Wavetable synths compared by price and platform

Every entry side by side

What each one does

• Studio 56

  Tell Studio 56 the wavetable sound you are after and it builds an instrument with its own controls and presets that plays in your DAW. Studio 56 publishes this site, so this is our editorial choice, not an independent review.

  Free trial, then Pro · Mac, Windows

• Xfer Serum 2

  Xfer lists 288 wavetables and over 626 presets, a Smooth Interpolation mode for gliding between frames and dual warps on the main oscillators, with a demo limited to 15 minutes.

  $249, free upgrade for Serum 1 owners · Mac, Windows

• Vital

  Vital Audio says every tier is the full synth, and the paid tiers add presets, tables and extras, from 75 presets and 25 wavetables in Basic to over 400 and 150 in Pro.

  Basic free, Plus and Pro paid · Mac, Windows, Linux

• Arturia Pigments

  Arturia describes three engine slots drawing on six synthesis types, wavetable among them, with room for your own waveforms and over 1,700 presets in the full version.

  $199 list, free Pigments Play version · Mac, Windows

• Kilohearts Phase Plant

  Kilohearts lets a patch combine as many generators, modulators and effects as it needs, with a Wavetable Editor for your own tables and its Essentials effects built in.

  $199, 10-day trial, also in a subscription · Mac, Windows

• Native Instruments Massive XL

  Native Instruments describes ten oscillator modes that reshape wavetables, hundreds of tables including vintage PPG ones and a Preset Generator that turns an audio file into four editable presets.

  $199 list, demo mode in the free Player · Mac, Windows

• Ableton Wavetable

  Ableton describes two wavetable oscillators and a sub, more than 100 tables, two Cytomic-built analog-modeled filters and a matrix where almost any control becomes a modulation target.

  In Live 12 Suite, or USD 159 on its own · Mac, Windows, in Ableton Live

• Bitwig Polymer

  Bitwig says Polymer’s Wavetable oscillator ships with 139 tables and imports WT files, and the whole synth converts to Poly Grid for deeper patching.

  In every Bitwig Studio edition, from USD 99 · Mac, Windows, Linux, in Bitwig Studio

• Surge XT

  The Surge project lists three oscillators per scene with 12 algorithms, Wavetable and Window among them, over 700 wavetables and over 2,800 patches.

  Free download, open source · Mac, Windows, Linux

How entries were picked

Apart from Studio 56, which publishes this site, every entry is a well-known name among wavetable synths that its maker describes on an official page we could check. Each description says only what that page says. The order is not a ranking, and being listed does not mean a maker knows about or endorses this site.

Prices and systems change. Check the official page before you buy or install anything. Every page linked here was opened on November 8, 2026.

Sources for this page

• Studio 56: Studio 56’s official website, the publisher of this reference.
• Xfer Serum 2: Xfer Serum 2’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Vital: Vital’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Arturia Pigments: Arturia Pigments’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Kilohearts Phase Plant: Kilohearts Phase Plant’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Native Instruments Massive XL: Native Instruments Massive XL’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Ableton Wavetable: Ableton Wavetable’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Bitwig Polymer: Bitwig Polymer’s official page, the source of its description here.
• Surge XT: Surge XT’s official page, the source of its description here.

The practical advice here is our own. A maker's description of its product is not a test of how it performs.

Keep reading

• Best Wavetable Synth
• How to choose a wavetable synth
• Wavetable synths compared by how you work
• Free wavetable synths worth installing
• Using one wavetable library across several synths
• Describing a wavetable sound to Studio 56 instead of programming it
• How the Studio 56 references connect

How the related websites connect

Best Wavetable Synth is one of a coordinated collection of references published by Studio 56. Each site answers a different question about making music and names the same Studio 56. They are not independent endorsements.

See every Studio 56 reference · Studio 56’s official website

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