A variety of methods, controllers and electric machine systems are described for pulse control of electric machines (e.g., electric motors and generators). To improve the energy conversion efficiency of the machine, pulse control involves determining if the machine should operate in a continuous mode or pulse mode, and if the latter, defining a magnitude, duty cycle, and frequency for the pulses. One or more tables, indexing by a wide range of speeds and torque requests, is/are used to define the pulsing frequency or a pulsing frequency pattern.