Tone2 will release Icarus - 3D WaveTable Synthesizer

[OneOfManyPauls]

Icarus is completely based on wavetables and has no analog like PWM imlemention so the wavetables based on PWM (like e.g. those i created from the Slim Phatty and BS II) could be quite helpful and nice for this. BTW the INIT feataure in the wavetable editor alraedy allows to create a basic PWm wavetable (by clicking on INIT and then "Create wavetable PWM").

With just a single square waveform and using the PW morph mode modulated with LFO2 I'm getting typical PWM.

The nice thing with sweeping the oscillator on hardware synths with continuously variable oscillator is that the resultant wavetables have PWM baked right into them. Just like with the hardware synth - the wave knob in icarus works the same as the waveform knob on the synth. modulate either and it's instant PWM time.

[Ingonator]

Icarus is completely based on wavetables and has no analog like PWM imlemention so the wavetables based on PWM (like e.g. those i created from the Slim Phatty and BS II) could be quite helpful and nice for this. BTW the INIT feataure in the wavetable editor alraedy allows to create a basic PWm wavetable (by clicking on INIT and then "Create wavetable PWM").

With just a single square waveform and using the PW morph mode modulated with LFO2 I'm getting typical PWM.

The nice thing with sweeping the oscillator on hardware synths with continuously variable oscillator is that the resultant wavetables have PWM baked right into them. Just like with the hardware synth - the wave knob in icarus works the same as the waveform knob on the synth. modulate either and it's instant PWM time.

Your Sub 37 wavetable seems to haev 141 waveforms in the table so it's also quite smooth due to that.

With my wavetables tat include all synth waveforms i only had quite few waveforms in the table (while with teh Fade knob at maximum the interpolation still l works quite nicely...) while for the PWM i created those with a maximum amount of waveforms to keep it as smooth has possible. I do not really ned those otehr waveforms (e.g. Sine, Saw, Triangle) in the dedicated PWM wavetable except if i really want those to be involved. Would be still possible to add those to the PWM wavetable if necessary (also as i got teh single waveforms available and could add additional crossfading where necessary).

Of course it would be possible to use the PW Morph mode with a Square wave but this is not always similar to using samples of multipe Pulses at different width (like e.g. available from the PW knob in the BS II) to create a wavetable with additional crossfading betwen the waveforms. Anyway i have not directl compared all options yet and also did not directly compare to the PWM in the Bass Station II yet. In the BS II it could be also possible to record a slow PWM by the envelope and then import the result by Resynthesis. I will try this soon.

With the "Half size interpolated" feature in the wavetable editor it is quite simple to reduce the size f those PWM wavetables to half (or a quarter when doing it 2 times).

[Ingonator]

Additionally to the wavetables from the Moog Slim Phatty posted earlier (see post above) I just created 2 wavetables based on my new Novation Bass Station II.
Here is a download:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... bles_1.zip

One wavetable is based on 9 samples of waveforms in the BS II (Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square, 5 different Pulses) + 8 additional crossdafaded waveforms added with the corresponding feature in the wavetable editor.

The other wavetable emulates PWM by using samples/single cycles of 11 different Pulse waveforms of the BS II. Like in the BS II those are based on Pulses betwen 5 and 95% where 50 is the Square (Square found at waveform 128 in the wavetable).

With my Bass Station II I just created another PWM wavetable (89 waveforms) based on modulation of the PW (from 5% to 95%) by the Mod envelope of the synth, editing/cutting the recorded PWM WAV file and creating a wavetable in Icarus by Resynthesis of that recorded (and edited) WAV file.

Here is the download for the new BS II PWM wavetable:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... ep%201.zip

Not sure yet how this sounds different to the previous wavetable built from 11 Pulse samples and additional crossfading but at a first test that new PWM wavetable seemed to sound very nice (and so far i liked it more than the previous PWM wavetable). At least with that method no additional waveforms were added by crossfading in the editor but directly recordfed from the synth.
This could be seen in the shapes of the waveforms as crossfading in the editor opposing to directly recording from the synth sometimes creates strange waveform shapes (at least they could look strange at the display while tehymaybe sound OK).

To play the wavetable as smooth as possible the "Fade" knob in the Osc should be set to maximum.


