Analog’s Shape menu offers four choices: sine, sawtooth, rectangle, and noise.
Notice that I referred to the waveform highlighted above as “rectangle” rather than “square.” This is because this oscillator has adjustable pulse width. By default, the rectangle waveform is not configured to be a true square wave, instead it’s a wave that looks more like this:
The pulse width is adjusted in the same area that we looked at a couple of tips back to adjust the Sub oscillator. To the left of the Sub/Sync controls, you’ll see a section labeled Pulse Width.
Start cranking up the Width control. (It’s only enabled when the rectangle wave is selected.) As you increase it, you’ll hear the character of the sound change significantly. Higher values tend to sound “wide” and “hollow”, while lower ones are increasingly “narrow” and “pinched.” At 100% it’s a true square wave.
It’s interesting to look at pictures of all this, but of course the only reason we really care is the sound! Give it a good listen.
Note: the waveform shots above were created using s(M)exiscope.
