THE JOURNEY TO WAVETABLE SYNTHESIS

We now live in a world where so many types of synthesis can be found in both hardware and software form, that it’s easy to forget there was a time when a commercial product introducing a novel way of making sound (and therefore expanding the available synthetic sound palette) was a big deal.

Wavetable synthesis was such a thing, and relied on the integration of digital audio playback into the established analogue synth design framework. Most analogue synths had limited waveform options, so the next logical step was to find a way of expanding these. Full sample playback was in its infancy; very limited and very expensive. However, storing single-cycle waveforms was a realistic proposition. Combine these with conventional analogue filtering and modulation circuits and the tonal options grew hugely.

The leap that PPG made in the early ’80s was storing slightly different, evolving waveforms together in a long file (a table) and letting the user move between them manually or under control for an external modulation source like an LFO or Env.