Fifth Fundamental Waveform Discovered at IRCAM

Research scientist Dr. Giuliano Spettro based at  IRCAM  in Paris, has discovered what they consider to be a new fundamental waveform.  In addition to the "big four" - Sine, Saw, Square, Triangle - the new shape is similar to a parallelogram, like a tilted Square wave - currently nicknamed the Pisa wave (Spettro is from Pisa). I don't know about you, but we're interested to know - does it PWM, and what does that sound like? Judging by the image below, if someone figures out how to generate and modulate it, then the results could be interesting.

Applications

• Modular Synths: The Pisa wave is said to create more "directional" modulation when used in LFOs -- particularly for stereo panning and filter sweeps. Also highly effective for oscillator sync.

• Spatial Audio: Because of its unique spectral-phase signature, it's being evaluated for use in 3D audio rendering applications to simulate tilting objects in acoustic space.

More information including sound examples:

https://www.ircam.fr/recherche/wav-du-pisa

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