See Oscillator Waveforms
How it works:
This examples generates many different waveforms and displays them using the oscilloscope.
Select a waveform, eg. Sine, using radio buttons below.
Waveforms include:
- Sine = Pure sine wave. No harmonics.
- Sawtooth = Shaped like the edge of a saw. Contains all harmonics. At negative frequency, it slopes backwards.
- Triangle = Looks like a sine wave but with pointy corners. Contains all even harmonics.
- Square = Alternates between -1 and +1. Contains all odd harmonics.
- RedNoise = Linear ramps between random values.
- Impulse = Single sample spikes.
Note that the waveforms with the "BL" or "DPW" suffix are band-limited. Sweep the frequency up and down and compare their smooth sound with the non-band-limited versions. Band limiting eliminates high frequency partials above the Nyquist rate which cause aliasing.