Download 3D interactive environment for music collection navigation Previous interfaces for large collections of music have used spatial audio to enhance the presentation of a visual interface or to add a mode of interaction. An interface using only audio information is presented here as a means to explore a large music collection in a two or three-dimensional space. By taking advantage of Ambisonics and binaural technology, the application presented here can scale to large collections, have flexible playback requirements, and can be optimized for slower computers. User evaluation reveals issues in creating an intuitive mapping between between user movements in physical space and virtual movement through the collection, but the novel presentation of the music collection has positive feedback and warrants further development.
Download Simulating guitar distortion circuits using wave digital and nonlinear state-space formulations This work extends previous research on numerical solution of nonlinear systems in musical acoustics to the realm of nonlinear musical circuits. Wave digital principles and nonlinear state-space simulators provide two alternative approaches explored in this work. These methods are used to simulate voltage amplification stages typically used in guitar distortion or amplifier circuits. Block level analysis of the entire circuit suggests a strategy based upon the nonlinear filter composition technique for connecting amplifier stages while accounting for the way these stages interact. Formulations are given for the bright switch, the diode clipper, a transistor amplifier, and a triode amplifier.
Download A modified FM synthesis approach to bandlimited signal generation Techniques for the generation of bandlimited signals for application to digital implementations of subtractive synthesis have been researched by a number of authors. This paper hopes to contribute to the variety of approaches by proposing a technique based on Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis. This paper presents and explains the equations required for bandlimited pulse generation using modified FM synthesis. It then investigates the relationships between the modulation index and the quality of the reproduction in terms of authenticity and aliasing for a sawtooth wave. To determine the performance of this technique in comparison to others two sets of simulation results are offered: the first computes the relative power of the non-harmonic components, and the second uses the Perceptual Evaluation of Audio Quality (PEAQ) algorithm. It is shown that this technique compares well with the alternatives. The paper concludes with suggestions for the direction of future improvements to the method.
Download A nonlinear digital model of the EMS VCS3 voltage-controlled filter This article presents a nonlinear discrete-time model of the EMS VCS3 voltage-controlled filters. The development of the model is based on the study of the filter circuitry and its behavior in the time domain. From this circuitry a system of nonlinear differential equations has been derived describing the dynamics in regime of large signals. The digital implementation of the filter is based on a numerical approximation of those equations. The resulting Matlab model has been compared with a structurally identical simulation running under PSpice. Finally, a real-time realization of the VCF has been implemented under the Pure Data processing environment.
Download Quality estimation of time-scale modified signals The paper describes some properties and problems related to Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) delay compensation mechanism and relations between time-scale modification and quality estimate. The evaluation of PESQ algorithm with two types of signal stretching (uniform resampling-based stretch and pitch-preserving stretch) was performed and the listening tests with human listeners were carried out. PESQ performance was also compared against the 3SQM algorithm. Experimental results indicate that performance of PESQ is not sufficient for high precision quality estimation of time-scale distortions.
Download Audio analysis in PWGLSynth In this paper, we present an incremental improvement of a known fundamental frequency estimation algorithm for monophonic signals. This is viewed as a case study of using our signal graph based synthesis language, PWGLSynth, for audio analysis. The roles of audio and control signals are discussed in both analysis and synthesis contexts. The suitability of the PWGLSynth system for this field of applications is examined and some problems and future work is identified.
Download On the control of the phase of resonant filters with applications to percussive sound modeling Source-filter models are widely used in numerous audio processing fields, from speech processing to percussive/contact sound synthesis. The design of filters for these models—be it from scratch or from spectral analysis—usually involves tuning frequency and damping parameters and/or providing an all-pole model of the resonant part of the filter. In this context, and for the modelling of percussive (non-sustained) sounds, a source signal can be estimated from a filtered sound through a time-domain deconvolution process. The result can be plagued with artifacts when resonances exhibit very low bandwidth and lie very close in frequency. We propose in this paper a method that noticeably reduces the artifacts of the deconvolution process through an inter-resonance phase synchronization. Results show that the proposed method is able to design filters inducing fewer artifacts at the expense of a higher dynamic range.
Download Real-time detection and visualization of clarinet bad sounds This paper describes an approach on real-time performance 3D visualization in the context of music education. A tool is described that produces sound visualizations during a student performance that are intuitively linked to common mistakes frequently observed in the performances of novice to intermediate students. The paper discusses the case of clarinet students. Nevertheless, the approach is also well suited for a wide range of wind or other instruments where similar mistakes are often encountered.