Funding period: Jan. 2004 - Dec. 2006

The research conducted in this project focuses on the parametric synthesis of various sound signals. The different themes of the project are control languages and strategies for synthesis models, analysis of audio signals and model parameter estimation, and development of synthesis algorithms. This work is related to the long research tradition of the Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing at Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) in the physical modeling and synthesis of musical instruments. Research into digital sound synthesis has its roots in experimental music and in particular art music. Nowadays the share of computer-generated music and sound effects used within the sound produc­tion of the entertainment, multimedia, and game industry is growing rapidly. Present goals for sound synthesis research are the generation of rich, interesting, and controllable sounds for musical and multimedia applications. In the multimedia context, sound synthesis is used exten­sively in computer games and virtual reality systems and it is becoming an integral part of handheld devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs. Wireless Internet applications bring about special needs also for sound synthesis. Simple yet effective synthesis methods are required, together with parametric control. Physical modeling offers methods that produce natural sound with intuitive parameters. Another current challenge is to find physics-based synthesis algorithms for sounds that we encounter in our everyday life, such as various contact noises. The long-term goal of this research is to be able to produce natural and parametrically controllable sound for technical devices, such as musical instruments of the future, mobile phones, computer games, human-machine interfaces, and virtual reality applications.

TKK Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing

Prof. Vesa Välimäki

Dr. Cumhur Erkut
Antti Huovilainen (part-time, Aug.-Oct. 2004)
Heidi-Maria Lehtonen (part-time, Dec. 2004-April 2005; full-time, May-Sept. 2005, Jan. 2006-)
Jyri Pakarinen (part-time, August 2004-)
Jussi Pekonen (part-time, June 2004-April 2006)
Leevi Peltola (June-Dec. 2004)

Prof. Perry R. Cook (Princeton University, Department of Computer Science and Music, Princeton, USA)
Dr. Stefan Bilbao (Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, UK)
Patty Huang (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA)
Prof. Marc Leman and Henbing Li (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium)
Prof. Robert Trausmuth (University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Department of Computer Engineering, Wiener Neustadt, Austria)
Dr. Mikael Laurson, Dr. Mika Kuuskankare, and Vesa Norilo (Sibelius Academy, Centre for Music and Technology, Helsinki, Finland)
Jyrki Pölkki (Soitinrakentajat AMF, Leppävirta, Finland)
Teemu Lukkari (TKK Institute of Mathematics, Espoo, Finland)
Teemu Mäki-Patola and Aki Kanerva (TKK Telecommunications Software and Multimedia Laboratory, Espoo, Finland)

Tarinoita tieteestä: Uuden sukupolven digitaaliseen pianoon mallinnetaan äänentuottomekanismia (Dec. 2006, in Finnish)

