Wave Designer

Here’s a little article that was written explaining some of the in-depth details of Wave Designer and it’s functionality. For those interested in the coming incarnations of this plug-in, please follow THIS link.

Main Functions Implemented:
Formula/Expression Waveform Design New Interface Design MIDI Playable in VSTi Host Custom Cycle Length Export 32-bit .WAV Bit-Depth Amp and Filter Envelopes Lowpass Filter and Filter Depth Waveform Normalization	DC Offset Function Bandlimiting Function Graphical Node Designer Preset Library Functionality Optimized CPU Usage Rand(x) (stepped) Function Noise(x) (smooth) Function On-Screen Error Reporting
Math Functions Included: TAN, TANH, ARCTAN, ARCTANH COS, COSH, ARCCOS, ARCCOSH SIN, SINH, ARCSIN, ARCSINH EXP, FACTORIAL, SQR, SQRT, POWER ROUND - Rounds to nearest integer FLOOR - Rounds down to nearest integer CEIL - Rounds up to nearest integer SIGN - Returns 1 if positive, -1 if negative, 0 otherwise FRAC - Returns the fractional part of a real number ABS - Returns the absolute value of a real number MIN - Returns the smaller of two numbers MAX - Returns the larger of two numbers RAND - Generates random, stepped waveforms NOISE - Generates random, smoother waveforms	Math Functions Definitions: Sinusoidal Cosine Tangent Hyperbolic Tangent Arctangent Absolute Logarithmic Square Root Exponential Fraction

General Usage Notes

There are a few things to point out while playing with the early versions of the software. If there are any questions about absolutely anything at all, please feel free to contact us and I’ll help users out as much as possible. I’ll be adding more information over time, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Depending on your location, use either the decimal (.) or the comma (,) for formulas to evaluate properly
• Make sure to click on the “synth” tab and adjust the ADSR and filter envelope values appropriately
• Use the “waveform options” to alter waveforms that may click, clip or be low in volume
• The formulas don’t need to, but can have spaces between the values, functions and parentheses
• Using the node editing screen, use multiple points on top of each other to create straight lines
• Saving and loading presets can be done by using the top-right dropdown menu system
• Presets saved with versions lower than 0.3.9 will not show the preset name in the box at the top

Creating Formulas

Formulas can be very basic but can also be very complex with nested math functions. Here is an example of a very common sinusoidal waveform:

sin(x * 2 * pi)

You can see that you start the formula with the function, and then add parentheses and an expression to evaluate. You can use “x” as a common variable, and “pi” can also be used as a constant with the value of 3.14(..)

You can also create formulas with very deep nesting with multiple functions and expressions, such as below:

sin(x + 8.5) * arctan(x - 8.5) + sin(x * pi / 0.1)

Creating ‘random’ waveforms is fairly straightforward and can be accomplished by using the ‘formula’ editing facilities. To create a stepped random waveform, you can use the rand() math function with a multiplier in the range of 0 to 1 in the formula entry box. A slightly random, stepped waveform can be accomplished by using a low multiplier, as seen below:

rand(0.1)

You can also create a more smooth random waveform by using the noise() math function with the same multiplier range, in the following fashion within the formula entry box:

noise(0.1)

In the same vein, you can also combine random/noise waveforms with additional math functions to create more complex random/noise waves, as in the example below:

noise(0.1) * frac(x / 3.5 * pi) / cos(x)