Ableton/Live/UG/31 Instrument Reference/13 Wavetable
- Wavetable pairs two wavetable oscillators with two analog-modeled filters and a modulation system that is quick to start with and deep to explore.
- Three areas: the oscillators, each on its own tab; the two filters; and modulation across three tabs. The title bar's expand button shows more at once.
- A wavetable is a set of short looping waveforms. Holding one waveform gives a steady tone; moving through the table while a note plays changes the timbre over time, which suits evolving sounds.
- Without modulation, the raw oscillators are fully band-limited and don't alias at any pitch.
- Each oscillator tab has an on switch, Gain, Pan, Semi and Detune, relative to the global Transpose.
- Two choosers pick a wavetable category and table; the arrows step through all tables across categories.
- Drop any WAV or AIFF on the display to use it as a wavetable; the choosers then browse that file's folder. Wavetable cleans up imports unless Raw is on, which suits files made as wavetables or deliberately glitchy results.
- Drag in the display or use Wave Position to move through the table. The display is linear (waveforms stacked bottom to top, time left to right) or polar (loops from inside out, time clockwise).
- Oscillator effects, two parameters each; values carry over when switching effect:
- FM — Amt and Tune; ±50% is an octave up or down, ±100% two octaves, and values between give inharmonic, noisy overtones.
- Classic — PW pulse width on any table, not just squares; Sync to a hidden oscillator.
- Modern — Warp, similar to pulse width, and Fold, wavefolding.
- Sub on/off with Gain. Tone — 0% is a pure sine; higher adds harmonics. Octave — shift down one or two octaves from the played note.
- The same filter types and Cytomic circuits as Operator (Clean, OSR, MS2, SMP, PRD), with Frequency, Resonance, Drive and Morph; drag the filter dots in the display. See Ableton/Live/UG/31 Instrument Reference/09 Operator/05 Filter Section.
- Routing:
- Serial — all oscillators into Filter 1, then Filter 2; Sub to both.
- Parallel — the main oscillators into both filters; Sub to both.
- Split — Osc 1 to Filter 1, Osc 2 to Filter 2, Sub half to each. An oscillator stays audible if its filter is off. Good for layered sounds, or for treating only the Sub when the main oscillators are off.
- Routes internal sources (envelopes, LFOs) across the top to targets down the side; drag in a cell to set the amount.
- Additive targets sum their sources and add the result to the parameter; neutral is 0, and sources can be bipolar (negative and positive) or unipolar (positive only).
- Multiplicative targets multiply their sources together and then with the parameter; neutral is 1 and minimum 0. The manual marks which parameters work this way.
- Click a parameter to show it in the matrix; it stays only if modulated. Matrix and MIDI tabs share rows. Click a source header to jump to it in Mod Sources.
- Time — scales every modulator; negative is faster. Modulating Time doesn't affect the modulator doing it. Amount — overall depth; multiplicative.
- Settings for the envelopes and LFOs.
Envelopes
- Amp, Env 2 and Env 3, edited by value or by dragging the display.
- Attack, Decay, Sustain (multiplicative) and Release, each with a slope: positive moves fast then slow, negative slow then fast, zero linear.
- Env 2 and Env 3 add Initial (multiplicative), Peak and Final.
- Loop Modes — None holds sustain; Trigger plays all segments once; Loop repeats the whole envelope until the voice ends.
31.13.6.1 LFOs
- Five waveforms, each reshaped by Shape: Sine and Saw tilt the slope; Triangle morphs ramp to saw; Square sets pulse width; Random changes how often extreme values occur.
- Sync and Rate, or drag the display. Amount (multiplicative), Offset (phase, not modulatable), Attack (fade-in) and Retrigger.
- MIDI sources in their own matrix:
- Velocity and Note — held for the note. Note is centered on C3, so Note at 100% on Filter Frequency makes the cutoff follow the played note.
- Pitch Bend, Aftertouch, Modulation Wheel — controller sources, also reachable with clip envelopes.
- Random — a new value per note.
- Rows are shared with the Matrix tab.
- Transpose, Volume (multiplicative).
- Poly/Mono — Mono is one voice with legato envelopes and Glide; Poly uses Poly Voices.
- Unison modes:
- Classic — evenly detuned, alternating left and right.
- Shimmer — randomly jittered pitch for a reverb-like shimmer, plus slight wavetable offset.
- Noise — faster jitter for breathy, noisy textures.
- Phase Sync — Classic detune with phases synced at note start, for a phaser-like sweep.
- Position spread — wavetable positions spread across voices, plus slight detune.
- Random note — random position and detune per voice at each note.
- Voices — oscillators per wavetable oscillator; more is thicker, fewer clearer. Amount — unison depth; multiplicative.
- Toggle Hi-Quality from the context menu. Off computes modulation every 32 samples and uses lighter Cytomic filters, saving up to 25% CPU.
- Since Live 11.1 it is off for new instances and Core Library presets; older user presets and Sets still load with it on so they sound the same. Turning it on can change the sound slightly.
