9. Fattening tricks — making sounds bigger or weirder
A few tricks add richness and character:
- unison + detune: stack several copies of the oscillator slightly out of tune with each
other. Like a choir where everyone sings almost the same note — it sounds huge and wide.
unisonis how many copies (1–7);detuneis how far apart they spread, in cents. - sub: add a deep sine one octave below, for chest-thumping bass (
0–1). - fm: let one wiggle bend another wiggle’s speed. Creates bell-like, metallic, or
electric-piano tones (
0–1). - wobble: slowly open and close the filter automatically — the dubstep “wow-wow-wow.” The number is how many times a second it sweeps (in Hz).
# supersaw = 7 detuned saws, big & wide; wob = filter wobbles 4 times a second
inst supersaw = saw unison 7 detune 25 cutoff 2200
inst wob = saw wobble 4 cutoff 600
steps 16
supersaw C4 . . . G4 . . . A4 . . . E4 . . .
wob C2 _ _ _ C2 _ _ _ G1 _ _ _ A1 _ _ _
Real names: unison/detune, sub-oscillator, FM (frequency modulation), and a filter LFO (an LFO is a slow, silent wiggle used to move a knob automatically, like the wobble).
✅ Live now:
unison/detune,sub,fm, andwobbleare all real parameters — the snippet above plays. Stack them freely (unison 5 detune 18 sub 0.4 drive 0.3), or skip the hand-wiring and reach for the ready-made fat presets:supersaw,wobblebass,epiano,choir.
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