Waldorf Edition - Manual (Page 19)

Waldorf Edition
User Manual 19 Waldorf
Rmod (Ring Modulation) 0%...100%
Volume of the ring modulation between Oscillators 1 and 2. From a technical point
of view, ring modulation is the multiplication of two oscillators’ signals. The result of
this operation is a waveform that contains the sums and the differences of the source
frequency components. Since ring modulation generates disharmonic components, it
can be used to add metallic distorted sound characteristics. This is useful when ge-
nerating crashes or cowbells. Please note that in a complex waveform all harmonic
components behave like interacting sine waves, resulting in a wide spectral range of
the ring modulated sound.
Ring modulation can result in unwanted low frequencies when the pitches of Oscil-
lators 1 and 2 don’t differ very much. This is logical because, for example, when you
use one oscillator set to 100 Hz and the second set to 101 Hz, the resulting ring mo-
dulation is 201 Hz and 1 Hz, and 1 Hz is very low.
Crack 0%...100%
Fades in the Crack Modulator. The Crack Modulator was designed
especially for creating hand clap sounds. Technically it is an ampli-
tude modulation using a sawtooth waveform. The speed and the
number of waveforms can be chosen. After transmitting its intended
modulation, the Crack Modulator resumes emission of a constant signal.
The Crack Modulator superimposes its effect on all other mixer signals (Oscillator 1
and 2, Ring Modulator).
Crack Speed 1Hz...5000Hz
Determines the frequency of the Crack Modulator.
Crack Length 1 Cycles...∞ Cycles
Determines the number of modulations the Crack Modulator creates.
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To program an authentic sounding handclap, set Crack Speed to 105 Hz and
Crack Length to 3 cycles.
Filter Section
Once the audio signal leaves the mixer, it is sent to the filters. The At-
tack offers a multimode filter with different filter types.
In a subtractive synthesizer a filter is a component that have signifi-
cant influence on sound characteristics. But the Attack was designed
to make drum and percussion sounds, for which the filter is used
merely for fine tuning the sound. Yet you can also create bass and
lead sounds which definitely require a filter.
For now, we’ll explain the basic function of a filter, discussing the ty-
pe used most commonly in synthesizers: the low pass filter.
The low pass filter type dampens frequencies that lie above a specified
cutoff frequency. Frequencies below this threshold are barely affected.
The frequency below the cutoff point is called the pass band range,