# Suggestions for software



## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

I'm looking for a piece of software that I can perform the following actions on:

Create a tone by specifying the shape of a wave. (sinusoidal, sawtooth, square etc)

Specify the frequency of the wave to at least 2 decimal places in Hz.

Specify the amplitude of the wave, it's decay time and to crescendo and diminuendo over a set time.

Specify the duration of the tone and also the 'silence' between sounds.

Sound multiple waves simultaneously whilst retaining the previously mentioned individual features of the waves.

Be able to specify irregularities in the waves without doing it individually. i.e. set it so that every fourth or eighth (or whatever) oscillation the amplitude of the wave is twice as high.

Be able to arrange/move/transfer these sounds around in time (when they occur within the compostion) and space (the direction the ear 'imagines' these sounds/pan .i.e. left or right headphone/speaker).

A possible feature where you can set for the frequency of other waves to be specified by frequency ratios (eg 9/8, 5/4 etc) related to a set frequency (tonic). This is not crucial but might save some pre-calculations.

Save created waves and goupings of waves for later use. Also, maybe allocate the tones to a specific key on a computer keyboard or MIDI keyboard controller.

So if anybody knows of any software capable of doing any of the kinds of thing mentioned, your input would be greatly appreciated.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Audacity can do couple of things you write about (like creating a tone by specifying the shape of a wave), but I suppose you already know this quite popular program?


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Logic, can do most anything you need to one way or the other.


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## 151 (Jun 14, 2010)

Argus said:


> I'm looking for a piece of software that I can perform the following actions on:
> 
> Create a tone by specifying the shape of a wave. (sinusoidal, sawtooth, square etc)


Ok.



Argus said:


> Specify the frequency of the wave to at least 2 decimal places in Hz.


This is usually decided in pitch but doable.



Argus said:


> Specify the amplitude of the wave, it's decay time and to crescendo and diminuendo over a set time.


voulme, decay, sustain, release, sure...

not sure what you mean by crescendo but it can be done.



Argus said:


> Specify the duration of the tone and also the 'silence' between sounds.


not sure what this means, I thought we were dealing with one sound here. Duration, sure.



Argus said:


> Sound multiple waves simultaneously whilst retaining the previously mentioned individual features of the waves.


The problem with this is that frequencies overlap and causing phasing issues, you can open up as many instances of this sound generator as you like though yes.



Argus said:


> Be able to specify irregularities in the waves without doing it individually. i.e. set it so that every fourth or eighth (or whatever) oscillation the amplitude of the wave is twice as high.


Real-time, wave shaping, hm, ok



Argus said:


> Be able to arrange/move/transfer these sounds around in time (when they occur within the compostion) and space (the direction the ear 'imagines' these sounds/pan .i.e. left or right headphone/speaker).


No problem.



Argus said:


> A possible feature where you can set for the frequency of other waves to be specified by frequency ratios (eg 9/8, 5/4 etc) related to a set frequency (tonic). This is not crucial but might save some pre-calculations.


Sounds like a bit of a hack, keeping it in mind.



Argus said:


> Save created waves and goupings of waves for later use. Also, maybe allocate the tones to a specific key on a computer keyboard or MIDI keyboard controller.


Gotcha.



Argus said:


> So if anybody knows of any software capable of doing any of the kinds of thing mentioned, your input would be greatly appreciated.


Wow, ok.

Could you disclose your budget?

Operating system/computer specs?

Would you consider any external hardware such as a MIDI keyboard or other controller?

Are you familiar with Max/MSP programming?

It would probably be best to look into a DAW if you don't already have one, such as Cubase, Reason, FL Studio but for the more complicated synthesis you will probably need a specific plugin. There's a great one on the tip of my tongue, let me get back to you on it.


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## David58117 (Nov 5, 2009)

I think what you want is a softsynth, like Native Instruments Massive or maybe even Absynth.










Here's someone talking about absynth:


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

You might be able to do all those things with a really old freeware program called Orangator. It creates single shot sound files or with some tinkering a series of single shots that you can loop. I'm not sure about specifying irregularities. It will do this but it would be hard to specify. Also it won't play several tones at once, but these can be layered in another program like Audacity. Here's a link to an orangator download site. i'm sure there are many others if you do a quick search.
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Sound_Generators/Orangator.html

Even better you could download the demo version of FL Studio. It can do all the above and much ,much more. It is in fact a complete DAW or desktop recording / sequencing studio. You can save the sound files created in the demo version, you just can't save entire projects.
http://flstudio.image-line.com/


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Thanks for the advice guys.

I'm using Audacity for the time being as it is easy to use and fulfills most of what I require. It's limitations are easily forgotten when I remember it was free.

Yeah, I think what I need to get is a DAW for the sequencing aspect, with some kind of softsynth plug-in to create the tones. I have used Cubase (an old limited version) before but not for anything like this, only for recording and mixing, and even that I found quite complex. Getting Logic might give me a reason to get an iPad. Anyway, I'll try out the FL Studio demo first and see how I like its interface.


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## David58117 (Nov 5, 2009)

I mentioned some expensive softsynths earlier, but you should be able to find numerous free ones pretty easily.


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