The Bitwig team walks through the three unison modes available in Polymer's wavetable oscillator, showing how each one shapes the relationship between stacked voices in ways that go well beyond simple detune.
Fat mode layers all voices at roughly equal weight, producing the dense, slithering sound most producers reach for by default. Focused mode is more surgical: the most in-tune voice sits loudest and centered, while progressively detuned voices get progressively quieter and panned outward, giving the sound a tunneling quality without overwhelming the fundamental. Complex mode uses prime-number relationships between voices to create near-polyrhythmic interactions, which becomes especially useful when hard sync is engaged.
There is also a phase spread option that randomizes the starting phase of each voice. The effect is subtle in mono but becomes clearly audible in stereo, particularly on headphones. Because unison behavior is so patch-dependent, the same mode can sound completely different across different wavetable files, so experimenting with each setting on your own material is the only way to hear what actually works.