Reference / wavetable terms

Wavetable glossary.

Short, accurate definitions of the terms that come up when you design, edit, or export wavetables — written for people building sounds, not writing DSP papers.

Wavetable synthesis
Wavetable synthesis plays short, looping single-cycle waveforms from a table and sweeps across them to change timbre while pitch holds still.
Wavetable position
Wavetable position is the index into a wavetable's frames that selects which single-cycle waveform — or blend of adjacent waveforms — the oscillator is currently playing.
Single-cycle waveform
A single-cycle waveform is one complete period of a periodic signal, stored as a fixed number of samples and looped by an oscillator to produce a steady pitch.
Wavetable frame
A wavetable frame is one single-cycle waveform occupying one slot in a wavetable; the number of frames sets how much timbral motion the table can hold.
Wavetable frame size
Wavetable frame size is the number of samples in each single-cycle frame, held constant across the whole table.
Interpolation between frames
Interpolation between frames is how a wavetable oscillator blends its two neighboring frames when position lands between them, so timbre changes continuously instead of in audible steps.
2048 × 256 table
A 2048 × 256 wavetable — 256 frames of 2048 samples each — is the de facto modern standard layout, popularized by Serum and adopted by many current wavetable synths.
256-sample table
A 256-sample wavetable is a table whose frames are only 256 samples long — the short-frame standard used across much of the Eurorack wavetable ecosystem.
8×8 wavetable bank
An 8×8 wavetable bank lays 64 wavetables out on a grid, so two control signals — one per axis — scan the whole bank instead of one table's frames.
Morphing vs. crossfading
Crossfading is an amplitude blend between two wavetable frames, while morphing is the broader goal it serves: moving between frames so the result reads as one continuously evolving timbre.
Spectral morphing
Spectral morphing transitions between wavetable frames by interpolating their spectra — partial amplitudes and phases — rather than blending the raw waveforms sample by sample.
Harmonics
Harmonics are the components of a periodic waveform that sit at whole-number multiples of the fundamental — the second harmonic at double the frequency, the third at triple, and so on.
Partials
Partials are the individual sine-wave components that sum to make a sound's spectrum — the umbrella term that covers harmonics plus, for non-periodic sounds, inharmonic components.
Formant
A formant is a boosted region in a spectrum that stays at roughly the same frequencies regardless of the pitch being played — the resonant fingerprints that make vowels recognizable.
Phase
Phase is each partial's offset within the waveform's cycle — where in the loop every sine component starts — measured as an angle rather than a time.
Phase distortion
Phase distortion reshapes a waveform by varying the rate at which the oscillator scans through it — faster and slower across the cycle instead of at a constant pace.
FFT resynthesis
FFT resynthesis analyzes a waveform with a fast Fourier transform — the algorithm that reports one magnitude and phase per frequency slot — edits that spectrum, and rebuilds a waveform from it with the inverse transform.
Resynthesis
Resynthesis is analyzing an existing sound and rebuilding it as a wavetable, converting spans of the source into single-cycle frames rather than playing back samples.
Waveshaping
Waveshaping is passing a signal through a fixed transfer curve — each output sample computed from the input value — to add harmonics without changing the oscillator's pitch.
Wavefolding
Wavefolding is a waveshaping technique that reflects a signal back on itself once it passes a threshold, multiplying harmonics without changing the fundamental.
Hard sync
Hard sync is an oscillator arrangement in which a master oscillator resets a second, detuned oscillator every time the master completes its own cycle, producing a biting, formant-rich tone.
Through-zero FM
