What the fork is Waveshaping? | Modular Classroom | Lesson 05

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I've been doing modular since 2018 and now I finally think I may have figured out what waveshaping could be. So by all means this is not some 'masterclass' where I teach you, it's learning as I go and recording it on video. The main takeaway from all this, is that waveshaping is not a module or something you'd do, it's something that happens when certain circumstances align. By definition, waveshaping is 'a non-linear transfer producing new harmonics' which kind of sums up nicely why it's so hard to put your head around it. It becomes much easier once you realize you need to listen for it, it's the result. Not the tech, process or recipe.

And how about 'folding'? As far as I know, wavefolding belongs to the waveshaping family, but instead of clipping the tops off, you'd mirror them back into the waveform. In waveshaping, 'transfer functions' are called 'shaper functions' because a 'transfer' is hijacked by systems theory and we're doing music and synthesis while leaving science in its own domain.

I'll mostly be using Serge gear in the classroom series, but you can already start shaping with a pre-amp with plenty of gain. Just push a sound to a loudness your case or ADC can't handle. Then you can figure out if it's cool to get dedicated tech for it. Hopefully you'll learn that waveshaping is not just distortion :)."