Af Waveform Generator

EE June 1987 AF WAVEFORM GENERATOR The AF waveform generator is intended primarily for use in an electrophonic synthesizer. It produces a number of waveforms without the use of filters. The transition from one waveform to another is continuous. A sound consists of a number of discrete tones, which are known as harmonics. The lowest of these, or fundamental, is called the first harmonic, the next lowest the second har- monic, and so on. The tone- colour, also called timbre, of a sound is determined by the number of harmonics present in it. It follows that the tone- colour can be altered by add- ing or removing harmonics from the sound. Harmonics are normally re- moved from a sound by means of passive filters. Unfortunately, these have the disadvantage of attenuating the whole sound, so that additional amplification becomes necessary. Active filters give much better results with a number of musical instru- ments, but not with, for in- stance, the guitar. The frequency spectrum of a ...