Objective

Using PureData to explore additive audio synthesis.

Realworld sounds are made up of many frequency components. We can accordingly add up multiplepure tones (sinusoids) to create more complext timbres.

This exercise implements a basic additive synthesizer; it is made up of 10 independent oscillators, each with their own frequency and amplitude. The frequencies and amplitudes for all oscillators are stored in two tables.

Steps and observations

1. Open the 1.c.iii.4_music-synth-additive.pd patch in Pd-extended.
2. Change the contents of the frequency table and listen for the effects
3. Change the contents of the amplitude table and listen for the effect

Comments

For a challenge,

• build a patch that dynamically changes the frequencies and amplitudes in an additive synthesizer
• create a timbre that is very consonent
• create a timbre that is very dissonant