Wavetable Synthesis
Wavetable Synthesis
Idea: Save a per-key waveform, play it back when key is pressed
Needs lots of memory (not a problem anymore)
Conceptual issues
Want note to last as long as key is held: looping is needed
May not have a wave for every key: pitch shifting is needed
Wave may have inappropriate envelope: envelope generation is desirable
May want to modify wave after-the-fact: effects are desirable
Sustain and Looping
Want to maintain sustain level for as long as key is held down
Infinite time stretching is a thing: usually achieved by "looping"
Loop start and end may be marked manually, or can try to infer the sustain region
Building a Loop: Frequency Domain
Use DFT on a window of samples
Stretch the spectrum as desired
Use inverse DFT
Need to use overlapping windows to preserve frequency changes over time
Smearing is real
Building a Loop: Time Domain
Use autocorrelation to try to find a reasonable constant period of the sample
$$ P = argmax_{t} ~~ x[0..] \cdot x[t..] $$
(where the signal x is treated as cyclic)
Crop the sample so that the start matches the end: usually at zero-crossing
May need gain and frequency adjustment to avoid cyclic effects
The longer the sample, the more "real" it will sound and the harder it will be to avoid loop effects
Pitch Shifting
As we discovered previously, the pitch of the note can be shifted by resampling
Knowing the fundamental pitch of the original sample(s) is actually hard (unless the sample comes from a source with "known" frequency). Strongest component of DFT sometimes works.
Remember, pitch shifting is frequency stretching.
Resampling Technique
Don't want to dynamically resample on every keypress after generating a 93-coefficient FIR anti-aliasing filter (probably)
Possibly use small adjustable IIR filter
Resample to only a few frequencies (octaves, usually) in advance, then use linear interpolation during synthesis to get final pitch from nearest properly-resampled cache element
As long as close to the sample rate, linear interpolation is "good enough"
Ideally, just have a sample for every key (fat chance)
Wavetable Envelopes
Question: Do you want the "natural" envelope from the sample, a "synthetic" ADSR envelope, or some combination of the two?
This is really a question for the musician, so should probably be prepared to use either
Ideally, sample will come with start and end of sustain marked; otherwise you have to guess
Soundfonts
Standard file format for wavetables, set up for synthesizer consumption
File format is immensely complicated, so use a library and think carefully about handling
"General MIDI" synthesizers are almost always this: standard GM soundfonts are readily available
General MIDI
Standard for cross-manufacturer synth capabilities
Most importantly, identifies 128 specific MIDI "programs" with 128 "specific" named sounds
Examples: "Alto Sax" (66), "Blown Bottle" (77), "Rock Organ" (19), "Slap Bass 1" (37), "Bagpipe" (110, in "Ethnic" sounds category), "Helicopter" (126)
MIDI channel 10 has its own set of GM percussion sounds