Waves: what the instrument and effect samples measure
Four readings of the 955 instrument and effect waves, taken from the same recordings as their pictures: one C3 note at full
velocity on a bare voice with no filter, envelope shaping or effects, held for one second, and for three seconds or more where the wave
was still sounding. Nothing here is a level comparison between waves; every reading is a pitch, a time or a shape.
In plain terms: the pictures show what each wave looks like; this page says what note it really plays, how long a piece of
recording Yamaha stored before it starts going round in a circle, how long it lasts, and what gives it its tone. Each dot is one wave:
point at it for its name and numbers, click it to jump to its harmonics, or type in the box to pick waves out by name or number.
The pitch of the settled note for the 654 waves that hold one, read as the rate at which the waveform repeats, against
the C3 that was played (261.63 Hz). 482 sound C3 itself and 86 sound the C an octave below; the rest sit at other notes.
The second chart is the same reading with the note taken away: how far each wave is from the nearest note, in cents. Half of them are
within 1.4 cents and 32 are more than 20 cents out. Checked against two waves whose
pitch is not in doubt: Sine reads 261.54 Hz and LongSaw 261.63 Hz.
In plain terms: the same key was pressed for every wave. A dot on the C3 line plays the note you pressed; a dot to the
left plays lower than the key and a dot to the right plays higher, so that wave needs its coarse tune moved to sit with the others. In the
second chart a dot away from the middle line is a wave that is slightly sharp or flat by itself.
Loops: where each wave starts repeating
A sustaining wave is a short recording whose last stretch is played round and round while the key is down. For each wave that was
still sounding at the end of the hold, the end of the hold was compared with everything before it: the loop is the shortest stretch
that the sound repeats exactly, and it starts where the note first matches the last pass of it. A repeat was found in 527
waves; 349 of them repeat a single cycle. 58 more hold steady with no exact repeat inside
the hold: a loop longer than about a third of the hold, or a sound with no fixed shape, cannot be told from this recording. The finder was
checked on a made-up wave with a known loop, and on the second recording of each wave where there is one.
In plain terms: left to right is how much real recording you hear before the instrument starts going round in a circle;
bottom to top is how long the circle is. The row of dots along "one cycle of C3" are waves that keep only one back-and-forth of the
sound: after their attack they are a frozen tone, and any movement has to come from the filter, envelopes and effects. Dots high up
have a long loop with the original player's movement still in it.
Ring time: how long each wave lasts
The time from the start of the note until its level has fallen to a tenth of its peak and stays there, with the key still down.
306 waves die away on their own inside the hold and have a time. 585 hold for as long as the key is down (level steady
across the hold, or a loop found). 64 were still falling when the note was let go, after one second or after three, so their
time is longer than the recording and is not given a number.
In plain terms: a dot at the left is a short sound, a pluck or a hit that is over almost at once. A dot in the "holds"
column never stops by itself: it sounds until you lift the key. The "still falling" column is waves that fade slowly, like a piano
string, and had not finished fading when the recording moved on.
Harmonics: what each wave is made of
For each of the 654 pitched waves, the strength of harmonics 1 to 32 of the settled sound (a spectrum of the note from 50 ms
after its start, both channels together). Bar 1 at the left is the fundamental, the note itself; bar 2 is twice that frequency, and so
on. The tallest bar is the strongest harmonic, each tenth of the height lost is 6 dB weaker, and a missing bar is 60 dB or more under the
strongest. Checked against waves whose make-up is known: Sine has its fundamental and nothing else; TriWv has only odd harmonics, the 3rd,
5th and 7th at -19, -28 and -34 dB (a triangle is −19, −28, −34); P5SawLp falls
-6, -10, -13 dB over harmonics 2 to 4 (a sawtooth is −6, −10, −12).
In plain terms: one tall bar at the left and little else is a pure, mellow tone. Bars carrying on far to the right are a
bright or buzzy one. Bars only in every other place is the hollow sound of a square or triangle wave. "Mellowest first" puts each group in
order from the purest tone to the brightest.
804 ElPerc797 Hz810 ElPerc1349 Hz1778 Ag FX22 St97 Hz1779 Ag FX22 L97 Hz1780 Ag FX22 R97 Hz1781 Ag FX23 St99 Hz1783 Ag FX23 R99 Hz1794 Ag FX27 L1556 Hz1831 Ab FX0462 Hz1837 Eb FX 0152 Hz1840 Eb FX 0478 Hz1841 Eb FX 0572 Hz1842 Eb FX 0637 Hz1847 Eb FX 111851 Hz1850 Eb FX 14165 Hz1851 Eb FX 15270 Hz1859 Eb FX 23141 Hz