Wavetable Browser



Author: vanHouten


The following is a walkthrough for a simple patch that does nothing more than scanning a chosen wavetable as a whole by routing an lfo to the waveposition.

1) Search through the sounds to find one you don't ever want to hear again and initialize it by pressing "play/shift" and "global" simultaneously, then turn the main dial to the right until the display shows "init sound...." -> confirm with "shift" and "global".
Now all parameters are set to their "neutral" positions.

2) Turn one of the oscillator's volume to zero and the other to a convenient level, so you can hear it!

3) Choose wavetable #51 "1-2-3-4-5" , go into the wavetable-menu and set "limit" to "on".
This way you can tell the oscillator not to trigger the last three waves of the wavetable, which are the basic synth wave forms at the end of every wavetable.

4) Now in the mod-matrix: choose "mod1" and set wave1Pos for "destination", "amount" to +63 and "source" to lfo1. This way the lfo modulates the number of the wave within the chosen wavetable being played.

5) If reading this bores you by now, skip the rest and try for yourself...

6) Adjust lfo1 to a moderate speed like 52, "shape"=sawtooth, "delay"=retrigger, "symmetry"=+63
Background: you take a sawtooth-wave as wave form, which starts at a negative value, rises up linearly to the maximum positive amount and falls back to the starting point. By setting symmetry to +63, the starting point is raised to zero and all following values are in the positive range --> makes sense, as there are no negative wave-numbers in any wavetable. "Retrigger" makes the lfo initiate a new cycle, everytime a note is played. Finished! If you hit a lower key and hear your machine say "one two three four five", everything works the way it should. (Wavetable #52 says "nineteen twenty", but #51 and #52 are the only two speech-wavetables of the microwave) Now you might save this patch as a kind of wavetable browser.

7) By playing a note (prefereably a lower one), the lfo starts to run from 0 to it's maximum value and makes the oscillator play wave-# 0-60 in a row, repeatedly. "Limit" prevents access of the basic waves at the end, so what you hear is just the full wavetable scan. By selecting another wavetable, you will hear the whole content of this one... This way you can get familiar with the single wavetables and their properties. Of course you can also select the modwheel to be source for the startwave position in the mod-matrix and scan through the wavetables by turning it from minimum to maximum... With the settings already made in the mod-matrix, this will provide a complete scan as well. As every sound that comes out of you machine comes first of all from the waves of the chosen wavetable, it is quite useful to have a rough idea of what each one sounds like.

Have a good time!

vanHouten