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UPDATE:
Just tried to compare the PWM from my Bass Station II based wavetable to the PWM that you could get from a single waveform and the PW Morph mode. While that PW Morph mode could deliver interesting results, also with waveforms not related to "classical PWM", it does not sound really close to proper analog style PWM possible with that wavetable i just posted.
As alraedy mentioned you could also create a PWM wavetable from one of the INIT menu entries in the wavetable editor.

[OneOfManyPauls]

Thanks for sharing the bsII pwm wav file - all these raw sources will be useful for making patches.

Here's a really typical sub 37 patch, using 3 oscillators and sweeping across saw/pulse on one and just sweeping pulse waves on the second with a sub osc to beef it up. I've added a preview wav of a little sequence using it.

preview wav file (the forum software is processing this link weirdly - just open the link in a new tab/window if you want to hear it):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vgbp1nfzr5c2r ... m.wav?dl=0

icarus patch:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kjwxfduvu8zrq ... p.zip?dl=0

[Sendy]

I was messing around with the resynthesis last night, mostly loading in snippets of breakbeats and other percussive material. Being able to use the oscillator effects on the resulting sounds opens up some awesome braindance/IDM territory.

Also, if you want more wavetables, keep clicking on "synthesize random wavetable" and edit/trim/save the interesting ones. It seems to like to produce a lot of very high frequency tables, but when it isn't doing that it comes up with some great results.

EDIT: Awesome results with vocals as well!

[Sendy]

To make up for "3D rant" I'll post a bunch of wavetables tomorrow. Mostly created by editing the results of the random wavetable synthesis function. Just messing around with that stuff for a couple of hours has doubled my wavetable count.

[Ingonator]

So far with my wavetable from my Bass Station II i used the 24dB LPF and no Overderive or Distortion.
Now i also recorded both single waveforms and PWM "Sweeps" (PW modulated by the Mod envelope) using e.g. Drive, Distortion and also other filter like 12dB LPF (Classic filter) and the Acid filter (= 24dB diode Ladder LPF).Will now check what sounds really good and/or interesting in Icarus and what i do not really need there from those.

[OneOfManyPauls]

Something I've found with my own high-waveform-count wavetables from hardware is that they sound closer to the real hardware if fade is set to zero - which makes sense as it's the small nuances between waveforms that make the difference.

[Ingonator]

Something I've found with my own high-waveform-count wavetables from hardware is that they sound closer to the real hardware if fade is set to zero - which makes sense as it's the small nuances between waveforms that make the difference.

If the wavetable already includes a lot of waveforms taht make it sound smooth you les need taht "Fade" parameter. If you got wavetables wit hjust a few waveforms like those that i posted with all waveforms of te synth the Fad paramezer sems to be more important to get a good interpolation between waveforms.

With my PWM wavetables (especially thsoe based on Resynthesis) i got so many waveforms in it to get a smooth sound that the Fade parameter is less important there (anyway i keep Fade at least at the center for those).

In some cases it could be also nice to have "rougher" changes between waveforms so the Fade parameter at at lower values or even at 0 could be helpful there.

[OneOfManyPauls]

Here are 3 wavetables made from a moog mother 32 - square, saw and pwm.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o1oj4wri8rdae ... t.zip?dl=0

here's a preview wav of the 3 wavetables going through the icarus LP Butter 24db filter - saw > saw+res > square > square+res > pwm > pwm+res.

As before the forum is doing weird stuff with the link, just open the lin in a new tab to listen.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9xy0pbh6y5c4 ... v.wav?dl=0

Have to say, using this kind of wavetable and Icarus's filters sounds better than most VA synths to my ears - especially as these are dry and not effected to hell and back.

[Ingonator]

To make up for "3D rant" I'll post a bunch of wavetables tomorrow. Mostly created by editing the results of the random wavetable synthesis function. Just messing around with that stuff for a couple of hours has doubled my wavetable count.

The Randomm wavetable feature could indeed lead to very nice results and to sounds you have maybe never thopught about yet.

The Random waveforms could be quite nice too, also as there are multiple options in the INIT dropdown-selection for creating random single waveforms. Like with the random wavetables you could get waveforms this way you maybe never thought about.

