The Actual GAIA waveforms

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ScottRS101
Posts: 32
Joined: 15:55, 16 June 2017

The Actual GAIA waveforms

Post by ScottRS101 »

I decided to find out what these GAIA waveforms looked like in their final analog form so I hooked up a Lexicon audio interface to my trusty Android tablet and ran my oscilloscope app to capture the GAIA's output. The waveforms are somewhat surprising. I captured them IN ORDER from top (Saw) to bottom (Super Saw). I captured each of the three variations in order as well and for the PWM waveforms captured waves with the PW slider at the bottom and top of it's range. I looked at the waveforms with both a real scope and the audio interface to verify accuracy. In the end, the Android scope was easier to capture with.

A few interesting notes

- Most surprising is this, the purest form of a selected basic wave is usually NOT it's first variation (wave button light is OFF - not red or green). I found this totally non-intuitive. For instance, the purest form of the TRIANGLE is certainly it's 3rd variation while the pure sine is actually the 2nd variation. This is important if you are going for predictable results trying to recreate some modular recipe for a patch. Here is the list of variations closest to the front panel wave icons. Noise and SuperSaw aren't included as there is no pure form of either.
- Saw - variation 1 (red)
- Square - variation 2 (grn)
- Pulse - no "pure" form here, but variation 2 (grn) with the PW slider at the bottom is close to a normal square wave
- Triangle - variation 3 (grn) (pretty much perfect)
- Sine - variation 2 (red) (again pretty much perfect)
(There is only an extremely subtle difference between sine 1 and sine 3, they could have done something far more interesting IMO)

- The polarity of the PWM waves seems to be inverted. In other words, when the GAIA manual would give you the impression that the wave should be mostly positive, it's actually mostly negative. This doesn't really make any difference in isolation, but it does in the final mix.

- The noise waves are interesting. Variation 1 looks close to a true white noise. Variation 2 shows a much greater amount of low frequency modulation. Variation 3 is only occasional pulse/click noises (useful for kicking a ringing filter, etc.)

- Some waveforms diverge radically from the base waveform. Saw 2 and 3 and Square 3 are good examples.

Anyhow, as this information doesn't seem to be available anywhere else I thought I would post it here. Hopefully some of you will find it useful.
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TatoGaia
Posts: 4
Joined: 01:51, 5 October 2016

Re: The Actual GAIA waveforms

Post by TatoGaia »

This is very cool and useful. Thanks!
Katerynaabr
Posts: 3
Joined: 10:50, 13 August 2020

Re: The Actual GAIA waveforms

Post by Katerynaabr »

Hello! I'm create motion-design video about Roland. I need your help. What is your favorite thing about Roland Gaia SH-01? What new colors would you like to see? Why did you choose GAIA SH-01?
It is not spam. Your answer will help me a lot. Thank you very much!
P.S. Waveform is so interesting. I would like to see not only images, but also video with audio accompaniment. If you don't mind, I would like to use some of this in my video.
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