WEBVTT - The MOOG Story: Part Two 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.560 Get in tech with technology with tech stuff from stuff. 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.360 Hey there, guys, it's Jonathan from text Stuff here. And 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.120 in our previous episode, we covered the first half of 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.240 the Mogue story, but the episode became so epically long 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.800 we needed to divide it into two parts. And so 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.560 without further ado, let's jump back into the conversation with 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:39.240 Joe McCormick about the Mogue story. Here's part two. So 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.440 then you have all the different modules that actually will 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.920 alter the sound of whatever wave you are creating. And 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:49.000 again I'll talk about the specific wave forms in just 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.960 a bit. But so some of the modules would include 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:56.880 things like filters. You probably heard about filters, right, you 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.279 know you run this through a filter. What filters are 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:03.360 are doing is there specifically changing the harmonic content of 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.520 a signal, and it lets you narrow down the range 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.800 of frequencies that are allowed in any produced sound, like 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.600 you can specify which harmonics are allowed to go through, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.000 which ones are not allowed to go through, and that 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:20.559 alters the quality, the tonal quality of any sound you make. 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.240 So I'm going to start talking about some particular filters, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.679 and our producer Extraordinary Knowl is going to provide us 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.720 with some examples of some of the stuff we talk about. 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.960 So from this point forward, uh, Noel is really gonna 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.840 have free rein to go crazy Broadway style. I encourage 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.560 him highly to interrupt us as often as possible with 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.920 strange noises. If he hasn't already, I expect him to 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.360 do so from this point forward. As the wonderful thing 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.400 about Noel not being in the room where we record, 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:49.440 we have no way of knowing what he's going to 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.000 add after this is done. But at any rate, Uh, 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.480 so you can you can change the amplitude, which obviously 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:57.840 changes the volume, and you can change the frequency, which 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.240 changes the pitch. Those are very basic eight but beyond 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.120 that you can start to really have fun with it. 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:09.680 So filters are ways to change the timbre of the sound, 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.000 even within a single note. So you can press a 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.840 note with no filter, it's gonna sound one way, and 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.960 then you apply a filter and press that same key 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:20.960 to create that same note, but it's going to have 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.600 a different quality. So one of the basic types of 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.800 filters would be what's called a low pass filter or 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:32.480 a high pass filter. Very simple concept. The name tells 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.239 you what it lets it do. So a low pass 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:42.040 filter and let's low frequencies pass through. It blocks high frequencies. 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.440 Now you can define what where's your cut off, so 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:50.600 you can say, like any frequency above this is not 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.760 allowed through. Anything that's lower than that can go through. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.280 Now I'm gonna ask the question I think some listeners 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.400 may be wondering, Hold on a second, why would there 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.480 be multiple frequencies playing when you've got a single tone playing? 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:07.400 Shouldn't that be one frequency? If you're playing one pitched note, 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.079 you could be playing one pitch note if you're if 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.360 your wave is just a sign wave, right, A sign 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.920 wave is a pure tone. It means it's a fundamental frequency. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:22.000 There's no harmonic added to it. But that's the That's 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.440 only one type of waveform you can play with a synthesizer. 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.320 You can actually create different types of waveforms like saw 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:35.240 tooth waves or square waves or triangular waves, and each 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:40.800 of those contains harmonics. Harmonics being uh multiples of your 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.200 fundamental frequency. Your fundamental frequency is always going to be 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.640 the loudest, the one with the greatest amplitude. Right, So 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.520 the note you're playing, there's a specific frequency associated with 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.240 that note, its amplitude is going to be the greatest 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:59.720 in the full sound wave, but with these other wave 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:05.640 for triangular square and saw tooth, you get multiples of 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:10.280 that particular frequency that also show up, and those are harmonics. 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.280 But if you don't want to hear any of those 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:17.080 high harmonics, you just want that deep, nasty, bassed rumble. Yeah, 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.159 you can do it a low pass filter. And what 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.360 that does is it actually you would think it would 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.360 be like a really base sound, but it really kind 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.000 of makes it sound sort of muffled and dark. And 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.240 then if you wanted instead to do the opposite, you 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.039 could put a high pass filter. On high pass filter, 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.159 obviously the higher frequencies are allowed to pass through and 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.760 it blocks the lower frequencies. Sounds kind of bright and 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.800 jangle exactly much much brighter sounds. So Noel, I'm sure 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.320 can give us examples of what sounds like to listen 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:55.719 to some tones played through a low pass filter and 0:04:55.920 --> 0:05:01.479 some tones played through