Korg Forums

What is an lfo and what do they do?

LFO means...Low Frequency Oscillator.

RTFM also means “Read The F***ing Manual.

LOL means Laughing Out Loud, so don't take me too serious.
If you want to know what an LFO is, you really need to go back to the basics. Just pop "low frequency oscillator" into google.

Regards
Sharp.

...or your friend or girlfriend runnng around the studio and tweaking
filters, amps, pitch and fx on the board up and down, left and right,
clockwise and otherwise...

Ok, let me be nice:
If i use propper words i dont think you would understand i mean if i use
engineering terms, i'll just use simple words.
LFO works on frequencies or speed which can be set and controlled by a
bunch of parameters in itself, then the LFO can be assigned to other sound
funtcions such as FILTER, AMP, PITCH, FX and else...MATRIX.
What it does is for example:
When you press the synt harder you want to achieve VIBRATIO or TREMOLO,
you assign the LFO to the AFTERTOUCH and the AFTERTOUCH to the AMP or
PITCH controls, now if you press hard on the synth you get VIBRATIO or
TREMOLO and thats only cuz the LFO is WORKING (your girlfriend turning
knob in realtime) but LFO does this for you now.
The ame thing can be aaddigned to a FILTER to get a KINDA FASER EFFECT
or it can be assinged to the FX themself or anywhere in the MATRIX of the synth.
The LFO itself, not assigned anywhere can do nothing at all.
As Sharp said it means LOW FREQUENCY OSCILATOR and if you search
the net you'll find a lot about it.