If we take analog hardware as a reference for how much artifacts are acceptable, then 60 dB is already very good.matt42 wrote:I wonder what kind of interpolation schemes are used? Especially if working at base sample rate.
From some tests I did resampling a sine wave I found that, IIRC, a sinc kernel length of over 70 was needed to keep interpolation artifacts very low. I was designing the interpolator for high quality conversions, so the keeping the noise floor below 100 db would, likely, be overkill for a synth. What noise floor would be acceptable in general for an oscillator? Below 60 db?
But the question is really impossible to answer, as it is subjective, and furthermore depends on other factors, e.g. the overall architecture of the synth. There is no evidence that a noise-free waveform with perfect harmonics sounds better than a waveform with (minor) artifacts. From a sound design perspective, both clean and dirty oscillators can be put to good use
Richard