a high pass filter. There are 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.720 a couple of others that I want to mention that 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.599 also are our pass filters, but they are a little 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.400 different from low and high. Uh. There's the band pass filter, 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.640 which allows a group of frequencies that are between the 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.000 high and low ends. To pass through. So in other words, 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.200 you're saying, alright, anything below this frequency, I want you 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.719 to cut out. Anything above this frequency, I want you 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.000 to cut out. Everything in between can pass and that 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:31.360 gives you a different sound or band. Reject filters which 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.960 specify a specific range of frequencies that are not allowed 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.560 to go through, but everything else can. So it's essentially 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.840 like bouncers. Okay, here's a list of people. They absolutely 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.520 are not allowed in the club. My name is always 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.479 on that list all the time. At least that's what 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:52.520 they tell me. Um, but apparently my friend, uh, Benjamin Franklin, 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.279 he gets in all the time. Now, beyond those filters, 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.520 you can do some other fun stuff. For one thing, 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.120 you remember I said that an analog sound wave is 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.520 continuous of course, right, so it doesn't have a quick, 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.679 you know, a discrete value where there's a stop start. 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:14.479 Partly because of that, cut offs like where you said, 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:20.280 here's where I want the filter to begin are a 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.159 little hazy. So uh, when you when you have your 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:30.960 these uh these filters, you also have a transition band. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:36.039 The transition band is a small band of frequencies that 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:40.800 will still play through where you've set your cut off. So, 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.800 in other words, if you say you're cut off is 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:47.039 five thousand hurts, anything below five thousand hurts, cut that off. 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.000 It's not a hard stop at that frequency. There's actually 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.440 it trails a little bit, which gives kind of an 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:58.640 interesting effect. Right, So that's really cool. But beyond that, 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.359 you can start to do things like adjust a filter 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:03.680 while you're actually playing a tone. You can do this 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.120 by hooking up different modules together. I'll talk about some 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.640 of the other modules in the second. And that's where 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:17.040 you get like, like the frequency of wah, well maybe 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.960 because I mean it's the way it sounds like the pitch. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.360 The pitch remains the same, but the tone of the 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:28.200 of the note is different, So the pitch doesn't change, 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.960 but the the quality of the sound changes. Noel, I'm 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.560 sure it could play for us the sound of a 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.720 note where the filter is changed while the note is 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.560 still playing, so that we can kind of get an 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:56.160 idea of what that sounds like. And another thing you 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:00.920 can do is play with resonance. Uh. And one way 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:03.680 you can play with residents is you take the frequencies 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.560 that are close to that cut off frequency where you 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.600 know you've you've set the filter boundaries, and instead of 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:12.840 just having them play out to a speaker, you feed 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.360 them back into the filter. This creates a feedback loop 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.320 and I believe it's called a lope. How many more 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.200 times are we going to have that joke? All right? 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.600 So it creates a feedback loop, and it also changes 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.920 the timbre and volume of of the pitches that you're playing, 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.640 which is really cool. Um. So that's all in just 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.520 talking about filters. There are other modules that we can 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:39.439 mention that. That's just one subset of modules. Another one 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.959 is called the envelope generator. You know, there's a great 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:45.560 scene in that documentary where I don't know if you 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.280 saw this one because I think you so part of 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:53.160 it where Bob mog himself is showing off one of 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.480 his machines and he he sort of like rubs his 0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:01.520 hand luxuriously over the envelope while he speaks of it. 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.960 Does it give uncomfortable? No? No, no, it's kind of suite. 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.199 You can tell he you know, he has he has 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.760 a love for this envelope. He has a relationship with 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.120 this envelope. And you might wonder, well, what the heck 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.640 is this thing? Anyway? Well, it's another section of the board. Yeah, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.199 and and it's as you might imagine, as we're talking 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:24.600 about these different oscillators, these different waveforms, and these different filters, 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.440 it's already starting to sound pretty complicated. I mean, you've 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:29.920 got all these different knobs and stuff to control things, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:34.360 and maybe you want to have various effects apply to 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:39.880 your music, but you can't by hand constantly adjust this, 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.839 or employ a second person too on the fly make 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.280 these changes to filters so that the notes you produce 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.760 have the quality that you want. Envelopes are kind of 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:55.600 like macros in the software world, where you make shortcuts 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.240 where you hit control and a letter and suddenly it 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:03.240 creates like a a series of commands that otherwise