Introduction

At the outset of this project, I took a long time to decide what I wanted my Zenith project to be. I tried quite hard to make a project related to animation, but ultimately I didn’t have enough time to do any of the projects I wanted to.

Feeling frustrated with my lack of progress and inability to land on any one idea, I took a step back and went back to my roots; I ended up settling for an audio-related project which is right in my forte.

I would like to formally introduce you to my 2025 Zenith project, “Flow”

Background

“Flow” is my attempt at creating the sounds of water, from scratch, in a wavetable synthesizer. Using a variety of resources such as reference recordings, research papers, and the occasional YouTube tutorial, I created three sound palettes– a drop, waves, and underwater ambience.

The process of creating sound from scratch was tough (and VERY tedious), but also rewarding, much like any other sound/music-related project. This was especially true for the underwater sounds; I had to work at a low volume in order to protect my eardrums from bursting with bass frequencies, but that also made it quite hard to hear subtleties.

In order to create my sounds, I used Vital, a free wavetable synthesizer. Using the synth’s various envelopes, random value generators, filters, wave libraries, and effect banks– I was able to synthesize my water sounds. I also made regular use of the macro knobs to allow my sounds to have variety.

I personally think that, no matter how interested you are in audio, you should learn how a synth works. They are truly fascinating, and I don’t think any other form of art or programming comes close in concept and practice to sound synthesis. The nice thing is that Vital is free, so you can immediately jump into the world of synthesis at zero cost. Go, sample some stuff and mess it up. Have fun destroying and morphing sounds to your will.

Anyways, tangent aside, I have explanations below about how I synthesized each different sound palette. Check them out if you want a more in-depth look behind my creative process.

Presentation & Reflection

To round off my project, I gave a presentation on Flow, diving (no pun intended) deep into the creative process, the challenges I faced, and what I had to think about while synthesizing water sounds from scratch.

I think that ultimately, this was an elevation of my skills and experiences. I wouldn’t necessarily say that my Zenith was my ultimate freestyle project, but I did very much expand my own knowledge on a subject that I am interested in making into a career in the future.

Will insert reflection audio soon.