SCRIME Studio Report

Spectral based analysis/synthesis techniques offer powerful tools for the processing of sounds. They include many different approaches, each one with its own advantages and set of compromises that have to be considered before using any of them for a particular application. In this article we present several complementary spectral representations, techniques to obtain them or generate sound from them, and a recently developed graphical interface to better explore their capabilities.

Organised Sound, 1998

In multimedia art and communication, sound models are Schafer (1977), who also introduced a catalogue of needed which are versatile, responsive to users' sounds organised according to referential attributes. expectations, and have high audio quality. Moreover, model Nowadays, a common terminology is available for flexibility for human-machine interaction is a major issue. describing sound objects both from a phenomeno-Models based on the physics of actual or virtual objects can logical or a referential viewpoint, and for describing meet all of these requirements, thus allowing the user to collections of such objects (i.e. soundscapes) (Risset rely on high-level descriptions of the sounding entities. As 1969, Truax 1978, McAdams 1987). long as the sound description is based on the physics of For effective generation and manipulation of the sounding objects and not only on the characteristics of sound objects it is necessary to define models for human hearing, an integration with physics-based graphic sound synthesis, processing and composition. Identimodels becomes possible.

2004

2004

The sound produced by acoustic musical instruments is caused by the physical vibration of a certain resonating structure. This vibration can be described by signals that correspond to the time-evolution of the acoustic pressure associated to it. The fact that the sound can be characterized by a set of signals suggests quite naturally that some computing equipment could be successfully employed for generating sounds, for either the imitation of acoustic instruments or the creation of new sounds with novel timbral properties.

2001

Abstract When designing audio effects for music processing, we are always aiming at providing higherlevel representations that may somehow fill in the gap between the signal processing world and the end-user. Spectral models in general, and the Sinusoidal plus Residual model in particular, can sometimes offer ways to implement such schemes.

2000

This article introduces a mathematical approach to extracting some statistical parameters from noise-like sounds. This approach could define a new spectral model or extend existing ones to analyze and synthesize such complex sounds. In the future, this method could also permit electro-acoustic composers to make musical transformations. We have performed several synthesis tests with synthetic and natural sounds using these parameters. The main assumptions is that analyzed sounds must not contain any transient or slow-varying deterministic component. The natural sounds resynthesized during our experiments sounds like the original ones even if some defects are perceptible because of the analysis limitations. We propose some initial solutions for future works.

ReSpect is a free software library performing the realtime synthesis of spectral sounds. The origin of this library is an additive synthesis module, implemented using software oscillators and presented in Paris at the JIM'99 conference. On the top of this efficient synthesis module were added high-level functionalities such as a psychoacoustic model and a spatialization system, all working in a spectral representation. Re-Spect accepts several spectral sound models as input. Thus, this library can be used for research in the spectral modeling field, as well as for teaching purposes, since the sources are available. Moreover, its modular approach allows to enable or disable a specific module, which is extremely useful for pedagogy. Its final goal is to serve as a software tool to be included in bigger projects. The ReSpect library is used for example in the Dolabip project, a multi-field project for developing early-learning games for electro-acoustic music at school. It is also used in other computer music software tools of the SCRIME, more oriented towards the composition of electro-acoustic music.

1996

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a sound model that can be used as a creative tool by professional musicians. Post-production editing suites are used for compiling and arranging music tracks, and for creating soundtracks and voice-overs for the radio, television and film industries. A sound model would bring a new dimension of flexibility to these systems, allowing the user to stretch and mould sounds as they please.

Mathematics and Music, 2002

1999

This work involves the analysis of musical instrument sounds, the creation of timbre models, the estimation of the parameters of the timbre models and the analysis of the timbre model parameters.