Computer Sound Design: Synthesis Techniques and Programming, 2nd Edition (Music Technology)

283 Pages·2002·3.63 MB·English

by  Eduardo Miranda

Computer Sound Design
Titles in the Series
Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2nd edition (with website)
David M. Howard and James Angus
The Audio Workstation Handbook
Francis Rumsey
Composing Music with Computers (with CD-ROM)
Eduardo Reck Miranda
Digital Audio CD and Resource Pack
Markus Erne
(Digital Audio CD also available separately)
Digital Sound Processing for Music and Multimedia (with website)
Ross Kirk and Andy Hunt
MIDI Systems and Control, 2nd edition
Francis Rumsey
Network Technology for Digital Audio
Andrew Bailey
Computer Sound Design: Synthesis techniques and programming, 2nd edition
(with CD-ROM)
Eduardo Reck Miranda
Sound and Recording: An introduction, 4th edition
Francis Rumsey and Tim McCormick
Sound Synthesis and Sampling
Martin Russ
Sound Synthesis and Sampling CD-ROM
Martin Russ
Spatial Audio
Francis Rumsey
Computer Sound Design
Synthesis techniques and programming
Second edition
Eduardo Reck Miranda
Focal Press
An imprint of Elsevier Science
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP
225 Wildwood Avenue, Woburn MA 01801-2041
First published as Computer Sound Synthesis for the Electronic Musician 1998
Second edition 2002
Copyright © 1998, 2002, Eduardo Reck Miranda. All rights reserved
The right of Eduardo Reck Miranda to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including
photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether
or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without
the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the
provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of
a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road,
London, England W1T 4LP. Applications for the copyright holder’s written
permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed
to the publisher
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Miranda, Eduardo Reck, 1963–
Computer sound design: synthesis techniques and
programming. – 2nd ed. – (Music technology series)
1. Computer sound processing 2. Music – Data processing
I. Title II. Computer sound synthesis for the electronic musician
786.7(cid:2)6
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0 240 51693 1
For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at:
www.focalpress.com
Composition by Genesis Typesetting, Rochester, Kent
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Series introduction ix
Foreword by Jean-Claude Risset xi
Preface xv
1 Computer sound synthesis fundamentals 1
1.1 Digital representation of sound 1
1.2 Basics of computer programming for sound synthesis 8
2 Loose modelling approaches: from modulation and waveshaping to
Walsh and wavetable 19
2.1 Amplitude modulation 20
2.2 Frequency modulation 23
2.3 Waveshaping synthesis 38
2.4 Walsh synthesis 41
2.5 Binary instruction 43
2.6 Wavetable synthesis 43
3 Spectrum modelling approaches: from additive to analysis–resynthesis
and formant 49
3.1 Additive synthesis 50
3.2 An introduction to spectrum analysis 51
3.3 Analysis and resynthesis 57
3.4 Formant synthesis 66
4 Source modelling approach: from subtractive and waveguides to physical
and modal 69
4.1 Subtractive synthesis 71
4.2 Waveguide filtering 75
4.3 Karplus–Strong synthesis 77
v
Contents
4.4 Cellular automata lookup table 78
4.5 Physical modelling 80
4.6 Modal synthesis 97
5 Time-based approaches: from granular and pulsar to PSOLA and statistical 100
5.1 Granular synthesis 101
5.2 Pulsar synthesis 111
5.3 Resynthesis by fragmentation and growth 113
5.4 Waveset distortion 117
5.5 PSOLA 118
5.6 Statistical wavecycle synthesis 119
5.7 Sequential waveform composition 121
6 Practical case studies and sound design secrets: from humanoid singing
to Klingon phasers 125
6.1 Associating cause and effect 126
6.2 Synthesising human vocal sounds using subtractive synthesis 128
6.3 Physical modelling synthesis of the human voice 137
6.4 Towards a framework for sound design using granular synthesis 152
7 Towards the cutting edge: artificial intelligence, supercomputing and
evolutionary systems 157
7.1 Artificial intelligence sound synthesis 157
7.2 Supercomputing and sound synthesis 172
7.3 Evolutionary sound synthesis 182
8 Introduction to the software on the accompanying CD-ROM 193
8.1 pcmusic 193
8.2 Nyquist 197
8.3 Som-A 201
8.4 Audio Architect 203
8.5 Reaktor 206
8.6 NI-Spektral Delay 207
8.7 Praat 208
8.8 Reality 211
8.9 Diphone 213
8.10 The CDP sound transformation toolkit 215
8.11 Sound Shaper 217
8.12 LASy 218
8.13 Wigout and TrikTraks 220
8.14 SMS 222
8.15 Chaosynth 224
8.16 Pulsar Generator 226
8.17 Koblo Vibra 1000 227
8.18 crusherX-Live 228
8.19 Virtual Waves 229
vi
Contents
Appendix 1: Mathematical specifications 233
Appendix 2: Formant values 240
Appendix 3: Artist’s Inductive Machine Learning Algorithm 242
References 245
CD-ROM instructions 249
Index 257
vii
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Series introduction
The Focal Press Music Technology Series is intended to fill a growing need for authoritative
books to support college and university courses in music technology, sound recording,
multimedia and their related fields. The books will also be of value to professionals already
working in these areas and who want either to update their knowledge or to familiarise
themselves with topics that have not been part of their mainstream occupations.
Information technology and digital systems are now widely used in the production of sound
and in the composition of music for a wide range of end uses. Those working in these fields
need to understand the principles of sound, musical acoustics, sound synthesis, digital
audio, video and computer systems. This is a tall order, but people with this breadth of
knowledge are increasingly sought after by employers. The series will explain the
technology and techniques in a manner which is both readable and factually concise,
avoiding the chattiness, informality and technical woolliness of many books on music
technology. The authors are all experts in their fields and many come from teaching and
research backgrounds.
Dr Francis Rumsey
Series Consultant
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