Phase distortion synthesis

Phase distortion synthesis creates different waveforms by modifying the phase angle of a sine wave with a second modulator wave. In some respects, this is similar to FM synthesis. The principal difference between the two approaches is that the two waveforms are synchronized each cycle in phase distortion synthesis, resulting in the creation of more harmonic overtones.

In essence, you can bend a sine wave until it becomes a sawtooth wave, a triangle wave, a square wave, and so on. The synthesis engine beyond the waveform generators typically follows a subtractive synthesizer design.

Phase distortion synthesis was commercially introduced in the 1984 Casio CZ series synthesizers.

Several Logic Pro synthesizers allow you to reshape the source waveform, but you are not restricted to sine waves as the raw material.