Through-zero FM is frequency modulation in which the carrier's frequency is allowed to pass through zero and come out negative, continuing the phase in reverse rather than stopping.
Pulse-width modulation
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) varies a pulse wave's duty cycle — the fraction of each cycle spent at its high level — changing timbre while pitch holds still.
Formula-generated wavetable
A formula-generated wavetable is a table whose frames are computed from math — expressions evaluated per sample and per frame — rather than drawn, recorded, or imported.
Aliasing
Aliasing is inharmonic distortion that appears when a digital signal contains frequencies above half the sample rate (Nyquist), which reflect back down into the audible range.
Band-limiting
Band-limiting is restricting a waveform's harmonics so that, no matter how high the note, everything stays below Nyquist — half the sample rate.
DC offset
DC offset is a non-zero average level in a waveform — the whole cycle sitting above or below the zero line instead of centered on it.
Wavetable bank
A wavetable bank is a grouped collection of wavetables that an instrument loads together and offers under a single browser or selector.
WAV file
A WAV file is the everyday audio container: a header describing the format, a block of sample data, and room for extra metadata chunks.
Packed wavetable WAV
A packed wavetable WAV is a single audio file that stacks every frame of a wavetable end to end, so a wavetable-capable synth can import the whole table from one file.
clm chunk
The 'clm ' chunk is metadata Serum appends inside a wavetable WAV to record frame size and morph settings, so its importer can slice the file without guessing.
srge chunk
The 'srge' chunk is Surge XT's own versioned metadata chunk inside WAV files, telling its importer the frame layout the same way Serum's 'clm ' chunk does.
wt file
A .wt file is Surge XT's native wavetable format: a short tagged header followed by the table's frames as raw samples, optionally trailed by metadata.
vitaltable file
A .vitaltable file is Vital's native wavetable format — a readable JSON document describing how the wavetable was built, rather than the audio itself.
uhm format
A .uhm file is a u-he Hive wavetable script: a readable text file of commands and formulas that Hive evaluates step by step to build a wavetable.
Additive synthesis
Additive synthesis builds a sound by summing sine-wave partials, setting each component's amplitude — and optionally phase — directly rather than filtering a rich source down.
Subtractive synthesis
Subtractive synthesis starts from a harmonically rich waveform and sculpts its spectrum down with filters, rather than building the spectrum component by component.
Granular synthesis
Granular synthesis rebuilds sound from many short grains — brief, fade-shaped slices of an audio buffer — replayed as clouds rather than as looping cycles.
Wave sequencing
Wave sequencing, from the Korg Wavestation, plays a programmed list of waves one after another as one evolving note — up to 255 steps, each with its duration, pitch, and crossfade.
PPG Wave
The PPG Wave is the synthesizer line that introduced commercial wavetable synthesis, built by Wolfgang Palm's Palm Products GmbH from 1981 to 1987.
Waldorf Microwave
The Waldorf Microwave (1989) is the rack synthesizer that carried PPG's wavetable lineage forward after PPG closed, pairing wavetable scanning with an analog filter.
Korg DW-8000
The Korg DW-8000 (1985) is a hybrid synthesizer whose Digital Waveform Generator System (DWGS) offered 16 stored digital waveforms in front of an analog filter — digital waves without wavetable scanning.
Ensoniq Transwave
A Transwave is Ensoniq's variant of wavetable scanning — as in the VFX, TS, and Fizmo — where the oscillator sweeps stored waves with programmable start, end, and loop points.
Adventure Kid Waveforms
Adventure Kid Waveforms (AKWF) is Kristoffer Ekstrand's free, public-domain library of several thousand single-cycle waveforms, distributed as WAV files for samplers and wavetable synthesizers.

