17/11/2017 Oscillator sync - Wikipedia

Oscillatorsync
Oscillatorsync is a feature in some synthesizers with two or more VCOs, DCOs, or "virtual" oscillators. One oscillator
will restart the period of another oscillator, so that they will have the same base frequency. This can produce a musical
sound, rich with harmonics. The timbre can be altered on the synched oscillator by varying its frequency input. A
synched oscillator that resets the other oscillator(s) is called the master, and any synched oscillator that is reset by
another oscillator is called a slave. There are two common forms of oscillator sync which appear on synthesizers: Hard
Sync and Soft Sync. Soft Sync is a term used for a variety of mechanisms. Other sync mechanisms exist which are also
discussed. According to Sound on Sound journalist Gordon Reid, oscillator sync is the least understood feature for
many users of a synthesizer.[1]

Contents
1 Hard Sync
2 Soft Sync
2.1 Reversing Sync
2.2 Threshold or Weak Sync
2.3 Phase Advance 'Sync'
2.4 Reset Inhibit Sync
2.5 Overlap Sync
3 Digital implementation Aspects
4 Sync-based Architectures
5 References

HardSync
The master oscillator's pitch is generated by user input (typically the synthesizer's keyboard), and is arbitrary. The
slave oscillator's pitch may be tuned to (or detuned from) this frequency, or may remain constant. Every time the
master oscillator's cycle repeats, the slave is retriggered, regardless of its position. If the slave is tuned to a lower
frequency than the master it will be forced to repeat before it completes an entire cycle, and if it is tuned to a higher
frequency it will be forced to repeat partway through a second or third cycle. This technique ensures that the oscillators
are technically playing at the same frequency, but the irregular cycle of the slave oscillator often causes complex
timbres and the impression of harmony. If the tuning of the slave oscillator is swept, one may discern a harmonic
sequence[2].

This effect may be achieved by measuring the zero axis crossings of the master oscillator and retriggering the slave
oscillator after every other crossing.

This form of oscillator sync is more common than soft sync, but is prone to generating aliasing in naive digital
implementations.

SoftSync

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillator_sync 1/3
17/11/2017 Oscillator sync - Wikipedia

There are several other kinds of sync which may also be called Soft Sync. In a Hard Sync setup, the slave oscillator is
forced to reset to some level and phase (for example, zero) with every cycle of the master regardless of position or
direction of the slave waveform, which often generates asymmetrical shapes.

In some usage,[3][4] Soft Sync means a sync intended to nudge and lock the slave oscillator into the same or an integer
or fractional multiple of the master oscillator frequency when they both have similar phases. See also Phase locked
loop

Reversing Sync
This form of oscillator sync is less common. This form is very similar to Hard Sync, with one small difference. In
Reversing Soft Sync, rather than resetting to zero, the wave is inverted; that is, its direction is reversed. Reversing Soft
Sync is more associated with analog triangle core oscillators than analog sawtooth core oscillators.

Threshold or Weak Sync

Several kinds of Soft Sync use comparison thresholds:

Hard Sync which is disabled when the frequency or amplitude of the slave crosses a user-dened threshold.
Hard Sync which is disabled when the frequency of the slave extends too high above or too far below the
frequency of the master.
Hard Sync which is disabled when the frequency of the slave is lower than the frequency of the master.
Soft Sync may accurately refer to any of these, depending on the synthesizer or manufacturer in question.

Phase Advance 'Sync'

The phase of the slave is advanced by some amount when the master oscillator level crosses some threshold. Used for
audio synthesis, this may give an audible effect similar to Soft Sync.

Reset Inhibit Sync

When the master oscillator crosses some threshold, the normal reset of the slave is disabled: it will stick at its final
level, positive or negative. When the master crosses back over some threshold, the slave is reset.

Overlap Sync
In this method, the current wave completes but a new waveform is generated at the sync pulse. The tail of the old wave
and the new wave are output summed if they overlap.

DigitalimplementationAspects
Naive approaches to sync in digital oscillators will result in aliasing.

Methods such as additive synthesis, BLIT (Band limited Impulse Train)[5] or BLEP (band-limited step) must be
adopted to avoid aliasing.[6]

In a digital oscillator, best practice is that the slave will not be reset to the identical phase each, but to a phase
advanced by an equivalent time to the phase of the master at the reset. This prevents jitter in the slave frequency and
provides truer synchronization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillator_sync 2/3
17/11/2017 Oscillator sync - Wikipedia

For digital oscillators, Reversing Sync may less frequently generate aliasing. This effect may be naively implemented by
measuring the zero axis crossings of the master oscillator and reversing the slope of the slave oscillator after every
other crossing.

For digital implementation, note that none of the Threshold or Weak Sync methods actually synthesize the waveform
in a way different from Hard Sync (rather, they selectively deactivate it).

Overlap sync is primarily a digital technique with simple implementation, such as used in FOF [7] (An analog
implementation could be a highly damped sine oscillator excited by the reset pulse.)

SyncbasedArchitectures
A variety of synthesis architectures are based on sync, often used in conjunction with Amplitude modulation,
Frequency modulation or Phase modulation. Such architectures include

VOSIM (http://www.csounds.com/manualOLPC/vosim.html)
Physical modelling synthesis

References
1. Reid, Gordon (November 2002)."Synth Secrets: Synthesizing Acoustic Pianos On The Roland JX10" (http://www.s
oundonsound.com/sos/nov02/articles/synthsecrets1102.asp). Sound on Sound. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
2. http://www.cs.nuim.ie/~matthewh/HardSync.pdf
3. synth-diy:2009, Aug, 019132 (http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/pipermail/synth-diy/2009-August/019132.html)
4. synth-diy:2009, August, 019136 (http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/pipermail/synth-diy/2009-August/019136.html)
5. http://www.music.mcgill.ca:bandlimited (http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/307/week5/bandlimited.html)
6. http://www.cs.cmu.edu:icmc01-hardsync.pdf (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~eli/papers/icmc01-hardsync.pdf)
7. http://www.gersic.com:Physical Modeling Synthesis (http://www.gersic.com/dspwiki/index.php?title=Physical_Mod
eling_Synthesis)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oscillator_sync&oldid=808923716"

This page was last edited on 6 November 2017, at 01:45.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-prot organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillator_sync 3/3