Section 2 Part 1 - Sound Sources

Hi all,

The next section of the course is very in-depth and will include quite a bit of theory.

The Instrument being used in the first part of section 2 covering Wave Shapes & Advanced Wave Shapes
will be Zebra 2.5 (yes Matt you talked me into it)

This section of section 2 (there will be a few sub sections in section 2) will cover the following :

Sine Wave
Saw Wave
Square Wave/Pulse Wave
Pulse Width Modulation
Triangle Waves
Noise

It will also cover :

Oscillators x 2
Oscillator Phase
Hard Sync
Detuning Oscillators
Multiple Oscillators
Combining Oscillators

After this section we will get onto Sample based synthesis.

Many thanks,

Mark

Ok the first video is ready for checking out.

I have made this video available via streaming ONLY. This is a method i am considering using for the video course to try and combat (or at least make it a lot more hassle) my videos being made available on free download sites. This is, however not 100% the way i have decided to go and am only testing it here with you guys.

Please dont fill up this thread with things like "streaming sucks for those on low bandwidth" etc. I all ready know this and am looking at ways of making the videos available to these people also.

I have also added another level of "hassle" to get access to these videos. To view the videos you MUST have an account with Screencast.com which you will be prompted to create when you follow the link below. I know this can be a hassle so again, please leave these comments out of this thread.

I really do hate to do this to you guys but i know, for certain, that there is at least 1 person on my subscribers list who has made the whole psy trance course available for download on a warez site so i have to take these steps. I did take steps to have the course removed from the site which seems to have worked. When using streaming technology of this type it forces who ever wants to steal the videos to make them available for illegal download to copy the videos using screen capture software which means he has to do a bit of work himself. Not too difficult but more hassle for the pirate the better.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR VIEWING VIDEO

I WILL SEND EACH OF YOU A SEPERATE INVITE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON SCREENCAST.COM
PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER FOR THIS EMAIL
FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE EMAIL, THIS WILL BE A LINK TO THE VIDEO WHICH WILL THEN PROMPT YOU TO CREATE
A SCREENCAST ACCOUNT WHICH TAKES 2 MINUTES
YOU THEN NEED TO VERIFY YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT AT SCREENCAST
YOU WILL THEN HAVE FULL ACCESS TO THE VIDEOS

Thanks,

Mark

Mark,

Sorry to hear about the wares situation. Hope you get it all sorted out.

On to the video...

The first transition from sine to tri is a bit jumpy. Mabey a transition screen?

Same with the transition from tri to square.

Well all the transition are jumpy, honestly I actually dont care. You hit all the information well and the only thing I could find was no explination on the ratios for the pulse wave harmonics, but you said you were not going to get into that, but you did for the rest...

Nice work on using Zebra 2.5. I think it was a splended idea.

Matt

Hiya All, I thought the video was well explained but when you change from one wave shape to the other it is not really fluent.. I will agree with Matt and will suggest a small break or transition before the next wave shape is explained... One more thing that did leave me curious was, how come the triangle and square wave has harmonics on 3/5/9 etc? any way i know you said you did not want to get into it so its not that important.

Anthony

HI guys,

thanks for your comments.

I didn't put transitions in between the change from wave types as i thought the fact that at the top of the power-point presentation clearly states what wave form we are working on was enough, obviously not, i will add transitions to make it even clearer, good thinking

Psyviz its clearly stated that these waves have only ODD harmonics i think, hence the ODD numbers but i will re-check to make sure.

anything to say regarding sound quality, are the levels more even and equal now?

thanks

Mark

Hi,

Having looked at the video again, your right i dont actually mention that the Triangle wav harmonics are odd although i do go through the fact that the harmonics are all on ODD numbers. I will insert a balloon to make sure that you understand that the Triangle wave is ODD harmonics.

the square wave section clearly mentions that its ODD harmonics, i have also written ODD harmonics on the powerpoint presentation and i explain the harmonics too.

I am just adding the transitions now and trying to make anythign i missed clearer

thanks

Mark

Hey Mark,
Im sorry to hear about the warez problem hope you manage to find the culprit can you not track it back to the uploader somehow?

On to the review..

A nice little tutorial i felt it flowed quite well.

I also liked the fact that it was streamed online as it means i can watch it at work without having to download the video.

I thought the video quality was good maybe even a littel better than the videos i have downloaded. Not sure why that is maybe something to do with my set up.

Audio sounded great are you now using your new headset? If so it really shows money well spent.

I didnt personally have any issues with the transitions.
One thing that left me a little puzzled which maybe explained later is why do we need to know the harmonics what is the purposse of this information. Maybe a brief explanation of why we need to know these then going into more depth in the future vids.

Cheers Derren.

Hi Derren,

thanks for your feedback.

the reasons for the differing quality is down to me using slightly different settings due to some complaints regarding Video quality.

Also your quite right, the new headset is being used and i am glad to say they are well worth the "fortune" i spent on them :O

Regarding the reasons for understanding harmonics, your quite right, i completely overlooked explaining why you need to know that a saw wave has odd/even harmonics and a sine wave only has 1 harmonic or fundamental. i will add something to the video to explain this.

Just so you know, the basic reason for understanding harmonic content is this - so you know what waves will be good for making X type of sound. For instance, now you know that a sine wave only has the fundamental you wouldn't waste your time trying to use a sine wave to create a rich pad or hoover sound but you would certainly use it to create sub bass or a kick drum.
In the same breath you now understand that a saw wave would be perfect for a hoover sound due to the richness of the sound created because of the amount of harmonic content (odd+even). and hopefully you now also understand that the square wave sounds "hollow" because it only has ODD harmonics.

