Wavetable Categorization Essay and Chart

  • Hello all,

    Similar to my Spectral Wave Description Chart that was posted in another thread on this forum some time ago, Essay: Spectral Wave Explorations, I am now presenting my Wavetable Categorization Chart for the Virus TI2 here for your perusal.

    The Virus TI2’s wavetables are indeed a serendipitous bunch! As you’ve probably noticed by now, they are not numbered, not in alphabetical order, and many have mysterious, enigmatic names. By contrast, dissecting the PPG/Waldorf wavetables was a walk in the park!

    With no less than 100 wavetables, the TI offers a huge arsenal of sonic diversity. Complex base ingredients for equally complex sounding patches, sometimes even by using just one wavetable oscillator and only some index modulation, plus some dual Unison or Chorusing to liven things up even more. I have found that most of the wavetables have about four to eight waves posted throughout the table, some of them a dozen or so, and surprisingly, a couple crammed full with about 34 waves, and then one with just two waves!

    So, I auditioned each of wavetables in their raw form very carefully in normal wavetable mode and by ear only (no oscilloscope, etc.). Trying different index full-modulation sources, routinely checking individual waves with the interpolation parameter set to coarse, and then subjectively assessing each table’s primary characteristic and real-world usage potential, I then put them into pragmatic categories hopefully making them more manageable for selection as candidates for patch design. To assure consistency, I would routinely recheck my previous auditions as I added more categories. Very tedious and time consuming (but enjoyable and informative!) because of the less wavetables left to audition balanced with the more wavetables left to recheck! Of course, many of the tables could fit into more than one category, but trying to keep things relatively simple, I assigned each table at my discretion to one category only. Auditioning the wavetables in other modes such as Graintable can give different results too, requiring a mode notation if you care to explore things further.

    My personal category descriptions are mostly self-evident, but to explain a few- “Carillon” is just a fifty cent word for a group of bells of course; “Chromatic Sweep” here is really any kind of contiguously stepped pitch sweep; “Digital Waves” is any wave that seems like it has more spectra in it than just a normal basic analog wave; “Filter” categories refer to cutoff; “Formant” refers to vocal timbres; “Static Waves” is a table of seemingly unrelated, diverse waves better suited for just single wave selection; and “Wave Sequence” are tables that sound similar to an approximately four-oscillator wave rotation with built-in coarse interpolation.

    By necessity, I’ve also included a chart with the wavetable names in their numeric order. An asterisk in either chart denotes that the wavetable has better keyboard coverage, or places middle C where it should be, with an octave shift or two usually downward. (Please note: octave shifting on a keyboard controller does not shift the index of a keytracked wavetable of course, but using the Transpose button on the Virus will have that as a side effect.)

    This Wavetable Categorization Chart was put together for my own personal use under my current, somewhat sophomoric level of understanding of synthesis. However, I am confident that you also will find that it does indeed have some merit as presented. You are welcome, of course, to print a copy and adjust the wavetable category assignments to your own preference and to even come up with your own more accurate category descriptions if you like!

    Cheers!,

    GESchwalm


    WAVETABLE CATEGORIZATION CHART


    Analog And Digital Waves Sweep

    18, 22, 23, 24, 25*, 31, 32, 44*, 56, 71, 73*, 74*, 76*, 87, 91*, 92*, 96, 99

    Carillon

    8*, 21*, 33*, 34, 36*, 75*, 84*

    Chromatic Sweep

    5*, 6*, 12*, 13*, 14*, 15*, 52*, 86, 93*, 100*

    Digital Waves Sweep

    10*, 11, 27, 28, 39*, 42*, 83*, 89*, 97*

    Electric Piano

    60

    Filter Modulation

    41, 43, 51, 58, 90

    Filter Sweep

    19*, 62, 72*, 94, 95

    Flute

    26

    Formant

    29, 48, 70*, 77, 78*, 79, 81*, 98

    Formant Pitch Sweep

    2*, 3, 9*, 63*, 64, 80*, 82

    Frequency Modulation

    50, 54

    Organ

    4*, 49

    Phase Modulation

    38, 55

    Piano

    16

    Pulse Width Modulation

    47, 53, 57

    Resonance Sweep

    7*, 37*, 61

    Static Waves

    1, 35*, 65*, 66*, 67, 68*, 69*, 85

    Waterphone

    17*

    Wave Sequence

    20*, 30*, 40, 45*, 46*, 59, 88


    * Denotes Octave Shift.

    Note: see Numeric Wavetable Menu Sequence Chart.



