Microfreak Oscillators // Visually Explored and Explained

video upload by Jorb

"Microfreak Oscillators // Visually Explored and Explained // Part 1

0:00 Intro 1:36 | Oscilloscope Intro X axis is time, y axis is amplitude. The more vertical a change is, the more harmonic content you'll hear. Think about that difference you hear between harmonically rich saws & squares, as opposed to the even low end & strong fundamentals of a sine or triangle.

4:59 | Basic Waves - Does what it says on the box, one oscillator & a sub MORPH will blend between wave types ; Square, saw, and a double saw PULSE will change your pulse width, or change the relative position of the 2 saw waves(this will change volume of relative harmonics.) SUB controls the volume of a sine wave one octave below your normal oscillator.

*Apologies for the lower volume

8:45 | Super Wave - Several duplicates of your original wave shape, all mixed WAVE switches (doesn't blend) between Saw, Square, Triangle, and Sine waves DETUNE increases the amount of pitch variation between all the oscillators VOLUME increases the volume of your duplicate / higher frequency oscillators

*My example of relative pitches interacting gets a little muddied with the actual behavior of the detune in this algorithm. I merely mean to highlight how interacting pitches look and sound, and how that can help us understand detuning.

12:55 | WaveTable - Offers different tables of multiple waves, that can be smoothly blended between TABLE switches (not blends) between tables, which are separate collections of waves POSITION blends (not switches) between the waves in your selected table CHORUS introduces a vibrato'ed copy of your original signal.

22:40 | Harmonic - Allows you to blend in higher order harmonics, and shift the bias of those harmonics higher or lower. CONTENT lets you decide which harmonics are going to be controlled by sculpt. The higher you turn the parameter, the more upper harmonics and fewer lower harmonics will be present in your final output SCULPT will increase the volume of your chosen harmonics CHORUS introduces a vibrato'ed copy of your original signal.

26:51 | Karplus Strong - Simulates the physical interaction of a resonator (drum head, string of a guitar or violin etc) and an exciter (pick, finger, mallet, etc) holy shit BOW constantly excites the resonator. This is complex. Introduces more distinct frequencies, has their volumes increase and decrease relative to eachother and change, and eventually will lead to overdrive. POSITION simulates the position of your exciter, close to the edge of the drum head, or nearer to the bridge of your 'guitar'. Introduces more high frequency content DECAY will increase the decay of the sound, not just an amp of filter change over time, the waves / harmonics decay as part of the algorithm

34:34 | Virtual Analog - 2 virtual Oscillators, implemented in an interesting way DETUNE (on the WAVE KNOB) changes the pitch of your first oscillator, range is a few octaves up from your keypress SHAPE (on the TIMBRE KNOB) intrudeces, and changes the shape of your second oscillator, low pulse through squares, through weird high frequency sync stuff WAVE (on the SHAPE KNOB) blends your first oscillator between saw square and pulsewidth. *The manual is honestly hilariously bad at explaining this, and is less of a standard VA than basic waves, for example. Should be named differently and explained better.

40:34 | Wave Shaper, complex waves available by means of wave folding and variable asymmetry. WAVE bends between a "popov wave"(real name?) through a sine, into what I called a super sine, but might be better described as an already-folded sine wave. FOLD AMOUNT introduces wave folding. Think of this as a complex overdrive, in that the harmonic changes happen when your wave moves beyond a specified 'headroom' but instead of clipping, the portion of the wave beyond the threshold comes back down over the top of your wave, subtracting that portion of its shape (The scope is great for helping to explain this) the folded portion of a wave can even reach the bottom of its headroom, and be folded upwards again. This is more dramatic with lower pitches, and is something I might revisit in a part two. ASYMETRY will shift your wave to one side, sine eventually becomes a sawtooth

I found the oscilloscope to be invaluable while working through the oscillator types, and more than worthy of sharing.

Microfreak has really impressed me, and I haven't even spent much time with it yet.

If there's anything else you want to see in a format like this, I'd love suggestions.

I've had this little fantasy where I have a hardware oscilloscope and hardware spectrum analyzer on screen in every video...we'll see if its worth it!

Wish the microfreak's screen was in focus, but my eyes are too bad to notice on the camera display. I'll work on it!"