Oscillators

In this article I will be discussing oscillators. Now to some of you this may sound like science fiction but actualy it's very simple.

A osscilator in a synthesizer generates a waveform. Since sound is produced from waves a synthesizer uses it's oscillators to produce these waves.

A synthesizer ussualy has 1 to 4 four oscillators which means that if your synthesizer has 2 oscillators it can generate 2 waveforms at the same time.

The frequency at which the oscilator resonates determines the pitch of the sound.

The most basic waveforms oscillators can generate is ussualy Sine, Square, Triangle and Sawtooth. Some oscillators can generate noise waveforms as well.

Each has it's own charactaristic sounds.

Sine Wave

Square Wave

Triangle Wave

Sawtooth Wave

Oscillators are not just restricted to generating basic waveforms some synths has hundreds of different waveforms.

Hope this article gave you a very basic understanding of what an oscillator is.

In the next Article I will be explaining what filters are.