Modulating wavetables

Morphing and modulating wavetable oscillators is key to adding movement and variety to sounds. Let’s see how a few different synths approach this…

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Ableton Wavetable is a fairly straightforward example. It has both LFOs and ADSR envelopes, either of which can be routed to wavetable position in the mod matrix. Here the envelopes can function in looped mode though, allowing them to act like custom LFOs.

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Xfer Serum’s breakpoint LFOs are based on the LFOTool volume-shaping effect. Select a traditional LFO shape from the presets, or add/remove breakpoints and bend the curves to dial in complex modulation shapes.

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U-He Hive 2 is a particularly user-friendly wavetable synth. Its automated modes will scan through or loop frames without the need for modulation routings. It boasts a unique ‘2D’ mode too though, which arranges frames in an X/Y configuration and scans through in two directions at once.

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Korg Modwave is interesting as it lets users blend two wavetables – rather than simply crossfading, this actually combines characteristics of the two tables resulting in new waveforms in between. Its modifiers also let users do things like isolate just the odd or even harmonics of a wavetable, or apply vintage filters.

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Native Instruments’ Massive X is one of the most complex wavetable synths out there. It has ten modes which each ‘read’ the wavetable oscillators differently. Formant capture, for example, mimics the qualities of a human voice, while Art mode uses hard-sync to replicate the sound of a resonant filter.