Abstract
Wavefolders are a particular class of nonlinear waveshaping circuits, and a staple of the “West Coast” tradition of analog sound synthesis. In this paper, we present analyses of two popular wavefolding circuits—the Lockhart and Serge wavefolders—and show that they achieve a very similar audio effect. We digitally model the input–output relationship of both circuits using the Lambert-W function, and examine their time- and frequency-domain behavior. To ameliorate the issue of aliasing distortion introduced by the nonlinear nature of wavefolding, we propose the use of the first-order antiderivative method. This method allows us to implement the proposed digital models in real-time without having to resort to high oversampling factors. The practical synthesis usage of both circuits is discussed by considering the case of multiple wavefolder stages arranged in series.
Highlights
Nonlinear waveshaping is a technique used in sound synthesis to generate complex harmonic spectra
To ameliorate the issue of aliasing distortion introduced by the nonlinear nature of wavefolding, we propose the use of the first-order antiderivative method
This study presents virtual analog (VA) models for two analog synthesizer circuits: the Lockhart wavefolder and the wavefolder used in the middle section of the Serge Wave Multipliers
Summary
Nonlinear waveshaping is a technique used in sound synthesis to generate complex harmonic spectra. Measurement-based VA modeling, commonly known as “black-box modeling”, has been thoroughly studied within the context of guitar amplifiers and pedals [36,37,38] This approach is useful when the original circuit schematics are not available. We propose the use of the antiderivative antialiasing method introduced in [48,49] This approach can be used to reduce the aliasing caused by arbitrary nonlinear waveshaping functions and is applicable to the proposed wavefolder models.
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