MPC Wavetable Mode

MPC Wavetable Mode

Use MPC Wavetable Mode to make the single-cycle geometry and format.json layout expected by MPC User Wavetables. The same fixed geometry can help plan tables for other instruments, but the packaging rules are MPC-specific.

The controls live inside each exporting workspace's MPC Wavetable Mode / Layout box: Morph in MORPH / EXPORT, and the corresponding Render / File Settings area in Bulk Random or Bulk Explorer.

First setup: notice the two stages

🎹 MPC setup is deliberately two-stage. Use this order:

1. Choose MPC samples/cycle. This UI label means output PCM samples per MPC single cycle.
2. Choose Single Cycles. This is the number of MPC single cycles written to each WAV.
3. Enable MPC Wavetable Mode. At this point FWG immediately turns Cycle-stepped transition and that workspace's Phase-Coherent Mode On.
4. Press Apply MPC Settings. This additionally conforms Root Frequency and Render Format to the selected output PCM samples per MPC single cycle × MPC single-cycle-count geometry.
5. If you change MPC samples/cycle or Single Cycles afterward, press Apply MPC Settings again.

Enabling MPC Mode and applying MPC settings are therefore related but not identical actions. The visible controls remain authoritative after setup; for example, Cycle-stepped can still be turned Off deliberately.

What it creates

🔧 MPC Wavetable Mode packages:

• one or more mono WAV files;
• format.json;
• an MPC-style library folder;
• optional FWG .json.gz sidecars in a separate sibling _json folder.

Current UI limits

🔧 Mechanical limits:

• MPC samples/cycle: 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, or 16384 output PCM samples per MPC single cycle;
• Single Cycles: 2–2048 MPC single cycles per WAV;
• maximum files per MPC folder: 512;
• WAV output sample-rate validation: 22.05–96 kHz for MPC Mode;
• default: 2048 output PCM samples per MPC single cycle and 16 MPC single cycles;
• sidecar folder included by default.

These are code-level mechanical limits, not claims about every MPC firmware's practical browsing behaviour.

format.json

🔧 The manifest declares:

• numSamplesPerSingleCycle
• numSingleCycles

The WAV must contain exactly:

output PCM samples per MPC single cycle × MPC single cycles

output PCM samples.

Use Beyond MPC

🎹 Although the feature is named MPC Wavetable Mode, its fixed MPC single-cycle count × output PCM samples per MPC single cycle geometry can also be useful when preparing wavetables for other synthesizers. It provides a convenient way to make the file length and intended wavetable-frame geometry explicit and repeatable.

format.json is MPC-specific. Another synthesizer may need only the WAV file, may ignore that manifest, or may require a different filename, folder structure, metadata file, wavetable-frame count, or range of output PCM samples per single cycle. Use MPC Mode as a geometry and packaging aid, then follow the destination instrument's own import requirements. Mechanical compatibility with MPC geometry does not by itself prove compatibility with another synthesizer.

Folder cleanliness

⚠️ The actual library folder should contain only:

• matching WAV file(s);
• format.json.

Do not put inside it:

• FWG sidecars;
• Explorer recipe;
• README;
• licence files;
• nested folders;
• unrelated audio.

Mechanical validity versus musical validity

🎹 Mechanical validity means the files and manifest agree.

Musical validity means scanning produces a useful instrument.

Test both.

Bulk Random

🎹 Turning MPC Mode on visibly enables Cycle-stepped transition in the current workspace. The checkbox remains editable afterward, and export honours the visible value.

Best conventional starting pools:

• Cycle-coherent random;
• Classic Waveforms;
• Smooth;
• Edge.

Glitch & Noise is appropriate only when damaged/unstable scanning is intentional.

⚠️ Absurd keeps the requested MPC file geometry but deliberately bypasses Bulk cycle-coherent sound-design guardrails. It may produce discontinuous, unstable, non-loop-safe, silent, or inaudible material. Ordinary table-safety fallback and finite-file protections remain active.

Explorer

🎹 Explorer is useful after a strong MPC candidate has been found.

1. load the result;
2. set narrow rules;
3. keep geometry fixed;
4. vary selected sound controls;
5. export a small MPC batch;
6. test on hardware;
7. continue from a numbered keeper sidecar.

Pitch Offset warning

⚠️ Non-zero Pitch Offset is preserved and can alias.

The selected WAV output sample rate may become part of the sound, and later MPC transposition/playback can produce a substantially different result.

Begin hardware acceptance with one zero-offset Classic/Smooth file before testing extreme tuning.

Phase-Coherent Mode

🔧 Phase-Coherent Mode is an independent, workspace-local preference. A fresh workspace starts Off. Enabling MPC Wavetable Mode or using Apply MPC Settings turns Phase-Coherent Mode On in that workspace; turning MPC Mode Off does not force it back Off.

The feature performs best-effort registration of the completed constructed wavetable before downstream Morph/modulation/render DSP. v3.0 uses exact integer circular rotation. It can improve wavetable-frame orientation but does not guarantee that every final rendered wavetable state begins at zero.

The same seed/random policy selects the same sound-design patch with Phase-Coherent Mode On or Off because phase registration consumes no named random draws.

See Phase-Coherent Mode.

Terminology: MPC single cycles and wavetable frames

🔧 The literal UI label MPC samples/cycle means output PCM samples per MPC single cycle. Single Cycles is the number of those units packaged in the MPC wavetable layout. A destination wavetable frame is a separate conceptual term: in this MPC workflow each declared single-cycle unit acts as one frame-sized waveform unit, but ordinary PCM sample frames and FWG's 512 internal cycle samples are different quantities.