User Manual

1.1.2. A better reproduction of analog oscillator waveforms
The waveforms produced by the oscillators in analog synthesizers are affected by the
presence of a capacitor in the circuits. The discharge of a capacitor results in a slight ‘bend’
in the original waveform (most notably for sawtooth, triangular and square waveforms).
TAE® reproduces the result of this capacitor discharge in software.
Below is the analysis of a waveform from one of the five original instruments Arturia’s
software emulates, followed by one made by TAE®. They are both equally deformed by the
low-pass and high-pass filtering.
What’s more, the hardware analog oscillators were unstable. In fact, their waveforms vary
slightly from one period to another. If we add to this the fact that the starting point for each
period (in Trigger mode) can vary with the temperature and other environmental conditions,
we see why vintage synthesizers have such a typical sound.
TAE® reproduces the instability of oscillators, resulting in a fatter and “bigger” sound.
Temporal representation of the “sawtooth”
waveform of a hardware synthesizer
Temporal representation of a “sawtooth”
waveform reproduced by TAE®
7 Arturia - User Manual Mini V - History of the original instrument