Bistable Digital Audio Effect

Alexander Ramirez; Vikas Tokala; Antonin Novak; Frederic Ablitzer; Manuel Melon
DAFx-2020 - Vienna (virtual)
A mechanical system is said to be bistable when its moving parts can rest at two equilibrium positions. The aim of this work is to model the vibration behaviour of a bistable system and use it to create a sound effect, taking advantage of the nonlinearities that characterize such systems. The velocity signal of the bistable system excited by an audio signal is the output of the digital effect. The latter is coded in C++ language and compiled into VST3 format that can be run as an audio plugin within most of the commercial digital audio workstation software in the market and as a standalone application. A Web Audio API demonstration is also available online as a support material.
Download