Simple waveform question

[Dizzo]

Ive heard that a lot of sounds seem to come from just a basic saw, square, or triangle. With stuff done to it obviously but is that really like all you really need to make most sounds? Like i know about modern talking and how every loves to hate it even though it sounds good to me (but sometimes i can obviously tell in a song that it is modern talking THEN i dont think it sounds good) But i feel like most sounds that sound super complex are actually pretty simple when you break them down. And im not really talking about growls or bass but pretty much everything in general. So in a nutshell does like the grand spectrum of most sounds come from just a saw, square, or triangle even though there are so many more types of waveforms? - Simple question simple answer (unless you really wanna go all out and school me because i would love to learn)

[mthrfnk]

You can make anything from sine waves if you need too.

In general, I would say maybe 90% of electronic dance & pop music is made with saws/squares/sines.

[Dizzo]

Sweet thank you thats all i really need to know and i totally forgot to mention sine waves. This will help because it feels like i have a tendency to over complicate things. But why is it that everyone hates on modern talking? And gahh i love your demos

[mthrfnk]

Thanks haha, most of the stuff in my demos is square or saw based - I use sines and triangles for stuff like subs or tonal risers.

I guess people hate on modern talking because every kid that pirates massive ends up throwing generic YOooooIiiiIi midrange patches into their tracks, it's just overused and sounds ugly imo. There are exceptions such as kill the noise but he does so much modulation and processing so his basses end up sounding more unique.

[GenericNameHere]

Fourier theory states that all sounds are a series of sine waves.

Meaning saw waves are a series of sine waves. Squares waves are a series of sine waves. And even modern talking is a series of modulated sine waves ... or maybe not ... maybe it's granulised white noise -- just spit balling.

Anyway modern talking sucks, because, like you said, it's instantly recognisable, and the people who use it, don't nescessarily do any more than slapping a LFO on the WT-position knob. So yeah.

[mthrfnk]

You can make anything from sine waves if you need too.

love dat fourier.

[Add9]

And even modern talking is a series of modulated sine waves ... or maybe not ... maybe it's granulised white noise -- just spit balling.

Well every sound wave that hits your ear is a sine wave... so white noise is just sine waves at every frequency. Every waveform (and every sound for that matter) is just a unique collection of sine waves. That's why additive synthesis works.