Cakewalk's Rapture and Wavetable Synthesis Question

[mholloway]

This is confusing me, hoping someone here can answer this seemingly simple Q:

The other "wavetable" synths I own (Largo and Massive) offer very clear methods of modulating the "wavetable position" of the selected wavetable loaded into a given oscillator. This is, as far as I understand it, a crucial aspect of what Wavetable Synthesis is -- a long list of single cycle waveforms and the ability to step through them via some form of modulation.

All the reviews, ads, articles on Rapture call it a wavetable synth, and you can load any of 250 or so supplied 'wavetables' -- but I see no options whatsoever for stepping through the wavetable once it's loaded into the oscillator. what gives here? what makes this a wavetable synth if you can't actually set up modulation to step through wavetables? I've looked through the documention, the reviews, forum discussions, and found nothing addressing this-- though one review commented that the "wavetables are very short" -- so are the available waves even really wavetables to begin with? If they are "short" and can't be stepped through, what then makes them wavetables?

Feel like I must just be missing something here, would appreciate any input from those in the know..

thank you!

-M

[guitarbro]

I think rapture uses only one cycle(i don,t have it so don't hold me to that).
Wavetable synthesis just means it modulates and/or distorts a series of points that make the waveform over time, so while not key, morphing is still nice.

[himalaya]

You can read my thoughts on this subject in this thread:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3976744

Simply put, Rapture has been wrongly promoted and advertised as being a 'wavetable' synth. The above thread explains why i think that.

[whyterabbyt]

Simply put, Rapture has been wrongly promoted and advertised as being a 'wavetable' synth. The above thread explains why i think that.

Sorry, the term 'wavetable' has been a viable definition for this kind of thing since the earliest days of digital synthesis, long before it was being done in realtime, or multiple (indexed) waveforms were being used in a single table. Check your Chamberlain et al.

[Ingonator]

Many confusions are still there about the term "wavetable synthesis". If you talk about the way the PPG Wave and/or the Waldorf synths work another term to describe it is "wavetable scanning".
The Waldorf synths (e.g. Largo, PPG Wave 2.V, Blofeld, Q, Wave, Microwave etc.) offer real "wavescanning synthesis", others are e.g. Virus TI, NI Massive, Synthmaster 2.0, Zebra 2.5, Surge, etc. Those have tables of up to 128 waves which you could scan through using e.g. envelopes or an LFO.
In the Microwaves for example this worked in a way that it included around 250+ single cycle waveforms from which you could then program a wavetable which includes "pointers" to the waveforms. The transition between two waves is then interpolated. Same way it worked in the PPG Wave, while it was more a "switching" than an interpolation of the different waveforms in that case.

This interpolation could also be found in the wavesequences of the Korg Wavestation which is more or less a wavetable using ROM samples instead of single cycle waveforms. Opposing to the "classic" wavetable scanning you could get a defined row of waveforms/samples this way. You could achieve a similar resuult with the new OS4 of the Virus TI since you could use the step sequencer for the modulation of the wavetables now. Same is possible with e.g. Largo (Step LFO) or Synthmaster 2.0.

Other synths which are promoted as wavetable synths like e.g. Rapture or Z3TA+ are just "normal" ROMplers or use single cycle waveforms.

[ew]

Simply put, Rapture has been wrongly promoted and advertised as being a 'wavetable' synth. The above thread explains why i think that.

Sorry, the term 'wavetable' has been a viable definition for this kind of thing since the earliest days of digital synthesis, long before it was being done in realtime, or multiple (indexed) waveforms were being used in a single table. Check your Chamberlain et al.

Which is why I describe Largo/Massive/PPG style synthesis as wavescanning instead of wavetable synthesis.

The strict definition of wavetable synthesis is that waves are stored in a table- that's it.

ew

[Caco]

Simply put, Rapture has been wrongly promoted and advertised as being a 'wavetable' synth. The above thread explains why i think that.

Sorry, the term 'wavetable' has been a viable definition for this kind of thing since the earliest days of digital synthesis, long before it was being done in realtime, or multiple (indexed) waveforms were being used in a single table. Check your Chamberlain et al.

Which is why I describe Largo/Massive/PPG style synthesis as wavescanning instead of wavetable synthesis.

The strict definition of wavetable synthesis is that waves are stored in a table- that's it.

ew

Yes, wavetable synthesis is purely synthesis from a single cycle of an arbitrary waveform stored in a lookup table. This technique predates wavescanning and goes back to MUSIC II by Max Mathews, which could store precalulated waves in arrays.

Playing back single cycles can sound dull so a number of methods have been introduced over the years to liven the sound up, such as wavescanning which allows morphing between waves.

[Rabid]

Yes. People get confused and wrongly promote their assumption that wavetable means wave sequencing. Maybe because the Korg line was so popular and they let you program wave sequences that were so prevalent in late 80's music.

[Ingonator]

Simply put, Rapture has been wrongly promoted and advertised as being a 'wavetable' synth. The above thread explains why i think that.

Sorry, the term 'wavetable' has been a viable definition for this kind of thing since the earliest days of digital synthesis, long before it was being done in realtime, or multiple (indexed) waveforms were being used in a single table. Check your Chamberlain et al.

Which is why I describe Largo/Massive/PPG style synthesis as wavescanning instead of wavetable synthesis.

The strict definition of wavetable synthesis is that waves are stored in a table- that's it.

ew

Look my post above...