[music-dsp] wavetable and aliasing (Again)

[Urs Heckmann]

Am Dienstag, 29.04.03, um 18:27 Uhr (Europe/Berlin) schrieb Russell 
Borogove:

> Can someone give me a quick-n-dirty explanation of
> oscillator sync?
>
> I understand that the syncing oscillator is going
> to restart its cycle (reset its phase to 0) under
> some condition, but I can't think what condition
> it would be that would be interesting. If it resets
> when another oscillator, detuned from it, starts
> its cycle, then the two should act like one oscillator
> with a slightly different waveform (except for analog
> wiggliness, which might be the point).
>
> What's being synced to?

Exactly what you guess: When Oscillator A syncs to Osc B, everytime B 
reaches a whole phase, A is reset as well.

The fun starts, when A is modulated in frequency, typically by an 
envelope. This effect is one of the most popular sounds of analog 
synths. It's like a comb filter effect, but quite a bit more aggressive.

Examples:

"Why can't this be love" (van Halen)
"Rockit" (Herbie Hancock, a bit more subtle there)
"Birdland" (Wheather Report on 8:30 live album)
that  first big song ("Smack my bitch up"?) by The Prodigy
any song of a 80ies pop music style dubbed "acid"

Very rude and powerful. The case when synth sounds almost as dynamic a 
Stratocaster.

Cheers,

;)  Urs