would 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:08.200 take you multiple mouse or key strokes to actually execute 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.120 the same sort of thing. Except in this case we're 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:14.880 talking about analog circuitry UM. So envelope generators can react 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.120 to an incoming signal and then send out a new 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.280 signal to a different module. And so it's another if 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.679 then gates. So if signal X comes into the envelope generator, 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.040 then send y signal to this other module so that 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.200 you get the effect you want. And one type of 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.360 envelope generator one common one is the A D S R, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.320 and that stands for attack, decay, sustain, and release, which 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.679 are kind of like four phases in a note. So 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.200 have you ever played with a synthesizer where you pressed 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.480 down on a key and the sound kind of comes 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:53.440 up to a level and then backs off just a 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.760 little bit. Oh, yeah, that's the slow attack. That's the attack. Yeah, 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.319 that's the attack in decay actually, because the rise involvedvolume 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.000 is the attack when it hits its peak and starts 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.360 to come back down just a bit. Like let's say 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:07.760 that there's a scale of zero to one. You press 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.040 down the key, it goes from zero up to one, 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:14.440 then it falls back to maybe point seven. That that 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.880 fall back to point seven would be the decay phase. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.120 So the attack phases going from zero to one decay 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:24.000 than one to point seven. That part happens usually pretty quickly, right, 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:25.840 And then you still got the key held down. As 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:27.920 long as you have the key held down, the note 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.800 is playing, that's the sustain. When you release the key, 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.960 you get to the release phase, which trails the note off. 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.960 And you can adjust all of these things. You can 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.120 adjust it so that the attack takes longer, so that 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.640 the build up to the peak and then the decay 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.640 is more you know, it's it's taking kind of the 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.480 scenic route. Or you can make the release last a 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.280 really long time so that the note trails off like 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.839 you have a long, sort of sustaining note. Um. All 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:02.839 of these are things you can adjust using this type 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.920 of technology, which gives you an incredible amount of flexibility 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.200 when you are trying to create a specific sound. And 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.200 one of the things that I think really makes synthesizers 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:17.600 in general, and the mogue in particular, incredibly special. It 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:22.480 makes me wish that I were capable of playing one. UM. 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.720 I only plink around on keyboards, so it's pretty pathetic. 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.840 Noel is like a master Jonathan. What's the song you 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.440 always play when you sit down at a piano. Everybody 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.040 has that annoying thing. They do the one song they 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:37.719 know how to play, and they sit down and they 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.200 do it well. There are two songs that I tend 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.080 to play. One is the theme to Raiders of the 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.600 Lost Arc. I mean, that's great triumphant music and it's 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.240 Nazi killing music, it is. And then the other one 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.640 is Jesu joy a Man's Desiring. That's that's kind of 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.880 two that I do, but I also I've also been 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.480 known to do, oh de joy. Okay, so that's a 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.360 bit of the old lidig, that's right. I have been 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.480 obviously the the actual de joy movement, which is from 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.040 you know, a much longer symphony, the Ninth Symphony. It's 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:08.960 only that one section that I do. I can't play 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.079 the any of the rest of it. And I can't 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.920 really play that one very well. It's like two finger typing. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.120 It's like that, except with keyboard. I'm sure you're an 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.240 astonishing blinker. Yeah. Occasionally, you know, if I get want 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.680 to get fancy, you know, chopsticks, that's where it's at. 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:29.160 A big fan of the Jaws. Yeah, nice, nice. I've 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.720 been known to to do the uh, the musical motif 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.880 from Close Encounters of the third kind um, which you 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.600 can play just on the black keys. There's one other 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.079 thing I want to mention um. A couple other things actually. 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.199 One is the low frequency oscillator low frequency office oscillators 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.640 also known as lfos UH. They control other modules by 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.640 sending a low frequency. It's so low that sub audio 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.079 you can't you can't hear it. It's beneath it's below 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.679 twenty hurts um and they send a signal to other 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.600 modules to alter a set sound. So this is one 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.040 of the ways you can make that uh that sort 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:10.120 of vibrato sound in a sustained note is altering this 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.880 by using a low frequency oscillator gives it that wave 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:30.040 equality maybe Noel can demonstrate. And then you can always 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:32.920 use a control signal to change the frequency of another module. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.640 That's called frequency modulation or f M. By the way, 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.120 all these things I'm talking about about changing frequencies of 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:44.880 electronic signals. It doesn't just apply to synthesizers like frequency 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:50.000 modulation oscillators, changing these things. This is all basic electronics, 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.520 whether you're making a sound or doing something else. It's 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.040 not just in in creating music. But where of course 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.320 specifically framing it in that because the topic is the mogue. 