This paper describes a system for the automatic creation of digital synthesizer circuits that can generate sounds similar to a sampled (target) sound. The circuits will consist of very basic signal functions and generators that are arbitrarily interconnected. The system uses a “genetic algorithm” (GA) to evolve successively better circuits. First it creates populations of such synthesizers, generates the output and a fitness value of each individual circuit. The ones that are best at imitating the target sound will be kept. They are used for “breeding” to form a new generation where, hopefully, at least some individuals perform better than their parents did. The end result will be a circuit that can create a sound that resembles the target sample. Because it’s a synthesizer we can manipulate the different parameters when generating the sound. We can also get a very compact representation of the sound that can be useful when distributing music over a limited bandwidth communications channel (e.g. Internet). As we shall see, it also gives the user a very powerful tool for creating totally new sounds.

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This work addresses sound modeling using a combination of physical and signal models with a particular emphasis on the flute sound. For that purpose, analysis methods adapted to the nonstationary nature of sounds are developed. Further on parameters characterizing the sound from a perceptive and a physical point of view are extracted. The synthesis process is then designed to reproduce a perceptive effect and to simulate the physical behavior of the sound generating system. The correspondence between analysis and synthesis parameters is crucial and can be achieved using both mathematical and perceptive criteria. Real-time control of such models makes it possible to use specially designed interfaces mirroring already existing sound generators like traditional musical instruments.

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This tutorial1 gives an introduction into several hardware aspects for designing audio processing systems based on digital signal processors (DSP). Digital signal processors of different manufacturers and their use in practical circuits will be discussed.

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