The Wavetable Synthesizer
About the synth below:
The Wavetable Synthesizer utilizes what I have dubbed ‘creative synthesis’. Instead of indirectly affecting waveform shape with envelopes, LFO’s, and oscillators, the Wavetable Synthesizer allows the user to directly control the waveform shape using 12 sliders and two knobs. Eight of the sliders control the overall shape of the wave (acting much like ‘attractors’ on a line), while two knobs control how the points are interpolated (smooth, triangular, or square) and at what resolution (from fine to coarse). The four sliders labelled ‘A’, ‘D’, ‘S’, and ‘R’ are used for attack, decay, sustain, and release respectively (more information on that here). Users can access saved waveforms with a bank of buttons, and when selected, can watch the controller transform automatically to these settings. The rightmost knob allows for control of the transition speed between presets.”
“The software for the Wavetable is where all sound synthesis takes place. Due to familiarity and available resources, Processing (Java) was used. The first challenge in creating the software was to create a smooth waveform from only eight distinct points. In order to accomplish this, an interpolation function needed to be utilized. While the math to perform these interpolations is readily accessible, Java also has libraries available to aid in this. The image to the right shows comparisons of the Apache Lagrange (white), spline (green), and linear (red) interpolations. Ultimately, the spline and linear interpolations were used in conjunction with a “square wave” interpolation.
In order to then play the waveform, the minim wavetable function was implemented. The MidiBus library handled all midi communication
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