Publication Date

Spring 4-28-2026

School

School of Engineering and Computational Sciences

Major

Engineering: Electrical

Keywords

Digital Signal Processing, Audio Engineering, Wavetable, Wavetable Synthesis, Discrete Fourier Transform, MATLAB

Disciplines

Computer Engineering | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Signal Processing

Abstract

One of the challenges in creating computer generated music is producing life-like sounds. Music produced through computer synthesis can often sound thin and synthetic rather than vibrant and energetic. Wavetable synthesis is a method of waveform generation that uses a wavetable, which is a set of single period waves, or frames, that have varying characteristics. This method allows a synthesizer to transition between waveforms to produce a sound with time varying tone and harmonic characteristics. This adds life and movement to computer generated sounds. Wavetable synthesis is often used to imitate actual instruments, but unique wavetables can be created that play back totally new sounds.

This thesis explores the background of wavetable synthesis, including its development, advantages, and underlying theory. It explains the analysis of a wavetable in frequency-domain using Fourier Analysis. In addition, a method of wavetable modification is proposed that relies on the adjustment of frequency domain parameters. The variable parameters include the magnitudes and phases of spectral components of the waveform. These variables change between frames, thus creating a full wavetable. Finally, a MATLAB program is created that is capable of loading, editing, and exporting wavetables using this method.

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