This paper introduces a sound synthesis method for jackhammer tool impact sounds. The model is based on parallel waveguide models for longitudinal and transversal vibrations. The longitudinal sounds are produced using a comb filter that is tuned to match the longitudinal resonances of a steel bar. The dispersive transversal vibrations are produced using a comb filter which has a cascade of first-order allpass filters and time-varying feedback coefficient. The synthesis model is driven by an input generator unit that produces a train of Hann pulses at predetermined time-intervals. Each pulse has its amplitude modified slightly by a random process. For increased realism each impact is followed by a number of repetitive impacts with variable amplitude and time difference according to the initial pulse. The sound output of the model is realized by mixing both transversal and longitudinal signals and the effect is finalized by an equalizer.

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An efficient algorithm approximating the late part of room reverberation is proposed. The algorithm partitions the impulse response tail into variable-length segments and replaces them with a set of sparse FIR filters and lowpass filters, cascaded with several Schroeder allpass filters. The sparse FIR filter coefficients are selected from a velvet noise sequence, which consists of ones, minus ones, and zeros only. In this application, it is sufficient perceptually to use very sparse velvet noise sequences having only about 0.1 to 0.2% non-zero elements, with increasing sparsity along the impulse response. The algorithm yields a parametric approximation of the late part of the impulse response, which is more than 100 times more efficient computationally than the direct convolution. The computational load of the proposed algorithm is comparable to that of FFT-based partitioned convolution techniques, but with nearly half the memory usage. The main advantage of the new reverberator is the flexible parameterization.

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