What the heck is wavetable synthesis? Well, we’ve all heard talking wavetables in Native Instruments revolutionary synth Massive which defined the sound of electronic music. But there is a lot more to wavetable synthesis than talking bass patches.
In this article, we are going to take a deeper look at this amazing form of sound synthesis.
What Is Wavetable Synthesis
Wavetable synthesis came about as a by-product of the digital synthesizer revolution. It was a direct response to analog synthesizers which were hard to tune and were unable to save presets. This method of synthesis uses banks (wavetables) of single-cycle samples to generate waveforms.
Using wavetables allows you to scroll through the sound using an LFO or envelope. This adds modulation to your sound design by scrolling through the frequencies of the wavetable.
The earliest known wavetable was designed to recreate a filter sweep of a Moog synthesizer. While scrolling through the waveform, the sound would go from a harmonically rich saw wave into a basic sine wave. Doing this you could imitate a low pass filter sweep of a synthesizer without actually using a filter.
This was just the start.
Soon producers started turning complex waveforms into wavetables and the results were amazing new sounds that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
As the world progressed more into computer-based and in-the-box music production the wavetable synthesizers were almost forgotten. There simply wasn’t a good wavetable synthesizer VST that could compete with the sound of hardware synths.
Introducing Native Instruments Massive
In 2007 Native Instruments introduced their new wavetable synthesizer “Massive”. As a direct consequence, they leveled out the battlefield for all music producers. Now everyone could make a hard-hitting bass sound like Noisia or lush super saws like Above and Beyond.
The sound of Massive greatly influenced the new generation of electronic music producers. However, since it was available to every producer with a laptop Massive became stale in just four years.
It was synthesized to death. The reason is that Native Instruments only offered a handful of wavetables with no option to make new ones.
Introducing Xfer Records Serum
The EDM scene was hungry for new sounds and Steve Duda was up to the challenge. Steve single-handedly created the most complex wavetable synthesizer of its time “Serum”.
Serum was lightyears ahead of Massive. Inspired by older wavetable synthesizers, Serum took the original algorithms for creating wavetables and brought them to the future.
This new wavetable synthesizer changed the game forever. Serum offered a new ecosystem for the synthesis of new and exciting sounds. It also set the bar super high for new plugins entering the wavetable space.
How can you use wavetable synthesis?
From talking basses to lush soundscape pads there is a lot you can do with a wavetable synthesizer.
You could morph from a sine wave, into a triangle wave. Morph into a saw wave, and finish off with a square wave. You can even use images as your synthesis source.
These wavetables you would typically find as the default wavetables that come with modern wavetable synths.
The real joy of using wavetable synths is to create your own unique wavetables.
To do this you first pick out the sample you want to turn into a wavetable. This sample can be literally any sound file.
Some sounds won’t make something musically usable, but any sound could be used as a soundscape if nothing.
After you pick out the perfect sample you then cut out a few sample sizes worth of audio. These sample sizes become your waveforms. The longer the initial sample the more wavetables you will get.
Now you can play this smart and pick a sample of a vocal that says “yoi”. When you scroll through your wavetable your synths will sound like a robot saying “yoi”. But loading a kick drum for example might give you some fat wavetables you could use as the lead sound.
You never really know what you’ll get so it is best to experiment and see!
Popular Wavetable Synth Plugins
Below are a few of the most popular wavetable synthesis plugins.
The most notorious of them all. This plugin is the first choice of every producer when it comes to wavetable synthesis.
The synth that lives on its former glory. It’s still widely used today for its unique sound.
A direct competitor to Serum this VST. Vital was designed during the COVID-19 pandemic by a programmer trying to turn his abundance of time into something useful. He made this VST free for everyone.
This plugin isn’t talked about enough. In terms of sound quality, filtering options, modulation, synthesis it’s the best of them all. But maybe having too many options isn’t always the best thing.
Ableton Live’s Wavetable Instrument
The friendliest DAW in the music industry received a big update in Live 11 and that’s a wavetable synthesizer. Ableton’s Wavetable instrument can do anything third-party wavetable synths can do with the addition of Live’s user-friendly design and compatibility.
With an abundance of presets, this wavetable synth gave a big smile on the faces of Ableton Lives trusty users.
It features two main oscillators with the addition of a sub-oscillator. These oscillators go through several analog-modeled filters and some unique unison modes.
And like any other Ableton Live product you can modulate literally anything using the built-in envelopes and LFOs.
Another bonus to using Ableton’s Wavetable instrument is how light it is on CPU.
Conclusion
Wavetable synthesis allows you to create new and exciting sounds. It also moves the industry away from the simple and classic saw, sine, and triangle waves. While these sounds will always have a use in music production, wavetable synthesis takes sound design to new levels.
Author: Nadir
Hi there, my name is Nadir aka Nadrisk. I’ve been a bedroom music producer for 8+ years. I do everything in the box and I use Ableton Live as my weapon of choice. Apart from music production, I do mixing and mastering, audio/video editing, and sound design.
Listen to Nadrisk Here
