Re: [music-dsp] Wavetable File Formats?

[Frank Sheeran]

>
>
>
> There's an open-source wavetable editor:
>
> https://github.com/AndrewBelt/WaveEdit


Thanks Eric.



> This was written by Andrew Belt (author of VCV Rack) under commission
> from Synthesis Technology for creating wavetables for their line of
> Eurorack wavetable oscillators. Several other Eurorack manufacturers are
> also beginning to use this for their products as well.
>

> There's an open online repository of wave banks which this application
> supports where the user community has begun to share tables that they've
> created with the tool, as well as classic wavetables from older
> synthesizers like Ensoniq and PPG.


I'm seeing PPG Wave wavetables.  One called "Fairlight" with no further
comment, and two that seem to be a collection of single waves from the
ESQ-1 (not the transwaves, which would make a lot more sense, as that was
Ensoniq's term for wavetable).  Of the rest, none--strangely--look to have
been produced by this editor.  Instead they're agglomerations of waveforms
from other sources; don't have DC filtered out; don't have phases aligned,
etc.

What I notice in so many of the existing tools in this niche is that they
all let you "draw your own waveform!!" as if that's something you'd
actually want to do.  It always seemed obvious to me that at least drawing
the harmonic spectrum would be far more useful, so why this "draw waveform"
ability?  Is it just because that's what naive users think would be good?
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Re: [music-dsp] Wavetable File Formats?

[Risto Holopainen]

Den 2018-03-10 kl. 16:33, skrev Frank Sheeran:

>
> What I notice in so many of the existing tools in this niche is that
> they all let you "draw your own waveform!!" as if that's something
> you'd actually want to do.  It always seemed obvious to me that at
> least drawing the harmonic spectrum would be far more useful, so why
> this "draw waveform" ability?  Is it just because that's what naive
> users think would be good?

Yes, I think you're on to something. Most musicians who use wavetable
synthesizers probably have no idea what Fourier series are, and at best
have a diffuse understanding of the relation between waveforms and
spectra. I also think that this visual interaction can be very appealing
for many users.

I can imagine an editor with more perceptually motivated functions,
where you'd specify a waveform in terms of feature extractors such as
centroid, odd/even balance of partials, formants, spectral rolloff etc.

Here's my take on wavetable synthesis, which definitely doesn't let you
draw your own waveform!

https://ristoid.net/prog/waveforms.html

Comments are appreciated. I hope to add a few sound examples some day.

Risto


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Re: [music-dsp] Wavetable File Formats?

[Andy Drucker]

>What I notice in so many of the existing tools in this niche is that they
all let you "draw your own waveform!!" as if that's something you'd
actually want to do.  It always seemed obvious to me that at least drawing
the harmonic spectrum would be far more useful, so why this "draw waveform"
ability?  Is it just because that's what naive users think would be good?

Just to note, WaveEdit *does* let you draw in the spectrum.  It's the only
tool I can think of that seamlessly allows edits in both domains at once,
and allows non-mathematical users to "puzzle out" the relation between the
two in a hands-on way.
There are also several FX with similarly immediate visual feedback.  It's
great, and should be a must-try for anyone using a wavetable synth.
Between this and VCV Rack, huzzah for Andrew Belt!

On Sat, Mar 10, 2018 at 9:58 AM, Risto Holopainen 
wrote:

>
>
> Den 2018-03-10 kl. 16:33, skrev Frank Sheeran:
>
>
> What I notice in so many of the existing tools in this niche is that they
> all let you "draw your own waveform!!" as if that's something you'd
> actually want to do.  It always seemed obvious to me that at least drawing
> the harmonic spectrum would be far more useful, so why this "draw waveform"
> ability?  Is it just because that's what naive users think would be good?
>
>
> Yes, I think you're on to something. Most musicians who use wavetable
> synthesizers probably have no idea what Fourier series are, and at best
> have a diffuse understanding of the relation between waveforms and spectra.
> I also think that this visual interaction can be very appealing for many
> users.
>
> I can imagine an editor with more perceptually motivated functions, where
> you'd specify a waveform in terms of feature extractors such as centroid,
> odd/even balance of partials, formants, spectral rolloff etc.
>
> Here's my take on wavetable synthesis, which definitely doesn't let you
> draw your own waveform!
>
> https://ristoid.net/prog/waveforms.html
>
> Comments are appreciated. I hope to add a few sound examples some day.
>
> Risto
>
>
>
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>
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