Wavetable Synthesis Research

Our topic for last week's class was synthesis. Having no experience with synths, I was kind of nervous that I wouldn't be able to understand how it all worked, and I've seen some of my favourite artists use modular synths and they look confusing as hell. After taking notes from lectures and spending time on Modular Grid trying to figure things out by myself, I now understand the basic fundamentals of how modular synthesis work and it's made me think about actually getting into Modular synths to create new sounds for myself.

This post will be about my findings of one of the main 4 sound synthesis techniques, Wavetable Synthesis.

So Wavetable Synthesis is a sound technique also known as 'sample-based synthesis' and it is "where the sound constructed is modelled on the single cycle waveform of a sound source." (MPN, 2018). Wavetable is capable of replicating loops of a wave and "storing it in a digital representation of it in a table." (Rise, 2014). When modulating these loops, it is then achievable to create waveforms with different frequencies, (Scavone, 2017). This sound synthesis technique is different to subtractive synthesis (another common synthesis technique) as the waveforms already exist as "indexed single cycles" that can be be heard when sweeping through the frequencies, (Mantione, 2017). Other synthesis techniques tend to filter sounds to create new waveforms, (Mantione, 2017).

Some of the reasons that people would prefer to use wavetable synthesis instead of other techniques is that it uses less memory and uses less processing power. Because you only need to store one period of a wave, you're able to bank many high resolution waves without taking up too much memory, and less process power is used as all the different waves are pre-measured and banked into tables, (Rise, 2014).

Wavetable Synthesis is good for creating natural sounding sounds that are rich in harmonics, which for other synthesis techniques, would take a lot of equipment and power, which makes creating sounds with wavetable cheaper, (MPN, 2018). Some of the best examples and plugins of wavetable synthesis are Ableton's Simpler, Logic Pro's Retro Synth, Spectrasonics' Omnisphere and Serum by Xfer Records, (MPN, 2018).

I've learnt a lot about synthesis as well as wavetable synthesis and now that I have basic knowledge of how synthesis works, I'll be able to apply this knowledge to my own projects. As I'm interested in producing beats and experimental music, I know synthesis will be highly beneficial for my future productions as I'll be able to create my own unique sounds, so I am keen to start getting into synths very soon.

References

Mantione, P. (2017). The Basics of Wavetable Synthesis. Retrieved from https://theproaudiofiles.com/what-is-wavetable-synthesis/

MPN. (2018). Wavetable Synthesis Explained – What is Wavetable Synthesis?. Retrieved from https://musicproductionnerds.com/what-is-wavetable-synthesis

Rise, S. (2014). Wavetable Synthesis. Retrieved from http://synthesizeracademy.com/wavetable-synthesis/

Scavone, G. (2017). Wavetable Synthesis. Retrieved from https://www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/307/week4/wavetables.html