START to END Morph

START→END Morph

Use START→END Morph when the relationship between two complete endpoint patches is part of the sound.

If you arrived by pressing Copy → START / END / Both in Playground, FWG has already opened Morph and started auditioning the destination. A completely fresh Morph workspace instead begins with a Classic Waveforms triangle at START and a related Classic Split triangle at END; both use Input 1 = A and Wavetable Type 0 – Input 1.

First orient yourself: 1, 2, 3

Morph has three columns:

• START;
• END;
• MORPH / EXPORT.

1, 2, and 3 collapse/reopen those columns. The shortcuts change layout only.

A simple first Morph

The cleanest first exercise starts in Playground:

1. Make one endpoint you understand.
2. Press Copy → Both. FWG opens Morph and auditions START.
3. In MORPH / EXPORT, set Render Unit = Seconds and use roughly 2–5 seconds.
4. Change only END so the endpoints are clearly different.
5. Press S for START and E for END. ESC stops.
6. Choose Wavetable Morph (Blends Tables Before Audio). The mode change auto-auditions, so listen before pressing another transport key.
7. Press ESC, then F to replay Forward.
8. Press R for Reverse.
9. Choose Crossfade (Favours Analogue Warmth) with the same endpoints and listen again.

Wavetable Morph combines endpoint tables into one evolving oscillator path. Crossfade keeps two complete endpoint voices and fades between them. Hearing those two relationships with unchanged endpoints is a useful introduction to the whole Morph system.

Endpoint copy and swap actions

Copying one endpoint over the other also auditions the destination.

Swap START/END exchanges endpoint data and is deliberately silent. Swapping state does not imply that either endpoint should start playing.

START and END are complete endpoint patches

Each endpoint owns its own:

• Generator Family and Smooth/Crunchy variant;
• three generator controls;
• Input 1/Input 2 tap routing;
• Wavetable Type;
• Drawn waveform state;
• modulation and filter;
• Pitch Offset;
• Source/Result Windows;
• RAM slots and current/imported origin state.

START and END therefore represent two complete sounds, not merely two oscillator shapes. Their Drawn states are independent: START can use one Drawn waveform as audio/LFO/modulation material while END uses another, and that difference can become part of the Morph output.

Morph endpoints have no separate Reset buttons. The same eight Classic waveform presets used in Playground—Sine, Triangle, two Saw directions, Trapezoid, Square 50%, Pulse 25%, and Pulse 12.5%—provide quick clean replacements.

Audition the endpoints first

🎹 Use START and END Drone before judging a complicated Morph.

If one endpoint is already weak, the Morph usually becomes harder to diagnose. When refining a Bulk result, endpoint A/B listening quickly tells you whether the interesting—or broken—part lives in START, END, or their relationship.

Choose the Morph Render Mode by what you want to hear

Morph Render Modes include parameter interpolation, crossfades, phase-oriented crossfades, one-oscillator wavetable modes, spectral modes, and START-mod-END families.

A useful first map:

• Full Interpolation / Dual-Path / Hybrid — hear controls and structures move through the path;
• Crossfade — keep two endpoint voices and fade between them;
• Phase-Aligned Crossfade — reduce endpoint phase disagreement before fading;
• Wavetable/one-oscillator modes — construct one evolving oscillator table;
• Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) Spectral Morph — interpolate spectral information;
• Moving/Fixed START-mod-END — use one endpoint as modulation source for the other.

There is no globally best mode. Choose the relationship that serves the sound.

Curve and Cycle-stepped transition

Curve Mode and Curve Amount control how quickly an interpolating Morph progresses through START→END.

Cycle-stepped transition holds one Morph construction state for each nominal root cycle. That can be useful for discrete wavetable-frame-oriented material; continuous movement is often better for ordinary audio and smoothly evolving textures.

Fixed START-mod-END modes do not traverse an interpolated path, so curve/cycle-stepped controls are disabled there. Their stored values return when an interpolating mode becomes active again.

