Waveshaper
MAS.641 Midterm Project | October 2005

~ A synthesizer that uses wave-shaping for time-varying timbre ~

Overview (.pdf)

Audio Samples:

Sinusoidal wave (0:44, 528.7 KB)
+ going through the nine preset transfer functions
+ uses manual control of waveshaping function
+ set to use the full range of the transfer function
Square wave (1:02, 737.2 KB)
+ going through the nine preset transfer functions
+ the range of the transfer function is modulated using a wave
Random examples (4:04, 2.8 MB)
+ experimenting with transfer function, range of transfer function used, method of transfer function (manual versus modulating wave), depth and rate of modulating wave, input waveform (sawtooth, square, sine), attack, release, lowpass filter parameters (cutoff frequency and resonance), and tempo.

Nine Transfer Function Presets (*):

1. f(x) = 1
2. f(x) = x
3. f(x) = 2x^2 - 1
4. f(x) = 4x^3 - 3x
5. f(x) = 8x^4 - 8x^2 + 1
6. f(x) = 16x^5 - 20x^3 + 5x
7. f(x) = cos(3x)
8. f(x) = (x + x^3 ) / 2
9. f(x) = x + 3x + 5x + 7x + 9x
10. * Where presets 1-6 = Chebychev polynomials

Screenshots (click to enlarge)