Why that wavetable-mania?

[telecode]

If you think about it: most things about music creation could be considered a bit nerdy.
Is the kid with FL Studio and Serum seeking for the latest Skrillex wavetables more nerdy than the analog head with his collection of original synths from the 70's and 80's, every single one of them having extreme historical importance, lusting over each of their delicious filter FM which could never be replicated properly in software?
Even those badass guitarists aren't safe from this with their 30+ guitars, every single one of them more magical than the other and even more pedals
And don't forget about your typical KVRian, with more plugins installed than transistors inside their 12 core CPUs

I do believe there is a nerdy element to synths. Even old analog synths.

[XorXisT]

Why Filters?
Why Envelopes?
Why FX?
Why MSEGs?
Why...

Same thing.

[BlackWinny]

Why synths ?

[FapFilter]

@telecode: where did you find this photo of me?
Also: i'm NOT nerdy! quite the opposite in fact (as this photo clearly shows!)

[telecode]

@telecode: where did you found this photo of me?
Also: i'm NOT nerdy! quite the opposite in fact (as this photo clearly shows!)

Roger Powell? Is that you?

btw: he was quite amazing and I think he retired from music industry to become a programmer or something. thats why he didn't tour in the last tour.

for those not fans. pics of Powell and Bob Moog.
https://moogfoundation.org/roger-powell ... o-the-bmf/

[FapFilter]

No, he's not me!

on the plus side i'm not as old (yet)

[BONES]

Based on this quote, you haven´t even fully learned the sonic possibilities of a simple saw wave.

English your second language? I learned a very long time ago of the sonic possibilities of a simple saw wave, that's how I know that there is still plenty of mileage left in it for me. OTOH, that you don't get that tends to indicate you know f**k-all about it and instead rely on other people's work to get the sonic variety you are after.

Now imagine if you had 100 wavetables at your disposal, each containing 4-250 waveforms (individual tables).

I imagine I would waste a lot of time wading through all of that, time I could instead be spending programming a V/A to perform the same task so I can get on with my work.

The fact that you think you can learn a wavetable synth´s limitations and sound possibilities just by playing around for an hour or two is indeed laughable.

That's not "learning", that's "exploring". You don't need to listen to every different wavetable to know how to use the instrument or to get an idea of what it is capable of. I can learn a synth mostly by looking at the GUI. If it's well laid out, it shows me the signal path and features well enough for me to be able to use it immediately. There may be a unique feature or two that requires some actual learning but all the big ticket items should be there and usable straight away. After an hour or so I will have gained an understanding of how it all fits together and of the quality of the individual parts that make it up (oscillators, filters, modulation sources, etc.). If it takes more time than that, it is either really poorly laid out or thoroughly unique. It's not rocket science, it is a fairly simple paradigm that most instruments follow, like the difference between driving a petrol powered car or an electric vehicle. In both cases they make them so that you can leverage your previous experience when you encounter this whole new way of powering the product.

Especially, since you haven´t even used one before. What a joke.

You wish. I've been using wavetable synths since I first bought Orion in 1999 (3 osc WaveDream). I currently have around half-a-dozen of them installed - Massive, Synthmaster One, Sektor, Union, DUNE and Hive, possibly others I've forgotten about. To be fair, I don't use the wavetable features of them very often, mostly because I find the more traditional oscillators more than up to most tasks, but I have spent plenty of time with them over the years. When I first got Massive I used it heaps but since moving to Cubase, I've had no trouble replacing it with better sounding, easier to use synths like Aparillo, ArcSyn and Thorn.

[BONES]

Omg, i could just aswell finally learn FM
In reality though, my puny brain is probably going to stay subtractive forever

Aparillo is an FM synth but you can learn the FM side of it in a few minutes. Ditto for the FM oscillator in TRK-01. The FM process doesn't have to be complex to achieve complex results.

[BONES]

If we follow your logic let's replace the term "wavetable" with the term "sawtooth synth" and we get this : "Each sawtooth synth works the same as every other. Master one and you have mastered them all.".

Why stop there, why not keep going - each planet in a solar system is works the same, explore one and you'll have explored them all. It doesn't work, does it? Same with your idiotic remark. All wavetables contain the same elements, therefore once you understand how to manipulate one, manipulating any other one will involve the same process. Therefore, master one and you will definitely have mastered them all.

Honestly, I think that you never dug the subject of the wavetable synthesis.

Why would you say that? I've been using them for more than 20 years, I think I have a pretty good handle on them by now, obviously moreso than you do. They have their place but they are hardly the be-all and end-all that their current popularity might lead some to believe. In general terms they don't really offer anything that cannot be achieved in other ways, often more easily.

Well, there is the aforementioned functionality of working with sampled sound in ways unique to wavetable synthesis, which makes them attractive to the user.

That's just arcane garbage for nerds. The rest of us don't give a rat's arse how we make our sounds, we just want to make the right sound for the right part so we can finish our songs.

Why has it become a "mania" and developers are pumping out WT synths? Because some people like them and they sell well.

So the question becomes why now? Why not 10 years ago? Why not 20 years ago? It seems to me like nothing more than a fad.

Sweeping Wavetables yields some very interesting results to those with even a modicum of imagination.

So do any number of different methods of cross-modulation between two single cycle waveforms. The thought that an oscillator producing a fixed waveform is limited in the context of a multi-osc synth is rooted in ignorance.

It's all about evolution of sound. Some people are looking for new sounds while some still want to use the same Saw wave patch they did fifteen years ago.

And you call yourself a sound designer. Shame on you.

Either method is perfectly acceptable as long as you don't confuse "what's best for me" with "what's best for everybody". Don't like or have any use for Wavetables ? Fine, don't use them....there's the door, have a nice day......

Completely irrelevant to both the topic and the actual discussion.

If you think about it: most things about music creation could be considered a bit nerdy.
Is the kid with FL Studio and Serum seeking for the latest Skrillex wavetables more nerdy than the analog head with his collection of original synths from the 70's and 80's, every single one of them having extreme historical importance, lusting over each of their delicious filter FM which could never be replicated properly in software?

I don't know anybody beyond this place who comes anywhere near either of those extremes. Most people I know who do electronic music use instruments as tools to write songs. They don't obsess over how analogue or digital it sounds or what kind of oscillators it employs, they just have ideas in their heads that they want to get out. They only learn as much as they need to to get by and often never venture beyond presets. Nothing nerdy about 'em.

Even those badass guitarists aren't safe from this with their 30+ guitars, every single one of them more magical than the other and even more pedals

Again, most good guitarists I know only have one guitar that they use and maybe a spare. John Watts from Fischer Z, for example, uses the same guitar on stage today that he used in 1978 when they started out. I think it's just this place that attracts the weirdos who are atypical of the market at large.

[metaside]

How do you do something like vocal resynthesis with a saw wave?

[perpetual3]

How do you do something like vocal resynthesis with a saw wave?

Good question.

[AnX]

How do you do something like vocal resynthesis with a saw wave?

if you want vocal sounds, use a sampler

much better results

[Tj Shredder]

How do you do something like vocal resynthesis with a saw wave?

Use formant filters beside tracking filters. The consonants are more complicated, but if you do speech synthesis with wavetables you start out with samples, then its just a variant of sampling...

[perpetual3]

How do you do something like vocal resynthesis with a saw wave?

if you want vocal sounds, use a sampler

much better results

Unless you want something that sounds like vocal resynthesis.

[AnX]

How do you do something like vocal resynthesis with a saw wave?

if you want vocal sounds, use a sampler

much better results

Unless you want something that sounds like vocal resynthesis.

ew...