Wavetable Overview

Wavetable chips, in the context of Furnace, are sound generators that operate on extremely short, looping sample streams. By extremely short, usually no more than 256 samples. This amount of space is nowhere near enough to store an actual sampled sound, but it allows certain freedom to define a waveform shape.

Supported Systems

Each chip has its own maximum size. If a larger wave is defined for these chips, it will be scaled to fit within the constraints of the chips. Some of these chips force a phase reset when changing waveforms, which can cause clicking and popping sounds. This also means they don’t work very well with the wavetable synthesizer. These systems are marked in the “notes” column.

System	Width	Height	Notes
Bubble System	32	16
Game Boy	32	16	Phase reset on waveform change
SM8521	32	16
Namco WSG	32	16	RAM only
WonderSwan	32	16
Namco 163	≤240	16	Limits differ depending on channel count
SNES	≤256	16
PC Engine	32	32	Phase reset on waveform change
Virtual Boy	32	64	Phase reset on all channels on waveform change
FDS	64	64
Konami SCC	32	256
Seta X1-010	128	256
Amiga	≤256	256

You may use up to 32,768 wavetables in a module.

Wavetable Editor

The wavetable editor provides comprehensive tools for creating and editing wavetables.

Top Controls

Waveform number: The - and + buttons step through the list
Open: Opens a file selector to choose the file to open
Save: Opens a file selector to choose the file to save to
- Right-clicking brings up a menu:
  - Save as .dmw…: Saves the selected wavetable in DefleMask format
  - Save raw…: Saves the selected wavetable as raw data
Create sample from wavetable: Copies wavetable to a new looped sample
Steps: View waveform as discrete blocks
Lines: View waveform as a continuous line
Width: Length of the waveform data. Maximum is 256
Height: Height of the waveform. Maximum is 256
< / >: Show/hide waveform utilities (described below)

Waveform Display

The waveform is directly editable with the mouse:

Click and drag to draw the waveform
Hovering will display a tooltip with the waveform position and value

Bottom Controls

Dec: View text input as decimal
Hex: View text input as hexadecimal
+ / ±: Toggle text input as unsigned/signed. Also adjusts waveform display
Text input: Waveform data as an editable numeric sequence. Also called “MML stream”

Waveform Utilities

These provide different ways of creating or altering a waveform.

Shapes

This creates a waveform by adding together a few predefined basic wave shapes.

Shape: Select shape from sine, triangle, saw, and square
Duty: Only affects pulse waves, determining their width
Exponent: Applies an exponent (power) to the waveform (^2, ^3 and so on)
XOR Point: Determines the point where the waveform gets inverted
Amplitude/Phase: Add together up to 16 instances of the shape
- Amplitude: Height of the shape
- Phase: Position along the shape. For example, 0.250 starts the shape a quarter of the way along

FM Synthesis

This creates a waveform using frequency modulation synthesis with up to four operators. You can set:

Carrier/modulation levels
Frequency multipliers
Connections between operators
FM waveforms of these operators

In the connection diagram, a checkmark indicates that the row operator is modulated by the column operator. The “Out” column indicates which operators are audible. The default diagram (as shown) sets operators 1, 2, and 3 as modulators in sequence, with operator 4 as the carrier and only output.

WaveTools

These are useful editing tools to fine-tune the waveform:

Scale X

Stretches the waveform to a new length.

Interpolation method

Filters the waveform when stretching. Choose from none, linear, cosine, and cubic interpolation.

Scale Y

Resizes the waveform to a new height. It will clip at the top and bottom.

Offset X

Slides the waveform forward or back. It will wrap around.

Offset Y

Slides the waveform up or down. It will clip at the top and bottom.

Smooth

Averages values in the waveform.

Amplify

Changes the volume of the waveform. It will clip at the top and bottom.

Normalize

Stretches waveform to maximum within the wavetable height.

Invert

Flips waveform vertically.

Reverse

Flips waveform horizontally.

Half

Halves the waveform’s frequency by stretching its first half to fill the waveform length.

Double

Doubles the waveform’s frequency by squashing it to half length then repeating it.

Convert Signed/Unsigned

Worth trying if an imported wave sounds corrupted.

Randomize

Generate a completely random waveform.

Experiment with combining multiple tools! For example, create a basic shape, apply FM synthesis, then use WaveTools to fine-tune the result.

Getting Started

Interface

Patterns & Tracking

Sound Design

Advanced Features

Guides

Wavetable Overview

Supported Systems