Sawtooth
Oscillator waveform · saw
The brightest of the classic subtractive shapes. A sawtooth contains every harmonic from the fundamental upward, in a ragged ramp that drops sharply on each cycle. That dense harmonic content is exactly what a low-pass filter needs to work on — most "classic synth" sounds are a saw being sculpted by a filter. Detuning two saws against each other produces the supersaw width that defines a lot of modern bass and lead patches.
▸Typical uses
- Filtered bass with motion
- Detuned saws for supersaw leads and pads
- Aggressive driven bass (reese)
- Bright leads that need to cut
▸In the curriculum
Lessons that explicitly use, or naturally lean on, the sawtooth waveform:
- Bass · BS1
Pick a wave
Do: A/B sine, saw, and square over the bed.
Result: A clean sub.
- Bass · BS3
Open the filter
Do: Sweep the cutoff, add a touch of resonance.
Result: A filtered, wobble-ready bass.
- Bass · BS4
Dirt
Do: Push saturation until it growls.
Result: A reese/growl that sits in the mix.
- Pad · PD1
Stack & detune
Do: Layer two oscillators, widen detune.
Result: A thick, wide tone.
- Lead · LD3
Cut through
Do: Add bite and a short delay.
Result: A lead that sits on top of the bed.
▸Other waveforms
Compare sawtooth against the other oscillator shapes:
Hear sawtooth alone, then watch the filter eat its harmonics. The PatchPond studio loads any oscillator waveform with one click.
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