Wavetables for hardware synths

Why hardware is picky

A software synth can afford to resample, rescale, and re-slice whatever you hand it. A hardware wavetable oscillator usually cannot: its wavetable memory has a fixed geometry — so many samples per wave, so many waves per table, so many tables per bank — and its DSP expects one specific sample format. A file with the right geometry in the wrong bit depth, or the right bit depth in the wrong geometry, simply does not load.

Three properties decide compatibility: frame size (samples per wave), bit depth (float32 versus 16-bit PCM), and bank layout (waves per table, tables per bank, file naming on storage). You control the first in the export; the other two are usually handled by the vendor's tools.

What Hyperwave gives you to work with

In Hyperwave, the live table runs from 8 to 8,192 samples per frame and 8 to 1024 frames, all powers of two, defaulting to 2,048 × 256. Collection exports widen that to 16 to 16,384 samples per frame and 1 to 256 frames, so compact fixed layouts — five 512-sample waves, 64-wave 256-sample banks — are reachable without touching the live resolution. Every export is one mono WAV — float32 by default, 16-bit where the target wants it — with frames packed end-to-end.

Read that as: the geometry and the bit depth of a hardware contract are both reachable directly — the E352/E370, Piston Honda MK3, and Pro 3 presets write the 16-bit geometry the devices load. The step that remains is bank layout: assembling and naming files on the card, which is a different job from bit depth.

Waldorf Blofeld

Blofeld (Waldorf Music): User wavetables reach the synth through Waldorf's official tools: the Blofeld plugin loads prepared SysEx/MIDI wavetables, or imports audio WAV with samples-per-wave selectable from 32 to 4,096 (the classic on-device table is 64 waves × 128 samples; the plugin thins larger wave counts on import).

The classic on-device table is 64 waves × 128 samples; larger wave counts are thinned on import, so design sweeps expecting some frames to drop. The practical path is Waldorf's own tool: it imports audio WAV with a selectable samples-per-wave and packages the SysEx/MIDI side for you.

Novation Peak / Summit

Peak / Summit (Novation): The Components Wavetable Editor (browser) imports audio files or third-party wavetables such as Serum's, as a single waveform (512 cycles) or a wavetable (2,560 cycles); each user wavetable has 5 wave slots and the synth stores 10 user wavetable slots (Peak firmware 1.3+ / Summit 1.1+).

Five waves of 512 samples is a small, fixed target, and exactly the kind of layout the collection-export range was widened for. The import itself happens in the browser-based Components Wavetable Editor, which also accepts third-party wavetables such as Serum's — so a float32 file is a natural input there.

Korg modwave

modwave (Korg): The Editor/Librarian imports packed WAV in two formats: 32-bit float with 2,048-sample waves (the Serum-style layout) or 16-bit with 256-sample waves — up to 64 waves per file in either mode. Longer float tables are assumed to be generated crossfades and thinned to 64. The software modwave native shares both formats, with its own Librarian-page 'Import WAV As Wavetable' route.

Two doors. The float32, 2,048-sample layout loads exactly as Hyperwave writes it — build at the default, keep the table at 64 waves or expect the surplus to be thinned as a generated crossfade. The 16-bit, 256-sample layout is a direct export too: the modwave's 16-bit preset writes it. Sixty-four waves is the cap either way.

Synthesis Technology E352 / E370, and the bank reality

E352 Cloud Terrarium / E370 Quad VCO (Synthesis Technology): WAV banks loaded from microSD: 256 samples per wave, 16-bit, 64 wavetables per bank in an 8×8 array; WaveEdit is the official editor and the module holds 26 user banks.

This is where bank layout takes over: 256-sample, 16-bit waves and 64 wavetables per bank on a microSD card. Hyperwave's E352/E370 preset writes the 16-bit, 256-sample geometry directly — WaveEdit remains the official editor for assembling a whole 64-table bank and writing the card. Build your waves at 256 samples per frame, export them, and let the bank tool lay them out.

The Piston Honda MK3 (Industrial Music Electronics) plays the same game with its own geometry: microSD load of eight mono 16-bit WAV files named 1.wav through 8.wav — the eight files are eight independent Z-axis banks, each holding an 8×8 X/Y table of 64 waves × 256 samples (together the 8×8×8 = 512-waveform cube). All eight files must be present or the load fails.

A checklist before you export for hardware

Before sending a table to a hardware target:

• Look the target up in the formats reference — frame size, bit depth, and bank layout are all recorded there, with anything unconfirmed labeled as such.
• Match the frame size in the export, or pick the device's preset; the live and collection ranges cover the common hardware geometries.
• Export 16-bit when the target loads integer banks — the Eurorack and Pro 3 presets set it; only formats Hyperwave cannot write (raw 8-bit files, SysEx packaging) still happen in the vendor's tool.
• Normalize and center frames before export — 16-bit quantization punishes low-level tables with a noise floor.