Reference / wavetable terms

Wavetable glossary.

Short, accurate definitions of the terms that come up when you design, edit, or export wavetables — written for people building sounds, not writing DSP papers.

Wavetable synthesis
Wavetable synthesis plays short, looping single-cycle waveforms from a table and sweeps across them to change timbre while pitch holds still.
Wavetable position
Wavetable position is the index into a wavetable's frames that selects which single-cycle waveform — or blend of adjacent waveforms — the oscillator is currently playing.
Single-cycle waveform
A single-cycle waveform is one complete period of a periodic signal, stored as a fixed number of samples and looped by an oscillator to produce a steady pitch.
Wavetable frame
A wavetable frame is one single-cycle waveform occupying one slot in a wavetable; the number of frames sets how much timbral motion the table can hold.
Wavetable frame size
Wavetable frame size is the number of samples in each single-cycle frame, held constant across the whole table.
Interpolation between frames
Interpolation between frames is how a wavetable oscillator blends its two neighboring frames when position lands between them, so timbre changes continuously instead of in audible steps.
2048 × 256 table
A 2048 × 256 wavetable — 256 frames of 2048 samples each — is the de facto modern standard layout, popularized by Serum and adopted by many current wavetable synths.
256-sample table
A 256-sample wavetable is a table whose frames are only 256 samples long — the short-frame standard used across much of the Eurorack wavetable ecosystem.
8×8 wavetable bank
An 8×8 wavetable bank lays 64 wavetables out on a grid, so two control signals — one per axis — scan the whole bank instead of one table's frames.
Morphing vs. crossfading
Crossfading is an amplitude blend between two wavetable frames, while morphing is the broader goal it serves: moving between frames so the result reads as one continuously evolving timbre.
Spectral morphing
Spectral morphing transitions between wavetable frames by interpolating their spectra — partial amplitudes and phases — rather than blending the raw waveforms sample by sample.
Harmonics
Harmonics are the components of a periodic waveform that sit at whole-number multiples of the fundamental — the second harmonic at double the frequency, the third at triple, and so on.
Partials
Partials are the individual sine-wave components that sum to make a sound's spectrum — the umbrella term that covers harmonics plus, for non-periodic sounds, inharmonic components.
Formant
A formant is a boosted region in a spectrum that stays at roughly the same frequencies regardless of the pitch being played — the resonant fingerprints that make vowels recognizable.
Phase
Phase is each partial's offset within the waveform's cycle — where in the loop every sine component starts — measured as an angle rather than a time.
Phase distortion
Phase distortion reshapes a waveform by varying the rate at which the oscillator scans through it — faster and slower across the cycle instead of at a constant pace.
FFT resynthesis
FFT resynthesis analyzes a waveform with a fast Fourier transform — the algorithm that reports one magnitude and phase per frequency slot — edits that spectrum, and rebuilds a waveform from it with the inverse transform.
Resynthesis
Resynthesis is analyzing an existing sound and rebuilding it as a wavetable, converting spans of the source into single-cycle frames rather than playing back samples.
Waveshaping
Waveshaping is passing a signal through a fixed transfer curve — each output sample computed from the input value — to add harmonics without changing the oscillator's pitch.
Wavefolding
Wavefolding is a waveshaping technique that reflects a signal back on itself once it passes a threshold, multiplying harmonics without changing the fundamental.
Hard sync
Hard sync is an oscillator arrangement in which a master oscillator resets a second, detuned oscillator every time the master completes its own cycle, producing a biting, formant-rich tone.
Through-zero FM
Through-zero FM is frequency modulation in which the carrier's frequency is allowed to pass through zero and come out negative, continuing the phase in reverse rather than stopping.
Pulse-width modulation
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) varies a pulse wave's duty cycle — the fraction of each cycle spent at its high level — changing timbre while pitch holds still.
Formula-generated wavetable
A formula-generated wavetable is a table whose frames are computed from math — expressions evaluated per sample and per frame — rather than drawn, recorded, or imported.
Aliasing
Aliasing is inharmonic distortion that appears when a digital signal contains frequencies above half the sample rate (Nyquist), which reflect back down into the audible range.
Band-limiting
Band-limiting is restricting a waveform's harmonics so that, no matter how high the note, everything stays below Nyquist — half the sample rate.
DC offset
DC offset is a non-zero average level in a waveform — the whole cycle sitting above or below the zero line instead of centered on it.
Wavetable bank
A wavetable bank is a grouped collection of wavetables that an instrument loads together and offers under a single browser or selector.
WAV file
A WAV file is the everyday audio container: a header describing the format, a block of sample data, and room for extra metadata chunks.
Packed wavetable WAV
A packed wavetable WAV is a single audio file that stacks every frame of a wavetable end to end, so a wavetable-capable synth can import the whole table from one file.
clm chunk
The 'clm ' chunk is metadata Serum appends inside a wavetable WAV to record frame size and morph settings, so its importer can slice the file without guessing.
srge chunk
The 'srge' chunk is Surge XT's own versioned metadata chunk inside WAV files, telling its importer the frame layout the same way Serum's 'clm ' chunk does.
wt file
A .wt file is Surge XT's native wavetable format: a short tagged header followed by the table's frames as raw samples, optionally trailed by metadata.
vitaltable file
A .vitaltable file is Vital's native wavetable format — a readable JSON document describing how the wavetable was built, rather than the audio itself.
uhm format
A .uhm file is a u-he Hive wavetable script: a readable text file of commands and formulas that Hive evaluates step by step to build a wavetable.
Additive synthesis
Additive synthesis builds a sound by summing sine-wave partials, setting each component's amplitude — and optionally phase — directly rather than filtering a rich source down.
Subtractive synthesis
Subtractive synthesis starts from a harmonically rich waveform and sculpts its spectrum down with filters, rather than building the spectrum component by component.
Granular synthesis
Granular synthesis rebuilds sound from many short grains — brief, fade-shaped slices of an audio buffer — replayed as clouds rather than as looping cycles.
Wave sequencing
Wave sequencing, from the Korg Wavestation, plays a programmed list of waves one after another as one evolving note — up to 255 steps, each with its duration, pitch, and crossfade.
PPG Wave
The PPG Wave is the synthesizer line that introduced commercial wavetable synthesis, built by Wolfgang Palm's Palm Products GmbH from 1981 to 1987.
Waldorf Microwave
The Waldorf Microwave (1989) is the rack synthesizer that carried PPG's wavetable lineage forward after PPG closed, pairing wavetable scanning with an analog filter.
Korg DW-8000
The Korg DW-8000 (1985) is a hybrid synthesizer whose Digital Waveform Generator System (DWGS) offered 16 stored digital waveforms in front of an analog filter — digital waves without wavetable scanning.
Ensoniq Transwave
A Transwave is Ensoniq's variant of wavetable scanning — as in the VFX, TS, and Fizmo — where the oscillator sweeps stored waves with programmable start, end, and loop points.
Adventure Kid Waveforms
Adventure Kid Waveforms (AKWF) is Kristoffer Ekstrand's free, public-domain library of several thousand single-cycle waveforms, distributed as WAV files for samplers and wavetable synthesizers.