Sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waveforms

[rbarata]

In practice what makes a developer to decide to use a Sine, square, triangle, or sawtooth waveforms?

I have heard some examples os these waves and I can't ear any difference.

Thanks

[Quietinthedark]

If you can't hear the difference, the synth you are using is probably running them through filters or distortion that is mostly what you are hearing (and even then you should really hear some difference between the sine/triangle and the others)

The question of when to use them then becomes whether these are a source, used as an osc, or a modulator, and what type of synthesis you are using (additive, subtractive, frequency modulation)

http://beausievers.com/synth/synthbasics/

[rbarata]

The examples I'm talking about are those in wikipedia.

About when to use them, I'm considering them as a source.

Thank you

[Davias]

Can you post the wikipedia url ?

[rbarata]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-sinusoidal_waveform

[whyterabbyt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-sinusoidal_waveform

well that sine wave is f**ked up (probably by the audio codec used), but it still sounds nothing like the the triangle.

Try here instead:

http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequenc ... retone.php

[rbarata]

Can you post some link to good examples?

Thanks

[Davias]

Mmmh... I don't know what is happening... Either you have some special fx applied to your soundcard output like a filter as Quietinthedark said... Or your internet is hacked and clicking doesn't redirect you to the right url. Or some other external problem that I wont mention here. But theses sounds pretty different !

Don't tell me you can't hear the difference between the saw wave and the sine wave ???

When I was younger I had hard to differentiate sine and triangle sounds

[Davias]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-sinusoidal_waveform

well that sine wave is f**ked up (probably by the audio codec used), but it still sounds nothing like the the triangle.

Try here instead:

http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequenc ... retone.php

How is this sine f*cked up ? haha my ears should be really damaged because I didn't notice that it was a weird sine ^^

[HunterKiller]

Come on dude, this is 2013, Google and Youtube and Jesus are your friends.

Here:

[rbarata]

The difference I can ear is the "harshness" of the sound...square and sawtooth aren't so smooth as sine and triangle.
I guess a litle bit of training is needed to recognize them.

[Nielzie]

Edit: nvm, HunterKiller already posted the YT video

[Davias]

The difference I can ear is the "harshness" of the sound...square and sawtooth aren't so smooth as sine and triangle.
I guess a litle bit of training is needed to recognize them.

Ok I'm reassured ^^ You would be amazing of the number of sounds that can be made out of these 4 basics waveforms, filter them and u basically got a subtractive synthesizer

[mfb]

Ok I'm reassured ^^ You would be amazing of the number of sounds that can be made out of these 4 basics waveforms, filter them and u basically got a subtractive synthesizer

Well except for sinewave - filtering a sinewave does nothing to it except change its volume. (Don't get me wrong, I love my sinewaves, precisely because of their purity)

[earlevel]

The difference I can ear is the "harshness" of the sound...square and sawtooth aren't so smooth as sine and triangle.
I guess a litle bit of training is needed to recognize them.

First, make sure you're not clipping, if you're using something like display audio to listen to the waveforms—everything will sound a lot closer to the same when clipped.

Consider some natural sound sources when comparing waveforms. For sawtooth, you might consider a bowed violin/cello, etc.; the bow/rosin catches the string and pulls it a distance, then the string slips and snaps back, pulls...you get a harmonic-rich waveform. Sine is simple harmonic motion—consider whistling (you'll get the breath noise as well, of course). For square, consider a reed instrument like clarinet, as the reed slaps back and forth, creating the "hollow" sound of missing even harmonics. If you're familiar with these kinds of natural instruments, you'll be able to recognize the synth waveforms pretty easily—and understand why these waveforms were chosen as the basic synth waveforms.

Note that triangle can be easier to make, in a hardware synth oscillator, than a sine. Just mentioning this in case you're wondering its significance. Yes, it's a good wave for some things; I just mean that saw and rectangle are the most important, and many classic synths have only those two. A filter square is in the ballpark of triangle sound, and any of these heavily filtered is in the ballpark of a sine (and some synths get it by resonating the filter, though stability over a wide range is tough, in hardware).