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Sell me on Waverazor as a sound-design tool?

0 votes
Hello, I'm in the position of

-wanting to support and experience innovative synthesis,

-liking the introductory pricing, but

-not sure of what I'll experience when the editor arrives.

In particular, it's clear that Waverazor can produce cool, possibly quite novel sounds, but it's less clear to me (a) why, and (b) whether I'll be able to discover them effectively through the Editor or learn to home in on the sounds I'm looking for.   Partly this is because the direct waveform-editing capabilities are front-and-center and, in experience with other synths, I don't find the results of this process very intuitive when compared to the spectral viewpoint.

Based on the recent NAMM video (and my experience with using other semi-modular softsynths, e.g. Zebra), I have some notion of what to expect on the editor side, but... how should I think about this new tool, why is it exciting?  Input from anyone is appreciated.
asked Feb 6, 2018 in Waverazor by andyd (160 points)
edited Feb 7, 2018 by andyd

1 Answer

+5 votes
 
Best answer
Great question!  (But I don't think I can really answer it...)  Not to get too philosophical, but everyone's experience of the world is their own, so you'll have to decide for yourself whether or not Waverazor is the instrument for you.

That said, you can definitely get a feel for the essence of Waverazor by downloading the demo.  The main GUI page does currently let you edit aspects of the individual wave segments, like Volume and Pitch, Phase and DC offset, and the Shape itself.  Changing these aspects, and the wave discontinuities resulting from these changes, create new harmonic spectra in the wave.

Oftentimes on the main GUI page, there are also controls for how the waves get sliced.  The four knobs on the right side are usually set up to change the razor/slicer parameters.  Step Size changes the length of all the slices in either fractions or multiples of a single cycle.  Step Frac is like a fine tune for Step Size.  Step Duty is similar to pulse width modulation of of the slices, favoring one set of alternating slices versus the other.  And finally, Mutant AM changes the frequency of the razor in relation to its slice contents.

What you can't change yet are things like the number of slices in the oscillator, or other modulations like LFOs routed to the oscillator that give it animation.  You'll have to wait for the editor for all the deeper stuff.  However, there are many template patches that are great starting points for a wide variety of experimentation, and there's more than enough control in there already for you to get a decent feel for how this form of synthesis generally behaves.  Additionally, any edits you make now can be saved for further editing later when the full editor arrives.

Finally, there are three main discoveries in Waverazor (so far), in regard to pushing the boundaries of synthesis.  One, is how waveforms behave when sliced together with phase coherence at audio rate.  Nothing else does this and it's the basis of our patent-pending design.  Two, we can perform "Multi-Sync", which is multiple hard sync points within a single cycle or beyond a single cycle.  Previously, all we had in the world was hard sync, which is a single phase reset at a single cycle.  And three, we have "Mutant AM", which is a complex ring mod matrix, sequenced by your choice of slice content.  Traditional ring mod is one oscillator wave modulating the amplitude of another oscillator wave.  In Waverazor, the amplitudes of the fundamental and its harmonics are dependent on the contents of each slice, so they may be on or off, or at any amplitude in between, creating a tapestry of amplitudes across the frequency spectrum.

Alright, I hope this helps, and no worries if Waverazor is not your cup of tea.  If you get a chance, I'd love to hear what you eventually conclude and why.  We definitely listen to all feedback, both positive and negative, as it helps us create better experiences with our instruments in the future.  Cheers for your question, and I hope we hear from you again soon.

All the best,

Taiho
answered Feb 7, 2018 by taiho (9,320 points)
selected Feb 7, 2018 by andyd
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