GroovyDSP: Introduction to Phase Distortion Synthesis

[@cma5603]

Hi, stumbled upon your video while reseaching on phase distortion. Btw, huge props on making it open source!

[@VincentZauhar]

Very interesting. I was wondering how Phase Distortion works because of Digits and I'm glad I stumbled upon a video made by its creator. Cheers!

[@glenesis]

Hi, I'm Glenn! Nice to meet you. I have a CZ-101 I love, and I've used your Digits plug-in for fun for years, and I love it too, so this is a treat to stumble into you on the KZbin :) A PD explanation demo from an expert such as yourself is KZbin Gold, for sure; thanks for making and thanks for sharing. Cheers!

[@nitroanilinmusic]

Wait... You're the one who made Digits?? Great thing I stumbled upon this video. I was just trying to figure out how Digits work.

[@flubberghosted2472]

OMG, I love Digits! You’re the MFing man!! 💯🎯💐❤️🎶

[@iamveryconfusedabout]

wow, I actually got interested in this style after finding digits, I didn't expect to find an explanation made by the creator of it haha

[@rthrmusicofficial]

This is amazing stuff. I slightly understand the concepts from experience with synth sound design but a little over my head with mathematical descriptions. But such as anything new. Subscribed!

[@noel101082]

Yeah man Much appreciated. we are in Head Melt territory, Nice to know someone can navigate it

[@rot_studios]

This is a very constructive video, I'm really surprised this hasn't gotten any attention! Thanks for your hard work :)

[@rolkinn]

any tips on how to get phase distortion-like results from a 2 or 4 op fm synth? seems like this could be somewhat achievable with 0 ratio operators and such? any help or info would be great. thanks for the interesting vid!

[@rayforceaddict]

Hi! The closest thing I can think of is two operators at 1:1, with moderately high feedback on the modulating operator. That will bend the sine into a saw and back in a somewhat similar way. 2:1 gets you a square. In general, though, I think it's a lot beefier sounding to use a real phase modulation synth for those tones.

[@EuroDJ]

Is the Roland D-110 a Phase Distortion Synthesis too? I mean, it has a filter that works in a strange way, like a part of a distorted sine is added to the saw (when cutoff is active) ... and on the spectrum it does not work quite like a filter, there are additional harmonics above the cutoff frequency ... sounds lo-fi

[@groovydsp1716]

It's similar, if the MUNT source code is correct: It takes a sinewave and plays the corners fast or slow to round or un-round them to act as the "filter". Up all the way, it's a squarewave. That is then put through a waveshaper to produce the saw. I believe the resonance is something similar to the CZ's. You can fake resonance a few different ways though (one other way is cross-fading between a couple sinewaves, going up the harmonic frequencies)

[@EuroDJ]

@@groovydsp1716 ok, Thnx :)

[@EuroDJ]

@@groovydsp1716 Roland's D50 manual says that the SAW is formed from a ring modulation of a SIN and a square .... interestingly, is it the same in the D110? Nothing is said about this in the manual ... but waveform, it also resembles a quarter of a sine. Or maybe it's just sampled?

[@EuroDJ]

@@groovydsp1716 and maybe You know ... how implemented PWM in D-110 or D-50 ? Algorithmically? Or just sampled the cycle table for each percentage value?

[@unslept_em]

oh btw! bitwig studio has phase distortion synthesis capabilities in both its modular device and somewhat inside its phase modulation device, I thought you might be interested

[@TheGreatPizzaMasterpiece]

Thank you for this explanation on graph paper - awesome! I love both algebra and synthesis so this is right up my alley, especially with renewed interest in my CZ-5000. Also lol, you said “super saw” did you catch that ;)

[@Max-hc6oy]

Amazing stuff! Congrats for your hard and inspiring work :) Since you mentioned that we could request videos, I’d like to ask whether you could make a very basic tutorial for us noobs on how to make a simple VST plugin. I would be interested to know what’s wrapped around this simple C program that you made, to make an actual Audacity-loadable VST plugin. I, particularly, am familiar with writhing C for audio applications but only on iOS apps - I’d love to expand this skill on making VSTs as well. Thanks a lot for this and your other videos :)

[@midiocreplayer]

Great video! Thanks a lot, I was able to do a neat pd patch. Around 14:04, you mention this knee problem, but I didn't find anything about it in the rest of the video, or perhaps I didn't understand. How do you adress that problem please? The result I got from my patch sounds and looks almost exactly like the saw wave in audacity, but I can hear a very slight undesired overtone that I'm guessing is to do with that sharp transition from one half to the other.

[@SomeOne-pd6vm]

how exactly did you get that saw wave you showed on the oscilloscope in the first half of the video? that's exactly the waveform i'm looking for.

[@andym1594]

What hard numbers are you using for delta, x1, etc? (save viewers an hour of playing with numbers to figure it out)

[@chinossynthesizer705]

Hey man i got a question does phase distortion synthesis sound more warm then fm synthesis compared to a dx7?

[@danselmix]

what about resolution? how the CZs deals with different reading rates in both parts of the waveform? does it works so fast that the difference is not noticeable?

[@stickylizardbabyangel]

Is there an analog pedal one can buy to hear/synthesise these sounds?

[@von-fur-wegen-gegenolli9196]

Interesting video!

[@deathybrs]

Great stuff!

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

Are the notes of your sound synthesis class online?

[@rot_studios]

Love this synth, really want to get or build one someday :)

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

Tried to download Digits for 64-bits, but my AV considers it a threat (it apparently tries to modify a .ico file in an Ableton project (which seems weird to me)).

[@rayforceaddict]

Huh, yeah it's definitely not doing that (maybe Ableton itself does this under some conditions?). The fact that there's no digital signature on it can also throw warnings.

[@hitto_dubstep]

im a bit confused 2:15 that sound dope

[@MrPopel]

Ok, but to me it looks like just moving the cutoff frequency from a low-pass over the time ... same effect 🤔 . eg. ADSR -> cutoff

[@shyfolium]

i thought the thumbnail was an ECG-

[@julianguffogg]

ooh a leftie!

[@michael18276]

The square wave isn't square at all.

[@my4trackmachine]

From what I gather, the synthesis approximates it's waveshapes through the mathematical formulas he presented. So they don't appear exactly like the normal shapes. It's more of an abstraction. I think that is why the starting and ending points of the squares appear as more of a sloped shape.

[@jean-louispech4921]

it's look like a square wave passed in a high pass filter with cutoff frequency lower than the note. 🙂 Several analog synths have square wave like this, with a slope. It is a question of phase rate ,the core of PD. With a nominal phase rate of 1 all along the phase, you have a sine or cosine wave , and you have only one frequency. The part that have a strong impact on the spectrum , the harmonics content are parts with higher phase rate , >= 1 , while lower phase rate have less impact or no impact on the spectrum . This is why the flat part of the square wave can be changed in a slow slope without impacting the spectrum, while it keep the symmetry.