Additive synthesis

Additive synthesis builds a sound by summing sine-wave partials, setting each component's amplitude — and optionally phase — directly rather than filtering a rich source down.

Because the spectrum is the instrument, additive control means drawing partials: a precise sawtooth, a bell with stretched inharmonic partials, or a vowel-shaped formant stack are all just partial recipes. It pairs naturally with wavetables, where one additive recipe per frame turns the table into a spectrum you can sweep.