hi all,

OK, so like most ZOIA patching, where this started is NOT where it ended but THINGS were LEARNED and FUN was HAD

so what do we have? as of this posting, there is — to my knowledge — no way to implement wavetable synthesis on ZOIA. like, there is no [wavetable] module in which to load in custom files, right?

this got me thinking, ‘could there still be such a way to achieve something wavetable-ish anyway???’

you might at this point be asking yourself, ‘what even IS wavetable synthesis???’ the short story is: rich, harmonically complex sounds easily taxed the resources of early computers. put another way, trying to GENERATE the frequency and amplitude of each component sine wave of such a sound was TOO MUCH TO HANDLE, especially when you wanted to start doing OTHER MUSIC STUFF. to get around this limitation, some smart people figured out you could BUILD your complex waveform first, SAMPLE IT, and then just play THAT back at different rates; a much easier computational task

then there was the idea of using WAVETABLES to morph or ~interpolate~ between these different waveform samples which sounded dope, yada yada yada, you get the idea

so how might we try to do something similar on ZOIA? strap on your cooking apron folks; here’s the recipe:

STEP 1: build a harmonically rich waveform. this can be done with additive synthesis, which ZOIA excels at. get a bunch of oscillators mixed together and BOOM, complex waveform acquired

step 1a: I did a mostly harmonic series, I think??? based on 55 Hz??? but really, there are no rules/follow your heart
step 1b: I also started with sine waves but changed up some of them up later on ~to taste~

STEP 2: get your waveform evolving. what I did — because I wanted there to be a wink towards interpolation — was set up some out-of-sync lfos to modulate the amplitude of each of the oscillators, thus creating similar-but-different waveforms that emphasized different timbres

STEP 3: record your complex, evolving waveform to a buffer. is there such a way to store and recall sounds on ZOIA??? you bet! the [looper] is our friend

STEP 4: profit. make a keyboard OR set up a sequencer to play the buffer (looper) contents. eureka! we’ve sort of — but not really! — implemented a wavetable-ish thing on our ZOIA!

as each note plays, it will adjust the speed of the [looper]’s playback and evolve based on how the original waveform was modulated as it was recorded INTO the looper

ANYWAY so that’s essentially what this patch does. I’ve more or less turned it into a generative piece, in part to help differentiate what you’re hearing. THE SALIENT DETAILS:

1) the basic ‘pad’ you’re hearing is the waveform being generated via the additive synthesis and lfos

2) the ‘delayed’ sounds (often heard as chirps to my ears) are the contents of the looper/buffer being played

other than that, there is a sequencer and the obligatory, ZOIA-generative-synth-patch appearance of our good buddy [reverb lite]. the buffer gets updated (re-recorded into [looper]) every so often but I’ll be honest, at some point I lost the plot a little bit and was just messing around with stuff until it was ~sounding good~ you know?

is this wavetable synthesis? no. I, too, found myself reaching some computation barriers. BUT for the RESEARCH INCLINED, perhaps a next step would be to set up two loopers, recording different waveforms into each of them, play their content back and then screw around the mix between them to get something more in the SPIRIT of true wavetable stuff (and not just ~digital wave synthesis~ or whatever) but idk 🤷‍♂️

so that’s that! have fun!

brianbuchanan57 ✌️