With the "Random harmonic" feature you usually get around 3 to 5 partials but at random harmonics and with random amplitudes of the partials. This seems to be a great starting point to add or remove partials at the randomly created ones. To get interesting sounds you do not always need 20 or more partials.

It is also cool that with the spectrum editor you have the option to further edit those randomly created waveforms (or tables) in the way you want.

I also had random wavetables taht started sounding not so nice at a certain waveform so i just cut the wavetable there.

To further edit a random wavetable you could also add a Morph mode (e.g. Fm or PD) and then render a new wavetable based on this (using "Apply Morph to wavetable). Most of those Morph modes (And more) also seem to be available in the advanced editing feature of the wavetable editor. That way you could also add this to only a single waveform instead of the full table.

[Ingonator]

I just thought it would be nice to combine a few different Saw waveforms in to a single wavetable, also including crossfading between them so you could not get similar results from the original hardware synths.

This one starts with the Icarus INIT Saw, morphs to the Moog Slim Phatty Saw, then into the Bass Station II Saw (this time created with the 12dB LPF and some Drive added) and finally morphs back to the Icarus INIT Saw:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... 20Saws.zip

Overall this includes 19 waveforms while after each "pure" waveform 5 crossfaded ones do follow. This way you got crossfaded combinations of all 3 Sawtooth waves used for this WT.

As the overall amount of waveforms in this WT is quite small for a smooth interpolation) if you want to scan trough the whole table) you could set the Fade knob to a higher value.

[Sendy]

Ok, here they are, this is on a free file hosting site, so it might get deleted, feel free to host these on a more permanent website if you like them!

http://www.filedropper.com/sendywavetables

These were made by clicking the "generate random wavetable" for about three hours in total, saving the best ones, and then editing them, either with the "render morph to wavetable", or the actual wavetable editor (mostly to correct volume drops), or both.

Some of these contain a lot of high frequency detail and sound best in a low octave. Some are quite "textural" such as scraping or dripping noises, while others are more musical. One thing I'd like to see in Icarus is a "normalize all individual waves" button, to enhance the quieter waves in a table, perhaps with a slider to set the amount of compression.

One thing I've noticed about waves generated like this is that they have a lot of high frequency detail, i.e. you can play them very low and still hear new texture. There must be a lot of partials, it gives quite an organic sound.

EDIT: Holy crap, there are 68 wavetables there! I had no idea I got that many! If a couple of original waves from the default wavetables got in, that's just because I'm copying them based on the names, and trying to remember which ones were ones I made and which came with the software.

[Ingonator]

Ok, here they are, this is on a free file hosting site, so it might get deleted, feel free to host these on a more permanent website if you like them!

http://www.filedropper.com/sendywavetables

Many thanks for those.

I am currently also using the Random feature myself and alraedy got some very nice results including a few inspirations for new patches.
I had used the Random feature in the past but had not fully explored what it is possible with it until now.

Somehow it seems to be easier to get really new sounds from this than trying to create wavetable from scratch. The point is that wit hthe Random feature you could ge result you would never have thought about when trying to create wavetables from scratch. Of course it is possible to edit those further and/or use them as starting points for new wavetables.

I had a comparable experience when i had started using the formula editor in DNR Wave Designer (is discontinued since a while but i still got it and still works here). When i chekced using differnt mthematical formulas i had no idea how the results would really sound. A bunch of those waveforms i had craeted that way were also included with the factory content and commercial expansions for Rayblaster. I had also used a few of them in Icarus already and had done some wavetables with collectiosn of those waveforms.

[Sendy]

No problem! It was fun, and I got some good results. Though I think the random algorythm could use a little work, many of the wavetables you get are nothing but ultra high frequencies. But when I wasn't getting this problem, I was getting really interesting sounds, unlike any other wavetable synth I've heard - very organic.

I'm sure there's a way to translate high frequencies down to sit above the fundamental, using one of the spectral editing tools, but I haven't found it yet.

Also, I'd like to see an extra option: "Apply morph sweep to entire wavetable". At the moment, we can add a fixed amount of morph effect to the whole wavetable, or we can add a morph sweep to one wave of the entire table. How about if the entire table could be left intact but the morph sweep was applied? The results would be highly experimental, but interesting nonetheless. Perhaps something to suggest?