Library, files and saving

The library on the left lists the wavetable folders you’ve added and the tables in them. WaveStack works on your own folders and files: there’s no database or account, and anything you save is an ordinary WAV you can use elsewhere.

Adding folders

Click Add a folder (the folder button in the library header) and pick a folder of wavetables. Each folder you add becomes a top-level entry, named after the folder. Hover it to see the full path. WaveStack remembers your folders between launches.

To take a folder out of the library, hover it and click × (Remove from library). Its files stay on disk.

The library shows subfolders and files ending in .wav, .wave or .wt. Names are shown without the extension, Surge .wt files get a small wt tag, and numbers sort naturally, so “2” comes before “10”. Refresh in the library header rereads the folders, for example after you’ve copied files in from the Finder or File Explorer.

On the iPad the library is a single fixed folder. See WaveStack on the iPad.

Opening a table

Click a file to open it. A tagged wavetable (one that records its frame size, such as a file saved by WaveStack or Serum, or a Surge .wt) opens straight away and stays linked to the file, so Save writes back to it. A plain audio file opens the Sample → wavetable dialog instead, where you choose how to turn it into frames. See Importing.

You can also press ⌘O (Ctrl+O) or drop files anywhere on the window.

Folder and file actions

Hover a folder to show its buttons:

• Save here saves the current table as a new file in that folder.
• New folder creates a subfolder. Type a name and press Enter.

Hover a file and click ⋯, or right-click it, for:

• Duplicate: copies it beside the original as “Name copy”.
• Rename: renames it in place, keeping its extension. If the table is open, it stays linked under the new name.
• Show in Finder or Show in File Explorer.

Saving

Press ⌘S (Ctrl+S) or click Save in the header.

• A table opened from a file is saved back to that file. If you renamed the table in the table panel since opening it, Save writes a new file with the new name in the same folder and keeps the old one.
• A new table is saved into the first folder in your library, named after the table. If that name is taken, WaveStack adds ” 2”, ” 3” and so on. Browsing into a subfolder doesn’t change where Save goes; to save somewhere specific, use that folder’s Save here button.

If you haven’t added a library folder yet, Save asks you to add one first.

Name a table in the name field at the top left of the table panel. New tables start as “Untitled”.

Unsaved tables and drafts

WaveStack doesn’t write anything to disk until you save. A new table shows at the top of your first library folder with a dashed outline and an unsaved badge; you can name it right there and press Enter to save it.

When you open another file, build or import a table, the one you were working on isn’t thrown away. If it has unsaved changes, it’s kept as a draft with its undo history, and listed in the library: never-saved tables are marked unsaved, and edited files are marked edited. Click a draft to go back to it. Click its × to throw it away.

Drafts last until you quit. WaveStack doesn’t save automatically and doesn’t warn you about unsaved drafts when you quit, so save anything you want to keep.

What a WaveStack file keeps

Tables are saved as WAV files: mono, 32-bit float, 44.1 kHz, with the frames end to end. Three small tags make them readable as wavetables:

• a Serum-style clm tag with the frame size, read by Serum, Vital, Bitwig and others;
• a Surge srge tag with the frame size;
• for grids and volumes, a wt3d tag recording the shape (columns, rows and layers), so the table reopens as the grid or volume you made. Other synths ignore it and read the frames as one row.

A table opened from a Surge .wt file is saved back as .wt.

Some things you set while editing are kept only for the session, not in the file: keyframe marks, the transition settings between keyframes, the region and limits in the frame editor, and the selection.

Saving is for your own library. To make a file for a particular synth or device, with its frame size and frame count, use Export.

Files in iCloud or other cloud drives

If a file lives in iCloud Drive or another cloud folder and hasn’t been downloaded, WaveStack can’t read it. Download it first: in the Finder, right-click it and choose Download Now.