The Sub 37 offers the fantastic variable waveshape oscillators, giving you triangle, sawtooth, rectangle and pulse waveshapes, as well as everything in between.
However, the oscillators don’t offer a simple sine wave. In deed, a sine wave features no harmonic content except for the fundamental note, so it does not make much sense in subtractive synthesis. Still, it does have a very soft and pleasant character that I personally really like. Here’s a way to create a sine on the Sub 37.
- In the Mixer section, turn off OSC1, OSC2, Sub Oscillator, Noise, and Feedback.
- In the Filter section, crank the Resonance all the way up
- Make sure, the Filter Envelope does not affect the Filter
- Also make sure that the Keyboard Tracking knob for the filter is centered
- Play a note: There’s your sine wave!
- Using the Filter Cutoff knob, tune the pitch of the tone correctly
- Using the Filter’s KB TRACK knob, tune the tracking so the octaves are consistent
Tip 1: To use vibrato, the Mod Bus must be set to affect the Filter Cutoff, not the oscillator pitch.
Tip 2: The AMP EG still works as with the normal oscillators.
Tip 3: Mix in a tiny(!) bit of Noise and you’ll get a cheap flute sound.
There’s also a ready-to-use patch available, in case you don’t want to do it yourself: Sine Wave patch
If you dig into the menu you can select a sine wave as a mod source. There are other sources as well. The sub 37 covers it all!