Download Metrix: A Musical Data Definition Language and Data Structure for a Spectral Modeling Based Synthesizer Since the MIDI 1.0 specification [1], well over 15 years ago, many have been the attempts to give a solution to all the limitations that soon became clear. None of these have had a happy ending, mainly due to commercial interests and as a result, when trying to find an appropriate synthesis control user interface, we had not many choices but the use of MIDI. That’s the reason why the idea of defining a new user interface aroused. In this article, the main components of this interface will be discussed, paying special attention to the advantages and new features it reports to the enduser.
Download Vibrato extraction and parameterization in the Spectral Modeling Synthesis framework Periodic or quasi-periodic low-frequency components (i.e. vibrato and tremolo) are present in steadystate portions of sustained instrumental sounds. If we are interested both in studying its expressive meaning, or in building a hierarchical multi-level representation of sound in order to manipulate it and transform it with musical purposes those components should be isolated and separated from the amplitude and frequency envelopes. Within the SMS analysis framework it is now feasible to extract high level time-evolving attributes starting from basic analysis data. In the case of frequency envelopes we can apply STFTs to them, then check if there is a prominent peak in the vibrato/tremolo range and, if it is true, we can smooth it away in the frequency domain; finally, we can apply an IFFT to each frame in order to re-construct an envelope that has been cleaned of those quasi-periodic low-frequency components. Two important problems nevertheless have to be tackled, and ways of overcoming them will be discussed in this paper: first, the periodicity of vibrato and tremolo, that is quite exact only when the performers are professional musicians; second: the interactions between formants and fundamental frequency trajectories, that blur the real tremolo component and difficult its analysis.
Download Sound Transformations Based on the SMS High Level Attributes The basic Spectral Modeling Synthesis (SMS) technique models sounds as the sum of sinusoids plus a residual. Though this analysis/synthesis system has proved to be successful in transforming sounds, more powerful and intuitive musical transformations can be achieved by moving into the SMS high-level attribute plane. In this paper we describe how to extract high level sound attributes from the basic representation, modify them, and add them back before the synthesis stage. In this process new problems come up for which we propose some initial solutions.