The harmonic bars are are where you can setup the basic fingerprint of a sound in Sine Machine.
Each bar represents a harmonic. The height is the volume of the harmonic.
For example, to specify the volume of the fundamental, change the blue bar on the far left.
You can change any harmonic in the harmonic series up to the 36th harmonic. This “basic shape” is the foundation of every note you play.
The max volume of any given harmonic is 1/f, where f is the harmonic number.
Volumes are scaled 1/f
As described earlier, humans enjoy tonal sounds that have most energy at lower harmonics.
Sine Machine scales the maximum amplitude for any given harmonic to 1/f where f is the number of the harmonic.
This means the 2nd harmonic’s volume is scaled down by 1/2, the third harmonic by 1/3 etc.
What does this mean, exactly? It means with all bars at their maximum value, you will get a sawtooth wave.
Want to create harsher sounds with higher volumes for higher harmonics? Simply turn down the lower harmonics.
Leave a Reply