Empirical physical modeling based music synthesis and representation
Xiaoxiao Dong, Mark J. Sterling, Mark F. Bocko · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2007
We describe a method in which empirically-based musical instrument physical models are employed both to synthesize musical sounds and to form the basis of a compact representation of mono-timbral musical sound. Results are presented for a Bb clarinet. The physical model incorporates measured acoustic impedance spectra of a clarinet air column for all playable notes. Low bandwidth control parameter time histories, serving as inputs to the physical model, are inferred from audio recordings of actual clarinet music. The control parameters represent the fingerings, the blowing pressure of the player, and the mouthpiece clamping pressure of the player’s embouchure. It is shown that, given an appropriate physical model, the control parameter time histories can serve as a highly compact representation (compression by a factor of several hundred) of a source recording. To serve as an assessment tool, we also describe a distance metric emphasizing timbral aspects of musical audio. The metric provides a method to quantitatively evaluate the parameter extraction routines, to test the effect of minor alterations to the model, and also to compare the present physical modeling approach with other forms of musical sound synthesis. The framework described may be extended to other musical instruments and instrument families.