Download Physics-Based and Spike-Guided Tools for Sound Design In this paper we present graphical tools and parameters search algorithms for the timbre space exploration and design of complex sounds generated by physical modeling synthesis. The tools are built around a sparse representation of sounds based on Gammatone functions and provide the designer with both a graphical and an auditory insight. The auditory representation of a number of reference sounds, located as landmarks in a 2D sound design space, provides the designer with an effective aid to direct his search for new sounds. The sonic landmarks can either be synthetic sounds chosen by the user or be automatically derived by using clever parameter search and clustering algorithms. The proposed probabilistic method in this paper makes use of the sparse representations to model the distance between sparsely represented sounds. A subsequent optimization model minimizes those distances to estimate the optimal parameters, which generate the landmark sounds on the given auditory landscape.
Download Sound spatialization based on fast beam tracing in the dual space This paper addresses the problem of geometry-based sound reverberation for applications of virtual acoustics. In particular, we propose a novel method that allows us to significantly speed-up the construction of the beam tree in beam tracing applications, by avoiding space subdivision. This allows us to dynamically recompute the beam tree as the sound source moves. In order to speedup the construction of the beam tree, we determine what portion of which reflectors the beam “illuminates” by performing visibility checks in the “dual” of the geometric space.
Download Multiresolution Sinusoidal/Stochastic Model For Voiced-Sounds The goal of this paper is to introduce a complete analysis/resynthesis method for the stationary part of voiced-sounds. The method is based on a new class of wavelets, the Harmonic-Band Wavelets (HBWT). Wavelets have been widely employed in signal processing [1, 2]. In the context of sound processing they provided very interesting results in their first harmonic version: the Pitch Synchronous Wavelets Transform (PSWT) [3]. We introduced the Harmonic-Band Wavelets in a previous edition of the DAFx [4]. The HBWT, with respect to the PSWT allows one to manipulate the analysis coefficients of each harmonic independently. Furthermore one is able to group the analysis coefficients according to a finer subdivision of the spectrum of each harmonic, due to the multiresolution analysis of the wavelets. This allows one to separate the deterministic components of voiced sounds, corresponding to the harmonic peaks, from the noisy/stochastic components. A first result was the development of a parametric representation of the HBWT analysis coefficients corresponding to the stochastic components [5, 7]. In this paper we present the results concerning a parametric representation of the HBWT analysis coefficients of the deterministic components. The method recalls the sinusoidal models, where one models time-varying amplitudes and time varying phases [8, 9]. This method provides a new interesting technique for sound synthesis and sound processing, integrating a parametric representation of both the deterministic and the stochastic components of sounds. At the same time it can be seen as a tool for a parametric representation of sound and data compression.
Download Inharmonic Sound Spectral Modeling by Means of Fractal Additive Synthesis In previous editions of the DAFX [1, 2] we presented a method for the analysis and the resynthesis of voiced sounds, i.e., of sounds with well defined pitch and harmonic-peak spectra. In a following paper [3] we called the method Fractal Additive Synthesis (FAS). The main point of the FAS is to provide two different models for representing the deterministic and the stochastic components of voiced-sounds, respectively. This allows one to represent and reproduce voiced-sounds without loosing the noisy components and stochastic elements present in real-life sounds. These components are important in order to perceive a synthetic sound as a natural one. The topic of this paper is the extension of the technique to inharmonic sounds. We can apply the method to sounds produced by percussion instruments as gongs, tympani or tubular bells, as well as to sounds with expanded quasi-harmonic spectrum as piano sounds.