CARVETOY: Browser Based Modular Wavetable Generator
Carvetoy is a browser based modular wavetabel generator, having tried out many wavetable editing and creation tools, I must say this one is incredibly impressive. If anything it is a sound design tool unto its self, with the added benefit of being able to export whatever you create as a wavetable.
Check out Carvetoy now: https://www.carvetoy.online/edit
Carvetoy does not currently allow for the editing of existing tables, but there’s dozens of tools for that already, so I will be comparing it to other table editors in regards to from scratch wavetable creation. Carvetool takes a similar approach to Vital’s editor lanes, allowing you to stack various generators, modifiers, and add motion to these controls, all non-destructively. Additionally, you get to view various layers and modifiers all side by side in a logical grid, rather than stacked vertically only. Every module can be opened up, revealing a tool that allows you to draw frame motion for every control within said module.
Within the browser you get access to a simple table player, this plays back your table at a set speed, and allows you to adjust the volume and frequency of the playback monitoring. just setting this to drone on as you edit is a sound design playground all its own. There are a plethora of modules to explore, from a variety of generators, to dozens of effects, and most interestingly, about a dozen combination effects, which allow you to take one lane and have it process the signal of another. This opens up many doors, and from what I could tell, many of the combination processors are spectral/convolution, I think one lets you vocode one tables signal against another.
There’s a few more features hiding within Carvetoy, for one, you can share your projects, I’m not sure what form this takes, but if this allows you to edit eachother’s creations within the browser, this will be an AMAZING collaborative sound design tool. Finally, if there’s only a small section of the total motion you want to use, you can utilize sub-frame rendering, which lets you isolate a section of the table and render it out as if it were the full 256 frames, giving you further resolution.
This is definitely in the territory of tools for the sonic scientist, many of these modules behave in unique and new ways, I think there is much to explore and discover within Carvetoy, and it opens up some new doors for wavetable design. However I think this tool requires some dedicated users to explore and create to really showcase what it is capable of. I had to take a break from playing with Carvetoy to write this review, so I’ve barely scratched the surface, but knowing that I can simply export any of my creations is quite inspiring.