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:06.920 Uh So these are all super cool elements that give 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:12.280 the moge that that quality it possesses, that really unusual sound, 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.880 that that unique sound maybe instead of unusual, I wouldn't 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:21.440 want to say something that would have offended mog himself. 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:27.760 By unusual, I mean unique, not bad um And uh yeah, 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.680 you can these things could get monstrously huge, like I've 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.000 seen synthesizers that didn't have any keyboard attached them at all. 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.160 It was just the various modules to demonstrate what the 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.360 modules do. So all you had were the various modules, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.760 cables to hook physically hook the modules together, pugging and 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.880 unplugging cables and turning dials, and you would have have 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.680 maybe in a scilloscope to see the wave form, so 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:56.880 you had something visual there too, but it was all 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.680 just plugging and unplugging cables, patching in the alters, taking 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.240 filters out by directly connecting modules. You know, that's interesting 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:11.280 because when when mog and Deutsch were originally designing the mode, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.480 the you know, the synthesizer that would maybe it was 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.160 the Abomba Atron, I don't know the original model. They 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.680 were talking about the idea and they were discussing whether 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:26.120 or not it should have a keyboard. The keyboard is 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.760 sort of the obvious way to control the variable of pitch. 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:35.200 But the question is should we have gone with something else, 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.880 because does the keyboard inherently suggest this is really just 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.200 a different kind of piano, which modified piano. You should 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.080 approach it like a piano, use it like a piano. 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:52.400 You bring your piano playing behaviors to the machine, and 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.880 they were they were torn on that because they were thinking, well, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.240 what if we didn't include the keyboard, might that help 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.360 encourage people to use this to generate sounds in a 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.080 way that's truly new and doesn't mimic the way we've 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.440 used other instruments before. Of course, we know they did 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.760 end up going with the keyboard, and that kind of 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:11.840 makes sense because the keyboard is a very useful and 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:14.640 intuitive way to control pitch, but especially when you get 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.440 to a point where you're capable of producing more than 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.640 one one tone by pressing more than one key at once, right, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.840 some early synthesizers were only capable of performing like you 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:26.880 press one key and that's the sound you would get, 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.560 but you would not be able to create harmonies with 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.119 some early synthesizers where you know you were if you 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.720 change from key to key, you change the pitch, but 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.640 you couldn't hold down a chord and have all three 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.120 notes play, and some early early synthesizers. I think that's 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.240 the case with the mog and it I believe so, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.840 and that that would mean that you could change out 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:52.080 the keyboard for something like a lever. Then you pull 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.639 the lever, and maybe when you pull the lever in 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.240 one direction the pitch increases, and when you put push 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:59.760 the lever the other direction, the pitch lowers. That could 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.359 have in the control device or anything else. Really it 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:07.080 didn't have to be the keyboard, but they decided ultimately 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.880 to have the keyboard because again it I think you're right. 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.399 I think it makes it easier to understand how to 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.359 produce the sound you want to produce. It becomes less 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.960 It slightly steps away from the element of performance art 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.119 the way a theoreman kind of is like, you can 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:28.000 get a really skilled theremin player to create particular sounds 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.879 and even play particular pieces of music, but it is hard. 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.800 It is is It is an art to learn how 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.000 to do that, and even then it's very imprecise. I 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:42.280 think they probably should have replaced the keyboard with a big, 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.439 big row of holes filled with a putty like a 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.560 google that you have to insert your fingers into to 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.320 play the note. Starting to make me think of like 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.639 some sort of combination of a musical instrument, and that 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.480 the Tree of Death and Flash Cordon reach inside and 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.879 discover the true tones of the future. Right, So, uh, 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.240 let's talk about waveforms because we mentioned them a little 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.560 bit with sign waves, square waves, triangle waves, sawtooth waves. 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.160 What what the heck to all of these mean? Um? 