tags: mus-305 music synthesis sound mus-407 ece-402

Sound Synthesis

Sound synthesis is the process of creating [sound], either by generating it from scratch or using existing sonic material.

Synthesis is often facilitated by using [synthesizers], either [analog] or [digital].

In sound synthesis, complex waves are generated by [algorithm]s of some type:

• [Additive Synthesis]
• [Subtractive Synthesis]
• [Modulation Synthesis]
  • [Ring Modulation]
  • [Frequency Modulation]
  • [Amplitude Modulation]
• Karplus Strong
  • Loading up a buffer of [noise] and [filtering] it
• [Granular Synthesis]
• Physical Modeling
• [Wavetable synthesis]

[Spectral composers] adapt these synthesis techniques to compute 'symbolic [spectra]' ([pitch] sets) rather than, or in addition to, [audio signals].

Gesture to Sound

A "musician's gesture" is any action that sends control data to some sound synthesis engine or [algorithm], from which an [audio signal] is produced.

• MIDI controllers send control data in the form of [MIDI messages]
• at minimum, synthesizer can convert information into a [frequency] $f$ and [amplitude] $A$, which is usually enough information to generate sound

Sources

• MUS 305 Lecture
• MUS 407
• "Wavetable Synthesis Algorithm Explained", Jan Wilczek (WolfSound)

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