the.com/modulator
The thing that takes a signal and gives it something to say.
means A device or circuit that varies a carrier wave—its amplitude, frequency, or phase—so it can carry information.
from From Latin 'modulari' (to measure out, regulate, make rhythmic), itself from 'modus' (measure, manner, limit). The same root gives us 'mode,' 'model,' and 'moderate' — all about keeping something within measured bounds. 'Modulator' as an engineering term rides in on the electronics age, when 'modulate' got borrowed from its older musical sense (shifting key, shaping tone) to describe shaping a radio wave instead.
- radio's backbone
- AM and FM owe modulators their entire personality
- opposite number
- demodulator undoes the trick at the other end
- biology borrowed it
- proteins that tune gene activity are called modulators too
- synth essential
- shapes raw waveforms into actual music, not noise