imagine a supersaw with 4 voices well configured.
Mixing waveforms (in terms of levels)
Let’s say you use a Triangle and a Square as I do in the 808 Bass Recipe. You can also make a good use of Octave separation concept and use a Square -2 octave in OSC1 and a Square -1 octave in OSC2 (may or may not be detuned) this is cool because this way it can add to the sound some lowend or bite. When you do have to add depth, richness to the Timbre/Tone it’s usually the first thing to try.
Also when pairing oscillators comes another important concept and they work together hand in hand is mixing. The Triangle can be at Level: 127 and the Square at Level: 70 for instance – that’s mixing and more important it result of the mixing waveforms : a new waveform.
(You can perfectly see that in an oscilloscope and you should try it!)
Syncing Oscillators
Detuning a bit 2 oscillators and playing on the phase are from the same concepts. Hard syncing oscillators comes handy for instance when you create lead sounds, but you should pitch your oscillators differently.
It have to do with Oscillator options page:
SMD (Sync Mode) enable oscillator sync between the two oscillators, either Osc2 synchronized to Osc1, Osc1 to Osc2, or Metal Sync where both os- cillators reset each other in a special manner.
SNC (Sync Amount) sets how hard the synced oscillator will lock to the syncing oscillator’s frequency. Maximum value gives so-called “hard sync” with the strongest sync sound. Lower values give “soft sync” where the synced oscillator can also lock to subharmonics of the syncing oscillator. The value zero gives no sync at all.
Note: as I said this make more sense if oscillators are pitched differently
Combining Waveforms (blending types)
Creating new tones/new timbre is (but not only) a good way to make use of it all because it give at your disposal a full range of tones.
In this regards, using 2 voices when designing sounds can be useful because you can pass RAW sound on TRK1 and Filtered sound on TRK2. Giving you a lot more in terms of range of tones/timbre.
On the Analog Four you don’t have a filter for each oscillators, the oscillators both pass into the filter. Also Filters are in serial and not parallel. One thing to also consider is you don’t have options to deactivate one of the two or something like that. So to reach a whole level in terms of range of tone it can be nice to use 2 voices for designing more complex sounds.
Let’s say you want to combine a SAW and a Filtered SAW ? Unless you use 2 voices then you can’t do this.
On one voice, or Track you can only Pair, mixing waveforms (don’t forget octave separation) and filtering the result.
Then what you can do is alter the timbre and that’s what come next.
What we can do from here ?
Studying by re-programming 808 bass Recipe and TKN_Bass 01 Recipe
They both make a good use (in the bass territory) of Pairing and Mixing Waveforms. Both with triangle and pulse with Octave separation and mixing Levels to get an interesting timbre/tone
