what is LFO???

what does it mean and do.. and also, what does it mean when its said that the Oscillators - DCO: pulse, saw, and square or other types of wave forms?? are these just presets? and what do they all individualy aply to.....anybody can help a brah out....


grazie

low frequnecy occilator (i think) honestly I don't know a whole lot about synthisis but I think its some form of modulation...in some of the better synths the LFO has it's own waveforms or "shapes" as well just like an osc but in this case it doen't produces sound but shapes it.Like if you have a Bassline and turn the LFO knob up it usually makes it "studder"...I really don't know the purpose tho Im sure it has one other than studdering,lol.As for osc and wave forms it's realitivly simple but I let someone with a better grasp of synthisis chime in.

Renegade is spot on...

LFO...a LOW FREQUENCY OSCILLATOR....

An oscillator is just a 'Modulator'...in english...a component that is used to change how we perceive sound by affecting its behaviour!!!

An LFO is one of these but operating at a 'LOW Frequency'.

What kind of modulations is it used for....ok....see below.

Basic synthesis had 3 parameters that were typically modulated using LFO's

1) VCA...a voltage controlled 'Amplifier'....which when modulated, produced an effect wwe now have come to know as 'TREMOLO'...Its where you hear slight(or not so slight) increases & decreases in volume based on the frequency(rate) & depth of your LFO

2) VCF...Volt controlled 'Filter'...which when modulated, produced the effect we now know as Wah-Wah'....simulates the opening & closing of a filter by modulating its 'Cutoff' frequency (Which is the frequency at which the brightness & audibility of a sound begins to attenuate...get quieter).

3) VCO...Volt controlled Oscillator...which when modulated, produces an effect known as Vibrato....that is to say the tuning of a sound source affect will change at a rate & depth determined by the LFO working on it.

My explanation might not be so simple but trust me, the principles are...& when you get these 3 down....u can go & tweak any synth & get useful results.

this is all from memory so dont quote me...

Hope it helps

H*

damn, big ups fellas.... thanks that did it for me..... but check it out.. how or what can i look for to see what synths has better/worse lfos, osc, etc ? and, i seen some that have more than one lfo. say if one had 3 lfo's, that just means i can use it on 3 different sounds at once?


by the by, i dont have any synths, and i proly wont ever have any.. nothin against em at all though. but i feel that it would be good to know this stuff cuz some of it can be applied elsewhere... gracias por el informacion..

Check this series out, everything you could want to know about synthesis, it's like a textbook, articles start real easy then take you into the good stuf.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may99/articles/synthsec.htm

that was good, but i dont think it helped me in my last post....