Wavetable Synthesis?

[Passante]

What is the practical usefulness of wavetable synthesis? What sounds could I make with it specifically that I couldn't with the other synthesis methods?
For what do you personally use wavetable synthesis?

[BertKoor]

Context? (because there are a couple different definitions of the term)

[Passante]

From a production pov, why would you go for a wavetable instead of the usual subtractive synthesis method?

[BertKoor]

Again, what type of 'wavetable' are you referring to?
There are a couple very different definitions of the term.

Are you for example aware that some subtractive synths employ a specific form of 'wavetable' technology for their basic (square / saw / triangle / sine) oscillators?

[starflakeprj]

I'm not the right person to technically answer your question, but in a typical subtractive synth you have oscillators with a single cycle waveforms. The typical wavetable synth loads up to wavetables with up to 2048 cycles that can cycle from sinus, sawtooth, square, noise and everything between and beyond. You can be a lot more flexible with automations to cycle through these.

If you don't own a wavetable synth yet, and would like to try yourself, there are a couple of free ones for you to download. Like Surge XT (https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/) or Vital (https://vital.audio/). Or why not Odin 2 from TheWaveWarden (https://thewavewarden.com/pages/odin-2), which has different types of oscillators varying from waveteble, analog, chiptune, vector, noise, FM and more.

Sorry, can't give you a better answer myself

[swilow11]

What is the practical usefulness of wavetable synthesis? What sounds could I make with it specifically that I couldn't with the other synthesis methods?
For what do you personally use wavetable synthesis?

Let's say you make a nice FM patch with lots of different oscillators feeding into each other, say with FM8. You want to bring that sound into Serums modulation system. You can set up a crude variant using Serums various PM/PD/FM options, or you an record out a sweep with FM8 and load that as a wavetable. No need for the complex routing and modulation- you've baked that all into the actual wavetable and can just scan through it. This is one of the best parts of wavetable synthesis- imagine you've got your synth playing and you've assigned macros to shift various parameters over time. By recording those macro changes as audio and loading it into a wavetable engine, you no longer need the macro- the desired timbral changes are baked in. You can then do multiple iterations of this process, baking in more and more timbral changes all of which can be accessed simply by scanning the wavetable index. This is awesome for complex modern bass sounds or for evolving, morphing pads where you want movement but may not want to have modulation everywhere.

It's also great for morphing between disparate sounds. I like to Load two single cycles into Serum, maybe one is a basic square wave, the other is a Formanty saw. Load these into Serum, apply one of the Morph options and maybe somewhere in the middle you'll find a tonality you could never truly make with subtractive synthesis. You get the gentle change between timbres as well as new waveforms.

You can record a basic filter sweep and use that as a wavetable without needing an actual filter- the filter in question can now be put to other uses.

With Serum, I like to do stuff like create maybe 5 frames, each with random harmonics scribbled in. Apply morph and you'll get a clean fade between these random harmonics, as well as interesting interpolation frames in between.

Or bounce out some nice waves from your analog synth (or someone else's analogue synth) and load them as a wavetable. Want the original model d sawtooth but don't have a model d? Get the sample and throw it in Serum/Vital/whatever. Unlike a rompler or sampler where you'll need multiple samples recorded across different octaves to sound realistic, a wavetable will align to pitch without changing the timbre significantly.

It's also great for FM. You can design your own modulator waves which might sweep through a few different shapes and go to town with it.

Anyway, I've rambled a lot. Wavetables are great. You can still deploy the same subtractive paradigm to them but have many more creative options too.

[k2006]

wavetable synths(zebra,vital,etc) have oscillator fx for modulating at spectral(harmonics)level.like,change the balance between odd even harmonics etc.download free Zebralette 2 and check manual for osc fx

[kvotchin]

Different. Waveforms.

[Passante]

Yeah, honestly I couldn't really find much usefulness once you add more than 2 waveforms. I imagine WT would be useful for dubstep or fart basses in general, or some IDM tracks.

[whyterabbyt]

From a production pov, why would you go for a wavetable instead of the usual subtractive synthesis method?

Most single-waveform and multi-waveform wavetable synthesisers have the usual subtractive synth architectures, ie they constitute multiple oscillators piped through filters and amplifier stages. That basic subtractive architecture is common to most synthesisers, no matter their oscillator type.
FWIW, single-cycle wavetables are an easy way to implement the 'classic' VCO waveforms, though other 'better' implementations exist. Indexed multi-cycle wavetables can give you the classic timbral evolution people associate with PPG etc.

So from a production point of view, it'd be that it gives you some specific core oscillator sound that you want as your starting point, such as maybe you want those near-cliched 80s wavetable sounds for some reason.

[koalaboy]

...Indexed multi-cycle wavetables can give you the classic timbral evolution people associate with PPG etc.

Are there any good editors for Indexed multi-cycle wavetables and what are the best VSTs to work with them ?

[whyterabbyt]

...Indexed multi-cycle wavetables can give you the classic timbral evolution people associate with PPG etc.

Are there any good editors for Indexed multi-cycle wavetables and what are the best VSTs to work with them ?

You mean for creating the wavetables? A lot of the plugins that do it have their own wavetable editors built in. For standalone tools, there are a few, and there have been threads about them at KVR, so searching for 'wavetable editor' will probably find them.

In VST terms, PPG3 is the OG, obviously, though doesnt have its own table editing capability, and Serum 2 seems to be quite popular with teh kids and does, but there's a fair few out of them out there. Same search as above will probably indicate a few.

Obviously what'd be 'best' for me at a given point in time isnt going to be best for everyone all the time. Right now, I'd say I'd personally be most interested in trying a 4ms metamodule implementation of the 4ms spherical wavetable navigator module, if that ever happens.

[koalaboy]

Right now, I'd say I'd personally be most interested in trying a 4ms metamodule implementation of the 4ms spherical wavetable navigator module, if that ever happens.

I didn't know about metamodule... I've been avoiding hardware eurorack, and definitely need to now ... although for a future 'small' rack, that could be interesting.

Is https://library.vcvrack.com/FrequencyDo ... fConfusion similar to their spherical wavetable navigator ?

[whyterabbyt]

Right now, I'd say I'd personally be most interested in trying a 4ms metamodule implementation of the 4ms spherical wavetable navigator module, if that ever happens.

I didn't know about metamodule... I've been avoiding hardware eurorack, and definitely need to now ... although for a future 'small' rack, that could be interesting.

Is https://library.vcvrack.com/FrequencyDo ... fConfusion similar to their spherical wavetable navigator ?

Hmmm, not come across that, but it looks interesting. Same principle, maybe, but a different control set by the look of thing, and not the 6 oscillators/6 lfos of the 4ms device? Same wavetable file format as Serum, I see; that seems to be a common option.

[zerocrossing]

Yeah, honestly I couldn't really find much usefulness once you add more than 2 waveforms. I imagine WT would be useful for dubstep or fart basses in general, or some IDM tracks.

Make a basic pad sound where you use a sample and hold or sequencer to modulate the wavetable index of a wavetable that has more than 2, like say 64. Maybe have a second oscillator doing a PWM type sound with oscillator unison. Another use case is to use a very slow LFO to create evolving pads for ambient.