Reference Manual

408 Live Instrument Reference
Typically, FM synthesis makes use of pure sine waves, creating more complex waveforms via
modulation. However, in order to simplify sound design and to create a wider range of possible
sounds, we designed Operator to produce a variety of other waveforms, including two types of
noise. You can also draw your own waveforms via a partial editor. The instrument is made com-
plete with an LFO, a pitch envelope and a filter section. Note that lots of “classic“ FM synthesiz-
ers create fantastic sounds without using filters at all, so we suggest exploring the possibilities of
FM without the filter at first, and adding it later if necessary.
Operator will keep you busy if you want to dive deep into sound design! If you want to break the
universe apart completely and reassemble it, you should also try modulating Operator’s controls
with clip envelopes (page 267) or track automation (page 257).
24.6.2 Oscillator Section
Oscillator A’s Display and Shell Parameters.
Built-in Waveforms
The oscillators come with a built-in collection of basic waveform types — sine, sawtooth, square,
triangle and noise — which are selected from the Wave chooser in the individual oscillator dis-
plays. The first of these waveforms is a pure, mathematical sine wave, which is usually the first
choice for many FM timbres. We also added “Sine 4 Bit“ and “Sine 8 Bit“ to provide the retro
sound adored by C64 fans, and “Saw D“ and “Square D“ digital waveforms, which are espe-
cially good for digital bass sounds. The square, triangle and sawtooth waveforms are resyn-
thesized approximations of the ideal shape. The numbers included in the displayed name (e.g.,
“Square 6“) define how many harmonics are used for the resynthesis. Lower numbers sound
mellower and are less likely to create aliasing when used on high pitches. There are also two
built-in noise waveforms. The first, “Noise Looped,“ is a looping sample of noise. For truly ran-
dom noise, choose “Noise White.“