As far as scoping in the time-domain is concerned, we need to be able to optimize our waveforms so that they both look and sound interesting. Subsequently, we will elaborate on a series of techniques to synthesize and manipulate waveforms from a purely visual-oriented perspective. Even if these techniques originate from the realms of traditional audio synthesis or Digital Signal Processing (DSP), we will use the rather uncanny term waveform synthesis herein to emphasize that our focus is on the visual aspects of audio signals. It has to be noted that in defiance of the abundance of technical handbooks relevant to audio synthesis, waveform synthesis has been largely overlooked hitherto.
The topics that will be covered in this chapter are as follows:
Waveform synthesis fundamentals
Custom periodic and aperiodic waveform generators
Wavetable lookup and wave shaping synthesis
Unary, binary, and bitwise waveform transformations