-+*[ WAVEGEN v1.40 ]*+- by Lars Ahlzen (fREEWARE) -+*[ DISCLAIMER ]*+- THIS PROGAM IS PROVIDED 'AS IT IS'. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE IT MAY CAUSE TO YOU OR YOUR COMPUTER. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT THESE CONDITIONS, DON'T USE THE PROGRAM. -+*[ WHAT IS THIS? ]*+- Well, everyone won't find this program very useful. Wavegen is a very simple program for us musicians, who love to play with our wavetable-synths on our soundcards (e.g. the SB AWE32). I, who own a Soundblaster AWE32 (and am very happy about it), feel a bit fed up with all these boring GM sounds, harpsichords and ice-rain. But I really like to make those sounds that actually sound like a synth. I mean nice smooth filtersweeps, synth-basses, analog-like strings and that stuff... But a synth needs basic waveforms to start with, and that's where WAVEGEN is used. Although the AWE32 has the most basic waveforms in ROM (like square, sawtooth and sinus waves), I thought that it might be nice with some more complicated and excentric ones. So, the program makes waveforms that can be looped and synthesized in a synth or sampler that allows you to download samples, like many wavetable sound cards. If you, like me, own an AWE32, you could create some nice looking waveforms with the program, save them as .wav files, and then load them into Vienna or Esbeekay for filtering and further editing. It is still a beta version, and it is a bit limited, but I created some quite nice sounds for my AWE32 with it. -+*[ EXAMPLES ]*+- I included as a soundbank, wavegen.sbk, together with a demo MIDI-sequence using the soundbank. The MIDI-sequence uses, except for the drums, ONLY sounds made with WAVEGEN. So, if you've got an AWE32, listen for yourselves. (just load wavegen.sbk as user bank 1 in the control panel, and play the midi-file with the media player or your favourite sequencer) I also included a few .WAV files made with the program, all containing extra wavegen information (see below) so you can load them into the program. -+*[ THE PROGRAM ]*+- The Main screen is made up of a big square with a green waveform inside. That is the waveform preview window. It will display the shape of the waveform you're working with. Depending on your preferences, it will update either in real time or when you hit space. Below the waveform, there are a few bars with blue lines inside. These lines represent the amount of each frequency the waveform is made up of (the harmonies). The higher the line, the more of that certain frequency. (the frequency is displayed with yellow text to the right as X times the basic frequency, and the amount is displayed with green text as 0-1000). The bar you're editing is light blue, and if you press the arrows up or down, you can adjust the amount of that frequency. (if RealtimeUpdate is on, you'll see the changes in realtime). Use arrows left/right to change which freq. to edit. Page up/down will do the same as the arrows but faster. The del key will set the amount to 0. And, don't worry, it sounds more complicated than it is... The Preferences screen is reached by pressing the P key. First, you have to enter the number of harmonies the program is supposed to use. A minimum is 2 and maximum 42. Default is 32, and that should be enough most of the times. The more harmonies, the slower the calculations. Just type a number and/or press enter. Then you can turn AutoUpdate on or off. In this version of WaveGen, the speed of preview calculation has been so improved that you should be able to use AutoUpdate on most computers. If you notice that it slows down the computer, then turn this option off and press space every time you want a preview. AutoNormalize is another useful option (default: on). If this is on, the wave will always be on a reasonable level, no matter how high or low the blue lines are. When off, the preview-waveform might often get too low or so high that it will distort. The waveform will always be normalized when saving, though. This option will also make the preview slightly slower. You'll also be asked a few questions about saving. Extra samples. If this value is more than 0 the program will add a number of 'blank' samples at the end of the waveform. One or a few blank samples will sometimes improve the looping on the AWE32, which often clicks and is noisy when it shouldn't. The next option is to save the sound two times after each other. If this option is on, the sample will be twice as big, but you don't have to set the loop points at the very start and the very end of the sample, but somewhere inside, which also might solve the program with clicking on the AWE. You can also choose to save extra sound information in the .WAV file. If this is on, the program will include all the wavegen settings to produce the sound in the file. Then you are able to load the .WAV file back into wavegen and continue editing. I recommend that you leave this option on. Then you can save the configuration as 'wavegen.cfg' if you like. (this file will, if it exists, always be loaded when the program starts) To save the sound, just press S on the keyboard. Then you must enter how many samples the waveform shall consist of. For a bright sound (e.g. a leader or a flute) it is enough with 50-200 samples. For a bass sound, I would recommend between 200 and 1000 samples. (if you save sound info together with the sound data, you can always load it back into wavegen again and save it with another number of samples). Then, just enter a file name (and if necessary a path) ending with .wav and the program will start calculating the waveform. This may take a few seconds on a slow computer. The saved sound is a 16bit mono pcm file. Now, you can load it directly into Vienna, Esbeekay or any program that loads .wav files. At the end of the file the program will also save a short string, 'made with WAVEGEN 1.3' to the file. (try loading one of the examples .WAVs into edit). To load a sound that is saved together with wave info, just press L, type the file name (and if necessary the path), and the information will be loaded. Don't try to load anything else than .wav files. If the file doesn't contain any wavegen information, you won't be able to load the file, and this will be displayed. Don't forget the .WAV suffix in the filename. The program is now able to 'morph' between two waveforms made with Wavegen. The two waveforms to morph between must be saved with extra sound info (set to YES in preferences). The M key will bring you to the morph-menu. You'll be asked for the first (source) and the second (destination) waveform, and the name of the new waveform. Then you must input how many waveforms the morph wave should consist of (maybe 20-400), and how long every waveform is (in samples, 50-500 should probably be fine). There's also an option of looping forth and back (good e.g. if the sound should be looped). The sound will be calculated, and after a while (maybe a minute or so on a 486, depending on length of sound and computer speed) the sound will be saved and you'll return to the program. This needs some experimenting (and a fast computer...) to give the best results. Some basic waveforms (like square, saw and triangle) might be handy while designing synth-sounds. Fortuneately, Wavegen will do this task too. The Basic Waveform menu is reached by the B button. There are four types of waveforms that can be created, but you can also set the pulse width from 1 to 99 %. The types are: 1úSinus wave (with different pulse widths) 2úSquare wave (also with different pulse widths) 3úSaw/Triangle wave (50% pulse width will make a triangle, more or less will make it more like a saw wave, and 99% or 1% will make a saw) 4úNoise (this type of waveforms will not save any extra sound info, so you can't load them or morph between them) Not only the F1 to F3 keys will make some preset waveforms. The F4 will make a random waveform. Nice if you're lazy, and you are, aren't you..? -+*[ ME ]*+- If you need to contact me, or would like to share some of your nice sounds you've made with the program, then here is my address: Lars Ahlzen Tegelbruksvagen 154 462 55 Vanersborg SWEDEN lars.ahlzen@swipnet.se Good luck with sound designing... ...and, don't pay me for the program. I would be very grateful, though, if you send me some sounds, SBKs, SF2s, mods or whatever you've used the program for.