Creating Feedback Loops

An operator can send its output back to its own input or to the input of an operator that precedes it. These feedback loops can create signals with a rich frequency spectrum and can even be used to create sounds similar to white noise when used with high feedback levels.

Feedback connections are represented by lines between the operator blocks in the diagram.

Operator 3 sends its output back to the input of operator 1.

Procedure

  1. Position the mouse on the source operator, and move it straight upwards. The line indicates to which destination operator the feedback is sent.
  2. Click and drag the mouse upwards or downwards to establish the feedback connection and to set the gain.

    The feedback gain can be set to negative or positive values.

    If you feed the output of an operator back to itself, the following applies:

    • Positive values produce harmonics and sound like a sawtooth wave.

    • Negative values produce mainly odd harmonics and sound like a square wave.

    If the feedback extends over multiple operators, the result is different and more complex.

    Note

    The global Feedback control below the algorithm selector on the left allows you to scale all feedback levels in the algorithm at the same time.