From the course: Learning Modular Synthesis: Eurorack Expansion

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MI Braids: West Coast techniques

MI Braids: West Coast techniques

(pulsing synthesizer music) - [Instructor] Next we're going to look at what's loosely known as West Coast Techniques, pioneered by companies like Buchla and Serge. What it consists of is starting with simpler wave forms, such as sine waves and triangles, and bending those waves to add harmonics to them, or using them in pairs, where one oscillator modulates the frequency, or amplitude, of the other to create new harmonics. We'll start with wave folding, which is a cornerstone West Coast technique. The basic waveform is a sort of sine wave, there's a little bit of shape there. You see it has harmonics other than the fundamental. And you can change it to a triangle if you want. And then as you increase Timbre, you get folds in the tops and bottom of the waves. This adds harmonics, rather than subtracts it, which is what a filter normally does. It keeps doing more and more folds to get quite a bright sound. And that responds really well to expressive playing, modulation, even envelopes…

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