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Implementing Wave Terrain Synthesis

Carving Paths into Sonic Landscapes

Wave Terrain Synthesis (WTS) is a fascinating and underexplored approach to sound generation. Join me in the curious topic; we’ll explore and demonstrate the core principles of WTS — how the oscillator’s terrain-path interaction shapes timbre and the math concepts behind generating clean, anti-aliased single-cycle waveforms. We’ll also uncover how the path–terrain relationship can produce familiar effects like oscillator sync and phase distortion.

With a large number of controllable parameters, WTS is an inherently expressive synthesis technique. We'll demonstrate how real-time control, LFOs, envelopes, and image-based terrain imports drive expressive and evolving sounds — starting with basic waveform shaping and progressing to rich, multi-layered textures.