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.280 And we've already talked about what a waves period is, 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.800 We've talked about frequency and amplitude and uh. For for 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.000 a lot of this, I'm going to be looking at 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:24.400 using the example of a one hundred hurts um wave 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.840 or frequency rather one hundred hurts frequency, so that it 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.280 makes it easy for me to use the math to 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.040 describe the different wave forms, because if I go with 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.600 something that's not easy, then I would have to do 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.600 a whole bunch of different calculations of the So I 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.280 mentioned earlier, sign waves are that pure wave, is that 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.760 fundamental frequency? Uh? This would be the same as if 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:51.120 you were to take a tuning fork and ring it. 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.520 It's going to create a true tone with no harmonics. 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:05.120 It's a single sound. Uh. And so at one hundred hurts, 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.920 you would have a wave where it's period is being 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.280 repeated one hundred times every second, and that's all you 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.760 would get just that, and it would be at a 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.800 steady amplitude unless you were adjusting the volume. So again, 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.879 amplitude refers to how loud it is in this case 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.879 for for sound. Uh. And also what's really neat is 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.440 that you know, you we depict this with the the 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.840 peaks and valleys on a on an X Y axis, 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.960 whereas the like the x axis the horizontal axis that 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:38.120 represents time, and the vertical axis represents the the amplitude 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.040 the volume. Uh. If you were to match up two 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.720 sound waves that are identical, but the peaks of one 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:47.840 sound wave are matched with the troughs of the other 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.359 sound wave perfectly, they cancel each other out. So you 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:56.080 play these two sounds simultaneously, if they line up in 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.600 that way, they cancel one another out. It's like it's 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.560 like all the atoms can't move because they're pushing against 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:05.280 each other and not actually creating the vibration required for 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.280 you to hear a noise. Noise canceling headphones work on 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:12.440 a pretty similar principle to this to some degree. So 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.560 that's kind of interesting. All right, So let's talk about 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.160 saw tooth waves. If you look at these, it looks 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.960 like a ramp and then it's like the ramp goes 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.399 up into the right and then immediately drops off like 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:25.879 has a vertical drop, and then moves up into the 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.639 right again, and that's why it's called saw tooth. It 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:32.879 looks like the teeth of a saw blade. Um These 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:35.800 when you play them, have a buzzing sound that's really 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.159 strong and clear. So this is what a saw tooth 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:46.280 wave sounds like. Now, those are made by combining a 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:49.399 series of sign waves at different frequencies and volume levels. 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.600 The loudest sign wave defines the frequency of the overall 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.800 saw tooth wave, and that is the fundamental frequency, and 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.399 the other sign waves represent the harmonics, which are deally 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.280 at a frequent that complements the fundamental one. So generally 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:06.520 what we talk about are multiples of the fundamental frequency. 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:09.080 That's why I'm going to start with a one hurts. 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:13.400 So at a hundred hurts, your next multiple like harmonic harmonic. 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:16.160 The first harmonic would be number two because number one 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.000 is your fundamental that's one hurts. Number two would be 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:22.360 two hundred hurts because it's the multiple that's the harmonic. 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.560 Number three is three hurts, four is four hundred hurts, 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.399 so on and so forth. Multiple and harmonic number are 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:30.119 the same thing as what I'm trying to get across. 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:32.520 All of those are playing at the same time. But 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:37.600 the amplitude of the harmonics is lower than the amplitude 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.760 of the fundamental frequency, meaning they're quieter, right, They're not overwhelming, 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:45.880 Otherwise you would just have noise. So uh, it drops 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.560 with each step further away from the fundamental frequency, and 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.760 it stretches on effectively into infinity. Eventually it gets to 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:56.159 a point where it's so low that it's impossible for 0:22:56.240 --> 0:23:01.199 us to understand. So yeah, while the wave effectively or 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:04.640 the the harmonics effectively go on into infinity, eventually one 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.800 you hit a frequency that humans cannot perceive and to 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:13.960 its well, in general, humans have trouble perceiving, and it's 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:16.040 at an amplitude that's so low that you wouldn't be 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:17.560 able to hear it anyway. The volume is too low 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:19.680 for you to be able to detect it. But that's 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:24.280 the that's what gives the saw tooth wave that tonal character. 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:28.800 Then you've got square waves, which look very square. I mean, 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:30.400 if you were to look at they almost looked like 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.480 like the the battlements you might see on the top 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:36.800 of a castle wall or something. And uh, square waves 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.280 contain harmonics like a saw tooth wave, but it only 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:44.400 contains the odd numbered harmonics, So you don't have harmonic 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.680 number two. If you start with one hundred hurts, you 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:49.920 wouldn't have two hundred hurts as a harmonic. It would 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:52.800 be skipped. But you would have three hundred huh and 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:55.919 five hundred and seven hundred and nine hundred. But you 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:58.679 skip all the even numbered harmonics. You only include the 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:03.840 odd ones. And there's an actual formula for how quiet 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:06.840