Moving and Fixed START-mod-END

Choose the modulation family, shared Depth position (1–256), and source-rate multiplier.

Moving

START remains the source and END remains the carrier while both branches travel through the Morph path. Reverse changes traversal direction; source/carrier roles stay the same.

Fixed

The endpoint branches do not interpolate.

• Forward: START = source, END = carrier.
• Reverse: END = source, START = carrier.

That complete role swap can make Forward and Reverse substantially different.

See Morph Render Modes for modulation-family behaviour.

Pitch Offset and Nominal frequency

Each endpoint shows Nominal freq beneath Pitch Offset: Root Frequency after that endpoint's static Pitch Offset, before FM or other time-varying modulation.

Double-click the readout—or focus it and press Enter—to enter a target frequency and let FWG calculate the required Pitch Offset.

The shared Root Frequency still owns nominal-root-cycle render geometry and cycle-stepped timing. See Pitch, MIDI, and Pitch Offset.

Morph and render settings are separate layers

The workspace contains two different kinds of state.

Sound relationship

• Morph Render Mode;
• START-mod-END family/depth/rate when applicable;
• FFT Anchor States when applicable;
• Curve Mode / Amount;
• Cycle-stepped transition;
• Phase-Coherent Mode.

Output

• Root Frequency;
• render unit/length;
• WAV output sample rate and bit depth;
• DC removal, normalisation, and headroom;
• naming and direction;
• optional MPC layout.

This distinction matters during JSON import: FWG can restore the whole result, only Morph settings, only render settings, or selected endpoints. See Saving, Loading, and JSON Sidecars.

Transport and shortcuts

• START Drone — audition START.
• END Drone — audition END.
• Play Forward Morph — START→END.
• Play Reverse — reverse traversal / reverse-mode behaviour.
• Stop Audio — stop audition audio.
• S, E, F, R control START, END, Forward, and Reverse.
• P pauses/replays the most recently used Morph sound.

See Keyboard Shortcuts.

Forward and Reverse are not always mirror-image audio

⚠️ A simple crossfade reverses direction cleanly. Asymmetric algorithms can do more than that. In particular, Fixed START-mod-END swaps complete source/carrier roles in Reverse.

Do not reproduce a Reverse result by simply swapping endpoints and playing Forward unless the selected mode is actually symmetrical. JSON keeps exported direction separate from canonical START/END design roles for this reason.

Export

Morph can export Forward, Reverse, or both, as ordinary WAV + JSON sidecar or as MPC-compatible output when MPC Wavetable Mode is enabled.

For wavetable geometry, see Creating Wavetables. For ordinary audio events, see Creating Samples, Drones, Hits, Transitions, and Multisamples.

Refining a Bulk result

🎹 A useful near-miss workflow:

1. load the result's JSON sidecar with Load The Whole Thing;
2. audition START and END;
3. decide whether the weak part is an endpoint, the Morph relationship, or render/cleanup;
4. change one factor;
5. re-render and compare;
6. keep the revised sidecar;
7. send the keeper to Explorer if you want nearby alternatives.

See Auditioning, Curation, and Building a Personal Library.

Settings that persist

Morph Render Mode, FFT Anchor States, Curve Mode, and Curve Amount retain their last committed Morph-workspace values across page loads. Cycle-stepped transition persists through the shared Transition/Cleanup group.

Endpoint patches, RAM slots, seeds, imported state, and detached workspace-local overrides have their own ownership rules; they do not become global presets merely because they appear in Morph.

Technical note: render reuse inside Morph

🔧 Morph may reuse an already-rendered Forward/Reverse PCM product when the effective render state is unchanged. The cache is session-local to Morph; Bulk Random and Explorer own separate temporary job state.

Only state that can affect the selected renderer invalidates that reusable product. Dormant controls remain stored in patch/JSON even when the current route cannot hear them. This changes computation cost, not patch semantics.

Related pages

• Morph Render Modes
• Morph Curve and Cycle Stepping
• Phase-Coherent Mode
• Render and Export Settings
• Bulk Explorer