[sdiy] How to make wavetables? What size?

[Oakley Sound]

> but to *accurately* specify the amplitudes of all the individual
> harmonics, you would need a longer wavetable.

Yes, this is true. You cannot define the harmonics above half the clock
rate. As such, one would normally want to filter the output of the DAC to
ensure waveform accuracy if this were your goal.

But the wavetable synth is not a sampler as we now know them. It will
generate lots of 'harmonics' above the clock frequency. As we are agreed,
these would be unwanted in the traditional sampling technique, but in a
wavetable synth they can be used very sucessfully. This is because the
clock frequency is inherently tied to the fundamental by the length of
the table and thus the frequencies of any aliasing will be an integer
multiple of the pitch played.

Of course these may be pleasant or they may be not. A good bank of
waveforms in your table will normally take this into account.

Tony