Is it possible to make a low sinewave not saturated ?

[alicante1]

Hello, i wonder if it's possible to make a sinewave that wouldn't be saturated when you play low notes. I would like to make one that's as clear as when you play high pitched. If it's not possible, is there a way to reduce this and to make them clearer when you play a lower note, or a lower chord ?

[BertKoor]

What do you mean by "saturated"? Usually it means a subtle form of lofi distortion: it's meant to be louder, but the medium (usually magnetic tape) cannot represent it faithfully.

I guess you're referring to the fact that a pure sine wave has no harmonic overtones. Clearness means there is harmonic content: higher pitched frequencies than the base frequency. Sorry, a sine wave has no such thing.

Maybe try a triangular shaped waveform. It has some harmonic richness, but not as much as a saw or square/pulse wave. Or add some distortion. Same trick that gives boring base drums that extra punch.

[alicante1]

What do you mean by "saturated"? Usually it means a subtle form of lofi distortion: it's meant to be louder, but the medium (usually magnetic tape) cannot represent it faithfully.

I guess you're referring to the fact that a pure sine wave has no harmonic overtones. Clearness means there is harmonic content: higher pitched frequencies than the base frequency. Sorry, a sine wave has no such thing.

Maybe try a triangular shaped waveform. It has some harmonic richness, but not as much as a saw or square/pulse wave. Or add some distortion. Same trick that gives boring base drums that extra punch.

I meant that when i play low notes with a sine, there's a buzz, a saturation, it sounds less soft than when i play a higher note. And i wonder if it could sound as soft when i play a low note as when i play a higher note. So it sounds 100% smooth and clear.

[BertKoor]

Then it sounds like something is wrong somewhere. More details needed to troubleshoot the whole chain. Exclude components one by one for faults.

[Masterofdisaster]

What do you mean by "saturated"? Usually it means a subtle form of lofi distortion: it's meant to be louder, but the medium (usually magnetic tape) cannot represent it faithfully.

I guess you're referring to the fact that a pure sine wave has no harmonic overtones. Clearness means there is harmonic content: higher pitched frequencies than the base frequency. Sorry, a sine wave has no such thing.

Maybe try a triangular shaped waveform. It has some harmonic richness, but not as much as a saw or square/pulse wave. Or add some distortion. Same trick that gives boring base drums that extra punch.

I meant that when i play low notes with a sine, there's a buzz, a saturation, it sounds less soft than when i play a higher note. And i wonder if it could sound as soft when i play a low note as when i play a higher note. So it sounds 100% smooth and clear.

That's exactly what a sine wave does. That's kind of its thing, there's no harmonics / distortion. A sine wave at 5hz is as clean and pure as a sine wave at 20khz. You're not making any sense.

[Jac459]

What do you mean by "saturated"? Usually it means a subtle form of lofi distortion: it's meant to be louder, but the medium (usually magnetic tape) cannot represent it faithfully.

I guess you're referring to the fact that a pure sine wave has no harmonic overtones. Clearness means there is harmonic content: higher pitched frequencies than the base frequency. Sorry, a sine wave has no such thing.

Maybe try a triangular shaped waveform. It has some harmonic richness, but not as much as a saw or square/pulse wave. Or add some distortion. Same trick that gives boring base drums that extra punch.

I meant that when i play low notes with a sine, there's a buzz, a saturation, it sounds less soft than when i play a higher note. And i wonder if it could sound as soft when i play a low note as when i play a higher note. So it sounds 100% smooth and clear.

That's exactly what a sine wave does. That's kind of its thing, there's no harmonics / distortion. A sine wave at 5hz is as clean and pure as a sine wave at 20khz. You're not making any sense.

At 5hz, you wouldn't notice hehe....

[Masterofdisaster]

Notice? Look at it at a spectrum analyser. You would see a clean sine wave at 5hz just the same as it would be at 20khz that's my point. That's what a sine wave is.

[Jac459]

Hello, i wonder if it's possible to make a sinewave that wouldn't be saturated when you play low notes.

As said previously, a sinewave doesn't saturate at low pitch. You have an issue, give more context.

[Jac459]

Notice? Look at it at a spectrum analyser. You would see a clean sine wave at 5hz just the same as it would be at 20khz that's my point. That's what a sine wave is.

Chill man, it was just a joke, we are making music for humans, not whales...

[Masterofdisaster]

Notice? Look at it at a spectrum analyser. You would see a clean sine wave at 5hz just the same as it would be at 20khz that's my point. That's what a sine wave is.

Chill man, it was just a joke, we are making music for humans, not whales...

I was giving an example (5hz vs 20khz = identical) to make a point.

[Jac459]

Notice? Look at it at a spectrum analyser. You would see a clean sine wave at 5hz just the same as it would be at 20khz that's my point. That's what a sine wave is.

Chill man, it was just a joke, we are making music for humans, not whales...

I was giving an example (5hz vs 20khz = identical) to make a point.

I know and agree with you.

[BertKoor]

Here's a test tone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqfPx8peqNI

Same problem??

[Etienne1973]

Perhaps your audio monitoring system is "farting" because it can't transmit the strong resonant peak signal like a sine wave that low.

Edit: I mean loudspeakers or headphones.

[CrystalWizard]

Depending on the monitor system you should hear a low clean tone and then as you go lower frequency it should stay clean and just become inaudible as you sweep lower than the capabilities of your speakers. So, on a laptop maybe you are lucky if you can hear sine waves at 200hz (approximating wildly) whereas on a set of $100k usd studio monitors you will hear the same waveform down to say 50hz. The point is that if the sine wave is pure than what you are hearing is likely distortion. Are you pumping a massive amount of signal into small speakers? overdriving your audio interface? do you mean the buzziness when you cross over from the freq domain to the time domain in your audio perception? that could be described as buzzy. Like when we used to run our Moog Sonic 6 into a giant 2 or 300w head into my long throw 18" subwoofer and sweep down the freq spectrum until it would start "clicking" at under 15hz. The good ole' dayz.

[_al_]

At very low freqs, if you're on headphones, you will notice what I can only describe as a volume fluctuation.
I don't really understand that much about audio mechanics, but I'm pretty sure it's caused by the wave cycle crossing from plus into minus.
A saw wave would sound like a click, but a sine just sounds like a fluctuation of some sort.
It's a similar sound to what you can get when you put bass through certain distortion algorithms, so I'm guessing this is what the OP is talking about

@OP:
If this is causing a problem, maybe try putting a noise sample through an extreme bandpass filter, and you will have a super smooth sound.

I actually like using filtered acoustic kicks, personally