Hands up all those who love the sound of “Digital” Synthesizers? If you do then one of this module is for you. Especially if you want to be able to control the amount of Waveshaping by using a control voltage.
It’s a “Third Party” module courtesy of RH Modules http://www.rhmodules.nl/downloads/dspgui/
The basics are quite straightforward. The ‘Scope and 1kHz Oscillator modules are included just to show the effect of the DH-Waveshaper. The default for the Shape control voltage is +/- 5 Volts, but this can be increased to +/- 20 Volts to give a wider range of shapes. See the screenshots below…
The only waveforms that aren’t worth putting through the waveshaper are a pulse (you’ll get some wild amplitude changes and some very large spikes on the leading and trailing edges), or noise. Unlike the SynthEdit stock Waveshapers there are no formulae to set up, just a control voltage
The effect of +20 Volts Shape CV
This gives and extreme foldback effect on the positive and negative peaks of the audio input.
The effect of 0Volts Shape CV
Here we get a slight flattening of the sine wave peaks which gives a very subtle distortion, almost like a slightly overdriven valve PA.
The effect of -5 Volts Shape CV
This gives us a “crossover distortion” effect where the audio input doesn’t start to appear at the output a until the audio input has risen slightly above 0 volts.
The effect of -20 Volts Shape CV.
Starts folding back the 0 volts crossover portion of the audio input.
Modulating with an ADSR module.
Just as a basic “bare bones” idea of what’s possible, you could have the waveshaper modulated by an ADSR2 triggered by the keyboard so the peak level of the audio is the most distorted.
Modulating with an LFO Module.
Or a free running LFO so that the distortion varies slowly (or rapidly) over time
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