Sound quality: slick v. flat

[MackTuesday]

I'm comparing Synth1 to Zebra but I think this question might be generalizable to other plugins.

Synth1 is perfectly happy to sound dry if you let it. Zebra, on the other hand, tends to sound really smooth and silky almost no matter what you do with it.

What, very roughly speaking, is the difference in audio engine implementation in cases like this? Or what is happening sonically and/or perceptually?

[Urs]

Try with Zebra's oscillator's render engine set to "crisp" instead of "smooth". That's in the bottom Osc tabs.

Difference is a roll-off in harmonics towards Nyqvist, which is pronounced in "smooth" setting. This helps reduce audible aliasing introduced by successive processing with non-linear elements (filters...). It also creates a timbre that back then I associated with "warm" and "organic" as opposed to "harsh" and "digital".

[MackTuesday]

Thanks, Urs. I'm very curious, what do you think of that style of timbre now?

[stratum]

It's correct that that kind of warmth is associated with some old analog gear, but that gear uses valves, transformers and speakers whose design is based on old radio speakers. The last two (output transformers, and so called 'full range' radio speakers) have a limited bandwidth compared to modern solid state amps. While it's unlikely that a moog synth or something similar actually had these, it's likely that their users connected them to valve amps during a recording session.

[Urs]

Thanks, Urs. I'm very curious, what do you think of that style of timbre now?

I avoid these terms (warm, organic... whatever) as much as possible