Sine Waves - Crap/Not Crap?

[Zen Cat]

I must confess I can't remember the last time I used a sine wave.

I use the Virus A for a lot of my synth work and usually play around with saw on Osc1 and square on Osc2.

There's so much one can do with saw tooth and square waves that I feel I might
be missing out on hidden sine possibilities!

So, does anyone have any thoughts on since waves? Are they just rubbish or am I missing something??

 

[Pocket Fluff]

Obviously amazing for sub bass. Try adding a long release and play higher notes, there may be a slight click you can get rid of, but you should have a nice music box type sound

 

[Zen Cat]

What about leads? Have you managed to incorproate it into any phat psychedelic leads?

 

[ichabod]

Kick drums? not sure what else I use them for in psytrance... for minimal techno type stuff its a different matter though - lots of the pitched analogue percussion type stuff and bleepy synths are based on sine waves and sound sweet. Would be cool to try to use a few more of these types of sounds in psytrance.

 

[Speakafreaka]

Sine waves are amazing! End of story. In my opinion the wave of choice on synths with any half decent modulation options, the bestest LFO shape for most things (especially for simulating PWM on synths that half PW control but no PWM) and really useful when you want to set things up in microscopic detail like cutoff frequency.

I'm not even going to go in to FM or additive synths, although you don't have to use sine waves on these, but generally it is much easier when you do.

Furthermore you can make any waveshape out of sine waves. If I was on a desert island it would be my wave of choice.

 

[makdaddy]

If I was on a desert island it would be my wave of choice.

hahaa nerdy comment of the day award most definately goes to you speaka ! :punk:

 

[Zen Cat]

I'm not denying that they're great for modulating things, but what about using them for actual sounds?

 

[floatyhippyflower]

A pure sine wave is pretty much my favourite sound in the whole world. I became rather obsessed with them a few years ago. I especially loved a patch I once programmed on an old free VSTi called Triangle (I think) where I added a dotted, panned delay and a bit of reverb, and ever so slightly reduced the attack. It was fucking lush even if I do say so myself and I used it all over the place. My mate used to call it "the Rina sound." They are woefully underused if you ask me. I still get mountainous goosebumps whenever I hear that moogy synth melody in Ozric's Aura Borealis, and there's just nowt better than a phat siney bassline pumping through your body at fully pelt...

Yep. :wub:

 

[Speakafreaka]

Yeah, just about any FM lead sound you like will be made out of two sine waves.

hahaa nerdy comment of the day award most definately goes to you speaka !

Aharrrr!!!! Certainly floated my boat!

 

[floatyhippyflower]

hahaa nerdy comment of the day award most definately goes to you speaka ! :punk:

Ditto. :ilol:

 

[teavibration]

in my own opinion, layering sine waves makes far better/tighter/textured bass sounds than saw waves ever can

 

[spork]

sine waves are good for using with guitar effects (pedals etc) beacuse i guess thats the type of wave a real guitar generates? you can get some quite realistic tones

 

[Oscillating_Pixie_Pie]

in my own opinion, layering sine waves makes far better/tighter/textured bass sounds than saw waves ever can

heh that boy has been telling me the importance of sines the past couple of weeks, will come round soon and show me:P my laptop is due back from repires 2day

 

[Zen Cat]

OK, it sounds like there may be unexplored possibilities here!

I will try to get some good shizzle going on by putting sine waves on Osc 1 and 2 and playing arounf with sync, FM and all o' that good stuff.

FloatyHippyFlower - I like the sound of this mysterious patch of which you speak.

 

[Si Harmonic]

Saw this in Aprils Future Music,​

'If you are making music with big breakdowns, you might notice that your track doesn't seem to have as much energy, and seems to lose the flow when everything drops out. One great way to add some oomph to your breakdown is to have a sine wave playing a very low note, quetly throughout.'​

Haven't tried it yet but seems like an interesting use of a sine wave.​

 

[Speakafreaka]

Alternatively, make sampler with multiple sine wave instruments all triggering on one midi channel and with each instrument tuned into different pitch of the harmonic series Vary amplitude using different envelopes - instant additive synth.

Believe me, you can get some very interesting noises this way, and although there is nothing stopping you doing this with any and indeed all waveforms, it is a lot easier to control it all with Sine ones.