State of the art and future directions in musical sound synthesis (original) (raw)

Computationally Efficient Music Synthesis - Methods and Sound Design

2007

In this thesis, the design of a music synthesizer for systems suffering from limitations in computing power and memory capacity is presented. First, different possible synthesis techniques are reviewed and their applicability in computationally efficient music synthesis is discussed. In practice, the applicable techniques are limited to additive and source-filter synthesis, and, in special cases, to frequency modulation, wavetable and sampling synthesis. Next, the design of the structures of the applicable techniques are presented in detail, and properties and design issues of these structures are discussed. A major implementation problem is raised in digital source-filter synthesis, where the use of classic waveforms, such as sawtooth wave, as the source signal is challenging due to aliasing caused by waveform discontinuities. Methods for existing bandlimited waveform synthesis are reviewed, and a new approach using polynomial bandlimited step function is presented in detail with design rules for the applicable polynomials. The approach is also tested with two different third-order polynomials. They reduce aliasing more at high frequencies, but at low frequencies their performance is worse than with the first-order polynomial. In addition, some commonly used sound effect algorithms are reviewed with respect to their applicability in computationally efficient music synthesis. In many cases the sound synthesis system must be capable of producing music consisting of various different sounds ranging from real acoustic instruments to electronic instruments and sounds from nature. Therefore, the music synthesis system requires careful sound design. In this thesis, sound design rules for imitation of various sounds using the computationally efficient synthesis techniques are presented. In addition, the effects of the parameter variation for the design of sound variants are presented.

Current perspectives in the digital synthesis of musical sounds

Formats: revista de comunicació audiovisual, 1997

When a musical sound is generated electronically, it is important to have a good model with parameters allowing an intuitive manipulation of the sound. The musician-user must be able to develop a musical intuition which will allow experimenting with the synthesis technique used. In this article we present a general view of digital synthesis, concentrating on two lines of research which will surely allow us to shatter the limitations which exist in methods used till now and finally manage an answer to the promises which computer music made in the ...

Audio signal driven sound synthesis

… of the 2005 International Computer Music …, 2005

A new approach to computer music instruments is described. Rather than sense control parameters from acoustic instruments (or non-acoustic instrument controllers), the sound of an acoustic instrument is used directly by a synthesis algorithm, usually replacing an oscillator. Parameters such as amplitude and pitch can control other aspects of the synthesis. This approach gives the player more control over details of the sound due to the use of the rich acoustic signal. Latency in sensing parameters, particularly pitch, is less of a problem because pitch information is carried directly by the acoustically generated signal. Several examples are described and the results of a subjective evaluation by musicians are presented.

Computer Modelling of Sound for Transformation and Synthesis of Musical Signals

1996

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a sound model that can be used as a creative tool by professional musicians. Post-production editing suites are used for compiling and arranging music tracks, and for creating soundtracks and voice-overs for the radio, television and film industries. A sound model would bring a new dimension of flexibility to these systems, allowing the user to stretch and mould sounds as they please.

Synthesis of Musical Sounds: From Mechanical Models to Signal Processing Models

Musical sounds are produced by vibrating structures. The motion of such structures can be modeled using mechanical equations. Nevertheless, these models are not adapted to the real-time synthesis of sounds. This paper addresses the design of synthesis models for musical sounds, in particular the ones produced by a vibrating string. We describe the relationship between the mechanical model and the synthesis model that must satisfy the hearing.

DISSCO: A Unified Approach to Sound Synthesis and Composition

DISSCO (Digital Instrument for Sound Synthesis and Com-position) represents a unified and comprehensive approach to sound synthesis and composition—unified in the sense that its components share a common formal approach and use similar tools, comprehensive in the sense that they de-liver a final product (a musical "event") that does not re-quire further processing. DISSCO consists of two parts: LASS, a C++ Library for Additive Sound Synthesis, and CMOD, a C++ Compo-sition Module. Release 1.0 of LASS is available as open-source software; CMOD is still under development. This article discusses some underlying ideas of music compo-sition and sound synthesis and describes implementation details in the context of LASS and CMOD.

The sound and music computing field: present and future

Journal of New Music Research, 2007

This paper is a general introduction for the theme of this special issue. It attempts to give a definition of the Sound and Music Computing research field stemming from its methodologies, aims and approaches. A brief account of the disciplines involved along with their academic organisation follows, along with a short description of the areas of application involved. Since Sound and Music Computing has recently enjoyed a deep world-wide reflection upon its own goals, visions and perspectives which has resulted in several roadmapping exercises, the last part of this article provides a summary of these exercises by introducing them in the context in which they were created.

Concatenative sound synthesis: The early years

Journal of New Music Research, 2006

Concatenative sound synthesis is a promising method of musical sound synthesis with a steady stream of work and publications for over five years now. This article offers a comparative survey and taxonomy of the many different approaches to concatenative synthesis throughout the history of electronic music, starting in the 1950s, even if they weren't known as such at their time, up to the recent surge of contemporary methods. Concatenative sound synthesis methods use a large database of source sounds, segmented into units, and a unit selection algorithm that finds the units that match best the sound or musical phrase to be synthesised, called the target. The selection is performed according to the descriptors of the units. These are characteristics extracted from the source sounds, e.g. pitch, or attributed to them, e.g. instrument class. The selected units are then transformed to fully match the target specification, and concatenated. However, if the database is sufficiently large, the probability is high that a matching unit will be found, so the need to apply transformations is reduced. The most urgent and interesting problems for further work on concatenative synthesis are listed concerning segmentation, descriptors, efficiency, legality, data mining, and real time interaction. Finally, the conclusion tries to provide some insight into the current and future state of concatenative synthesis research. 1