I like WT synths a lot,
in the vst world I like the old PPG very much, it had superb wavetables and can produce many different timbres of sounds. A new and pretty good WT VSTi is U-HE Hive 2
imho, it can also do really a broad pallette of sounds.
here in VCV land I like the blamsoft wave very much and the new iggylab table is nice just to load in your own samples.
I don’t own eurorack modules so I won’t comment on these.
I would like a WT module that can load user wavetables and that can layer some tables (like Hive)
and that has a nice filter onboard, which can cut the often harsh noises coming from the tables
As Lars already mentioned a chord function would be a nice addition too.
you can easily do chords with different tables with poly7seas
ok course you need a poly control to address the current table for the current voice (dynamic applied to X Y ? )
I didn’t realize NYSTHI had a wavetable oscillator out there. For some reason mine is bugging out with this clicking/popping every half second, but I get the gist of what the module does. I’m a big fan of the Blamsoft WTO, it’s very close in look and feel to what I imagine a modular serum could be like.
It looks like 7Seas and TinyTricks both offer some degree of live sampling, but after playing with both I too struggle to apply that feature in a creative or meaningful way. I still think it would be a neat feature to develop further, but feel like some work needs to be done to sample the audio in a unique and interesting way. User wavetables can achieve a similar level of functionality anyway, I suppose.
@LarsBjerregaard thanks for enumerating these features, I hadn’t thought of many of these ideas and think they’re great. I’ll need to grab the manual for the Qu-Bit and watch a few videos to get a feel for it. I hadn’t heard of this Erica WTO either, but watched a video and definitely see what you mean about it pushing out pretty harsh and heavy sounds. I really like the idea of a chord-based WTO, particularly because these two chip emulations I’m working on are 5 channel and 6 channel respectively, which works out conveniently. I also like the idea of allowing for discrete morphing in addition to the smooth morphing; I’m not aware of a WTO that does this currently. When you say ability for simple modification, do you mean something like grabbing a point in the waveform and extruding it upward or downward smoothly (i.e., bringing the neighboring points with it along a smooth curve)? That would be pretty cool if so, I may have to grab NumPy and mess around with some maths to see what can be done there I agree totally about the effects too, I’d much rather just offload that to downstream modules and air on the side of simplicity; do one thing and do it well.
I saw this new Loopop video yesterday about a Kickstarter called the TheoryBoard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6RQJnra3M), which is a chord-based MIDI controller. It gives me a few ideas related to chords that could work well here. I think a cool way of integrating a sub oscillator into the chord WTO would be to output the root note at n octaves lower, for instance. Following the design of the “strum” feature on the theory board would be a neat way of layering tables too, either just a copy of the table per chord note, or potentially a different wavetable per note.
Indeed. In that way the Wave is actually a semi-modular synth. My suggestion to you would be, to leave out all the non-essential functionality (like filters and modulations, etc), other modules in Rack will do that better, and besides that’s “The Modular Way” ™ - Simply concentrate on the WTO part and provide something unique.
Yes, I would focus on being able to supply user-wavetables. In that way the user can use a program which is already optimized for that, and supply their own carefully crafted waves, as well as grabbing great waves from other users. That’s a superior concept methinks.
Actually, having thought about it some more, I would completely leave out the chord aspect of the WTO. The big difference between Eurorack and VCV Rack is that we now have polyphonic cables in Rack. And with that we have loads of great chord modules in Rack as well, that can transfer multiple notes and chords in one cable. So it would be a waste of effort to replicate that in the WTO I think. Instead just focus on making the WTO fully polyphonic, which means that together with the existing modules in Rack, beautiful chords will be going into and out of the module, and it can also just be used monophonically of course. You get all that for free. Again, it’s the modular way, and saves you from reimplementing existing features from other modules, and instead concentrate on what can make your WTO great.
The Erica Synths Graphic VCO does that. In fact I think most/many of the Eurorack WTO’s do that.
Yes, exactly!
So the idea is, that you have loaded a waveform and now you can further modify it in that way. No need to expose it to CV, it’s just a “simple” form of in-module waveform making/editing. You can do a lot by just loading e.g. a sine and then modify it in that way. The Erica Graphic VCO does that. And no need to get into fancy (and difficult) GUI programming for grabbing and pulling waves. A simple knob to control position and another knob for controlling amount up/down will do the trick nicely.
Exactly! The Modular Way…
Like I mentioned above, I would forget about chords in the module, you get that for free from Rack and other modules. Having said that… yes, that might be a cool idea for the sub-osc output. To output either the full polyphonic notes of the main-osc, or to flip a switch, making it monophonic and then select to output the root, or the third, or…
Or here’s another idea: The sub-osc can operate in two modes - polyphonic or monophonic.
In the polyphonic mode (default) the sub-osc simply outputs what the main-osc does, but at one or two octaves lover, selectable by a switch.
In the monophonic mode the sub-osc still outputs the same waveform as the main-osc, but it has a seperate V/Oct input, which can now be fed by any note you want, and that note is automatically transposed one or two octaves down (again, selectable). In that way, you can e.g. tap one of the notes from the chord module feeding the main-osc to drive the sub-osc, or feed it from a completely seperate sequence. Lots of great options with that one
@BrightThunder It’s definitely still in the works! I got slowed down on this by some coursework and other projects, but plan to come back to this project next
the semi-modular synth has become a part of the “mainstream” eurorack environment via Moog, Korg, and Behringer: two of those have quite a bit of weight in the modular world, having produced some of the first modular systems that we’re trying to emulate. Seeing them providing heavy lift in both the modular and semi-modular eurorak scene really makes me wonder why a software semi-modular is so despised.
@jerrysv I think in the case of the wave, it is semi-modular because some of the effects that are implemented are acting on the wavetable, opposed to simply cascading with the output of the WTO. For instance, the “bend inward” and “bend outward” effects look like they need to know the window of the wavetable. I think there is some band-limiting being applied to the wavetable as well since the effects (I mostly just tested the hard clipper on a pure sine wave) don’t seem to produce aliasing.
@Squinky I believe that in hardware, cheaper and smaller totally makes sense. From a business perspective it also provides that entry level product to modular workflows that doesn’t require building out a rack or knowing much about patching. I think it’s pretty common for people to get into modular with something like a Mother32 or 0-Coast then start learning what other modules they need/want from there.
Pretty much what Christian says below. They can be great value for money, they can we a very well conceived instrument with a really coherent design and they can be a great gateway in for beginners. Heck, even seasoned pros. I see Chris Meyer and lots of other people with big racks having a M32, or an SV-1 or similar in their racks, and I can easily get it to make sense. The first abandoned design of my eurorack had an SV-1 as the backbone and centerpiece, and I love the sound of that thing. Had I planned a 12U rack instead of a 6U I’m sure it would be there.
The surge virtual instrument has a wavetable oscillator and large bank of wavetables at its core. That has carried over into our rack implementation with the surgewtosc module. The dsp inside does a lot of work to generate and interpolate a blit stream in a way which has Pleasing harmonics even for small wavetables, and also has a lot of waveshaping controls basically directly carried over from the main synth, may be of interest?
I agree totally about the effects too, I’d much rather just offload that to downstream modules and air on the side of simplicity; do one thing and do it well.