    NUMERIC WAVETABLE MENU SEQUENCE CHART


    1. Sine

    2. HarmncSweep *

    3. Glass Sweep

    4. Draw Bars *

    5. Clusters *

    6. Insine Out *

    7. Landing *

    8. Liquid Metal *

    9. Opposition *

    10. Overtunes 1 *

    11. Overtunes 2

    12. Scale Trix *

    13. Sine Rider *

    14. Sqr Series *

    15. Upsine Down *

    16. Thumbs Up

    17. Waterphone *

    18. E-Chime

    19. Tinkabell *

    20. Bellfizz *

    21. Bellentine *

    22. Robot Wars

    23. Alternator

    24. Finger Bass

    25. Fizzybar *

    26. Flutes

    27. HP Love

    28. Majestix

    29. Hotch Potch

    30. Resynater *

    31. Smooth Rough

    32. Sawsalito

    33. Bells 1 *

    34. Bells 2

    35. SportReport *

    36. Metal Guru *

    37. Bat Cave *

    38. Acetate

    39. Buzzbizz *

    40. Buzzpartout

    41. Vanish

    42. Overbones *

    43. Pulsechecker

    44. Stratosfear *

    45. Sooty Sweep *

    46. Throaty *

    47. Didgitalis

    48. Evil

    49. Chords

    50. FM Grit

    51. Bellsarnie

    52. Octavius *

    53. Eat Pulse

    54. Sinzin

    55. Sine System

    56. Clip Sweep

    57. Roughage

    58. Waving

    59. Pling Saw

    60. E-Peas

    61. Bump Sweep

    62. Filter Sqr

    63. Fourmant *

    64. Formantera

    65. Sundial 1 *

    66. Sundial 2 *

    67. Sundial 3

    68. Clipdial 1 *

    69. Clipdial 2 *

    70. Voxonix *

    71. Solenoid

    72. KlingKlang *

    73. Violator *

    74. Potassium *

    75. Pile Up *

    76. Tincanali *

    77. Sniper

    78. Squeezy *

    79. Decomposer

    80. Morfants *

    81. Pingvox *

    82. Adenoids

    83. Nasal *

    84. Partialism *

    85. TableDance

    86. Cascade

    87. Prismism

    88. Friction

    89. Robotix *

    90. Whizzfizz

    91. Spangly *

    92. Fluxbin *

    93. Fiboglide *

    94. Fibonice

    95. Fibonasty

    96. Penetrator

    97. Blinder *

    98. Element 5

    99. Bad Signs

    100. Domina 7rix *


    * Denotes Octave Shift.



    Presented by

    Rapturenaut Digital Christian Studio

    Houston, Texas

    "glorifying God through electronic music"

    8 Mal editiert, zuletzt von GESchwalm () aus folgendem Grund: fixed typos

  • Phantastic! Thank you very much!


    Eventually, I'll make this into a spreadsheet (wow, how creative!), so the info can be filtered and sorted.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+

  • Thank you Oli for your support for a spreadsheet and thank you to those who responded, or at least viewed my post. I truly hope my research is a benefit to you! Actually, considering the essentiality of the wavetables, I was expecting more interest similar to my Spectral Wave Description Chart but that may be due to the Forum Log-In problem that's been going on lately, as it often still is for me at least.

    Now that I'm more familiar with the wavetables, I have revised two of my lists that I presented in old threads:

    For my favorite index-keytracked wavetables for creating vocal patches: Opposition, Formantera, Sniper, Decomposer, Morfants, Pingvox, Adenoids, and Element 5.

    And for my favorite wavetables for finding a pure basic analog wave at the beginning of a table to use as a carrier wave for the Wavetable PWM mode, or the Phase/Frequency Modulation feature in the Oscillator 2 Wavetable modes: Sine (sine), Sqr Series (square), Didgitalis (sawtooth), and Sinzin (triangle).

    As always, your mileage may vary.

    Cheers and a very Merry Christmas to all! :),

    GESchwalm




    Presented by

    Rapturenaut Digital Christian Studio

    Houston, Texas

    "glorifying God through electronic music"

  • Thank you Oli for your support for a spreadsheet



    Here you go Virus Wavetable Categorization.xls 20200102.zip


    Happy Twenty Twenty

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+

  • Excellent work, Oli! Maybe we could call your spreadsheet "The Schwalm/atBass Wavetable Description Chart" since it provides a different sorting method.

  • Excellent work, Oli! Maybe we could call it "The Schwalm/atBass Wavetable Category Chart" !


    You‘re welcome. You did all the heavy lifting, I just added a little convenience.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+

  • One further observation I've made of the wavetables is that the categories that I've come up with (listed above) can be grouped into even larger categories, or rather "types". Keeping these types in mind helps to better understand the basic intent of wavetables and their use as a synth engine sound source. Though naturally they don't identify the categories more specifically, this subjective list of Types may be a helpful starting point for deciding which category might have that table that best suits your tasks at hand. Indeed, the wavetable names themselves sometimes don't allude to their true sonic nature.


    I'm not sure this list is actually worth documenting, as a category's type should be self evident once you're generally aware of the different types. It's just a good thing to know regarding this aspect of the original development of wavetables, giving a broad overview of what's been made available for selection.


    Six Types, listed with a few examples of Categories:

    1. Original Wave Sweep. Category examples: "Analog and Digital Wave Sweep", "Digital Wave Sweep".

    2. Synth Function Model. Examples: "Filter Sweep", "Pulse Width Modulation", "Resonance Sweep".

    3. Effects Model. Examples: (None on Virus but Blofeld has "Distortion" and "Delay Feedback" FX categories).

    4. Musical Instrument Emulation. Examples: "Carillon", "Flute", "Organ", "Piano", "Waterphone".

    5. Synthesis Method Emulation. Example: "Phase Modulation".

    6. Wave Bank. Example: "Static Waves".


    I hope this list can help further your understanding of Wavetables, especially if you are new to this kind of synth method. I certainly wish I had it when I first started! It was all so mysterious to me back then, trying to understand their intent and potential!

    Please feel free to add to the discussion if you like. I still have much to learn myself!

    Cheers! ^^

    GESchwalm






    Presented by

    Rapturenaut Digital Christian Studio

    Houston, Texas

    "glorifying God through electronic music"