This is what i am expecting you to learn from these sections, i hope you did :O but i will certainly add a written bubble to explain this.

thanks

Mark

Hallo there! Really enjoyed watching this one and have to say that the quality was better than the videos already downloaded. However, the overall volume of the video was a bit low (balance of your voice and audio examples was perfect,by the way)! As far as it concerns the content of the video, I found it really interesting, the flow between waveforms was perfect IMO and the use of spectrum analyzer essential and great. Bravo from me!

Thanks Labros,

hmm you thought it was a bit low eh, i actually thought it was a tad high listening to it at -20db on my mixer, let me know if anyone else thought this was low please.

Yes the balance between voice and internal sounds should always be perfect now with no more dips in my voice due to the new headset.

I am awaiting the MD of BlueCatAudio getting back to me to let me know exactly how much he will be giving you guys off of their products. I will let you know as soon as i receive the info.

I am just converting the updated version of this video and will upload asap.

thanks again,

Mark

Hi again... I also thought the overall volume of the video was just a little lower than previous beta videos. although it did make the experience gracious.. I think before you had a little to much bass on your voice and now there is less so its not as punchy.

Anthony

HI,

thanks Anthony, i may have to increase the overall volume of the videos then by a few dB then.

thanks

Mark

PLEASE REVIEW ONLY VIDEO 2 NOW - FILE NAME bwf2

Thanks

Mark

Mark, just watched the first video about wave shapes using screencast.
Totally right about that.
Spot on.




Dukedija

excellent, i assume that was the 2nd video Didier?

thanks

Mark

Finished watching the second version of the video and it is definitely better although the first 2 transitions your voice ends rather quickly or the transition comes in to quick, i dont know if this is worth fixing.. I did notice that in your last balloon tip at the end you have "due their harmonic content" and it should be "due to their harmonic content" Other than that great vid.

Anthony

Oh no i didnt did I? What an Eegit ! I will have to fix that lol

the editing for the transitions was quite difficult although i will try and tidy it up.

thanks

Mark

Hi Mark,

I just finished watching BW2 for the second time. The content is spot on, good job! However, after the introduction and before you go into the Sine Wave, it appears you edited the vocal in the middle of a sentence. There was a similar break before introducing the Triangle Wave. There was no problem when you transitioned into the Square Wave. It might be worth a mention that most synths that have a suboscilator, they ususally use a square wave for this oscilator. Just a bit of fact. Then when going into the Saw Tooth, you jumped right in abruptly.

Cheers,
John

abrupt switch(end) @ 1:01

Another, but FREE Oscilloscope is http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=4

@ 2:30 onwards or so, would you explain what a harmonic is?

@ 6:23, I begin to wonder, WHAT IS A FUNDAMENTAL? AND WHAT EXACTLY IS A HARMONIC AGAIN? I got that sine waves don't have 'em, and thus aren't used in Subtractive synthesis (ie., harmonics required for anything that modulates sound via filters, eh)... But, explain to me what a Fundamental and a Harmonic are exactly, eh...

@ 7:20-25: Transition shows Square Wave Oscilloscope for a second, eh... but I guess you may have noticed this already...

@ 11:45-12:30, you could easily trim at least 15 seconds from here, if not closer to 30; TOO MUCH REPETITION, eh....

@ 12:30 - VERY INTERESTING!

I FOUND THIS VIDEO VERY, VERY INTERESTING!!! I LOVED THIS! I'D LOVE TO GET THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS, EH!!!!!!! Following along the information in the video with a text file on the side would be AWESOME!!!

@ 14:30, etc... Reading the explanation, I want to understand what EXACTLY a Harmonic is? And a Fundamental, as well??? This video has inspired me to do my own research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic

perhaps you wanna' highlight, or mention (cause this seems important): "Overall harmonic content increases as pulse width narrows." if you didn't already????

Thanks for making this subject VERY INTERESTING, and basically teaching me something I NEVER knew before! I'm very thankful! I am VERY INTERESTED in developing my own sounds, eh.... THANKS!

oh yeah - SOUND WAS PERFECT!

a request: Could you add a real quick summary\rehash of everything in the video, and in text. ie.,

Sine only has fundamental
Saw has both even and odd harmonics
Square has odd harmonics, and therefore hallow sound
etc...

kinda' in bulleted form, and you could run over it with voice at the end would present a real nice recap, eh..... that ways, if I needed to refresh my memory, I could just goto the last minute of your video and get all the content of it instead of having to scroll through the whole video, etc...

THANKS!

Mark

Volume levels are fine. Clear and level.

For future videos when you do place transitions it might work better if you keep talking it does not seem like the video stops.

The info is great.

Matt

[quote="SpaceWalker"]

a request: Could you add a real quick summary\rehash of everything in the video, and in text. ie.,

[quote]

I meant, AT THE END OF THE VIDEO! summary at the end, eh...

Review of bwf2

I have no beef at all with this version, they are looking more and more pro now with all the transition sceens etc.

This was also a very useful video, again this is covering all the information i was craving last year. i definately could have been ahead of the game if this was out back then. I still picked up alot of tips from this, easy to follow, no problems with duplicating on the synths.

The sine wave with the saw wave at the end, the sine seems low but i suppose thats its function there.

All good!!

HI Guys,

Thanks for all your feedback.

I have now finished this video with these changes.

I have removed the transitions as i dont feel they are necessary due to the fact the Powerpoint presentation clearly states what it is that we are working on. (THIS WILLBE THE FORMAT FROM NOW ON)

I wont be adding any PDF, txt file or summary at the end of the video as i feel there is no need, all the info is right there on the screen.

Explanation of Harmonic and Fundamental has been added in bubble form.

Increased over all volume.

thanks

Mark