• L. Peltola, C. Erkut, P. R. Cook, and V. Välimäki, “Synthesis of hand clapping sounds,” IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 1021–1029, March 2007.
• J. Rauhala, H.-M. Lehtonen, and V. Välimäki, “Toward next-generation digital keyboard instruments,” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 12–20, March 2007.
• V. Välimäki and A. Huovilainen, “Antialiasing oscillators in subtractive synthesis,” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 116–125, March 2007.
• H. Penttinen, J. Pakarinen, V. Välimäki, M. Laurson, H. Li, and M. Leman, “Model-based sound synthesis of the guqin,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 120, no. 6, pp. 4052-4063, Dec. 2006.
• M. Karjalainen, T. Mäki-Patola, A. Kanerva, and A. Huovilainen, “Virtual air guitar,” Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, vol. 54, no. 10, pp. 964-980, Oct. 2006.
• H.-M. Lehtonen, J. Rauhala, and V. Välimäki, V. Norilo, and M. Laurson, “Recent advances in physics-based sound synthesis of the piano,” in Proc. Nordic Music Technology Conference (no page numbers), Trondheim, Norway, Oct. 12-14, 2006.
• C. Erkut, “Towards physics-based control and sound synthesis of multi-agent systems: Application to synthetic hand clapping,” in Proc. Nordic Music Technology Conference (no page numbers), Trondheim, Norway, Oct. 12-14, 2006.
• J. Rauhala and V. Välimäki, “Dispersion modeling in waveguide piano synthesis using tunable allpass filters,” in Proc. 9th Int. Conf. on Digital Audio Effects, pp. 71-76, Montreal, Canada, Sept. 18-20, 2006.
• H.-M. Lehtonen, J. Rauhala, and V. Välimäki, “Towards the next generation digital pianos,” in Proc. 1st European Conf. on Science, Art and Technology, pp. 53-57, Espoo, Finland, Sept. 7-9, 2006.
• V. Välimäki and A. Huovilainen, “Oscillator and filter algorithms for virtual analog synthesis,” Computer Music Journal, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 19–31, Summer 2006.
• M. Karjalainen and J. Pakarinen, "Wave digital simulation of a vacuum-tube amplifier," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP'06), Toulouse, France, vol. 5, pp. 153-156, May 14-19, 2006.
• J. Rauhala and V. Välimäki, "Parametric excitation model for waveguide piano synthesis," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP'06), Toulouse, France, vol. 5, no. 157-160, May 14-19, 2006.
• J. Rauhala and V. Välimäki, “Tunable dispersion filter design for piano synthesis,” vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 253-256, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, May 2006.
• V. Välimäki, J. Pakarinen, C. Erkut, and M. Karjalainen, “Discrete-time modelling of musical instruments,” Reports on Progress in Physics, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 1-78, Jan. 2006. Invited paper.
• H.-M. Lehtonen, Analysis and Parametric Synthesis of the Piano Sound. M.Sc. thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, Dec. 2005.
• H.-M. Lehtonen, J. Rauhala, and V. Välimäki, “Sparse multi-stage loss filter design for waveguide piano synthesis,” in Proc. IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA’05), New Paltz, NY, pp. 331-334, Oct. 2005.
• H.-M. Lehtonen, J. Rauhala, and V. Välimäki, “Pianon äänen analyysi ja synteesi,” in Proc. Akustiikkapäivät 2005, pp. 36-41, Kuopio, Finland, Sept. 26-27, 2005. In Finnish.
• H. Penttinen, J. Pakarinen, V. Välimäki, M. Laurson, M. Kuuskankare, and V. Norilo, “Kiinalaisen kielisoittimen mallipohjainen äänisynteesi,” in Proc. Akustiikkapäivät 2005, pp. 54-59, Kuopio, Finland, Sept. 26-27, 2005. In Finnish.
• A. Huovilainen, "Enhanced digital models for analog modulation effects," in Proc. 8th Int. Conf. on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx'05), pp. 155-160, Madrid, Spain, Sept. 2005.
• R. Trausmuth and A. Huovilainen, "Powerwave - A high performance single chip interpolating wavetable synthesizer," in Proc. 8th Int. Conf. on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx'05), pp. 293-296, Madrid, Spain, Sept. 2005.
• C. Erkut, "Modular interactions and hybrid models: A conceptual map for model-based sound synthesis," in Proc. 13th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO 2005), Antalya, Turkey, September 4-8, 2005.
• J. Pakarinen, "Physical modeling of flageolet tones in string instruments," in Proc. 13th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO 2005), Antalya, Turkey, September 4-8, 2005.
• J. Rauhala, H.-M. Lehtonen, and V. Välimäki, “Multi-ripple loss filter for waveguide piano synthesis,” in Proc. Int. Computer Music Conf. (ICMC’05), Barcelona, Spain, pp. 729-732, Sept. 2005.
• A. Huovilainen and V. Välimäki, “New approaches to digital subtractive synthesis,” in Proc. Int. Computer Music Conf. (ICMC’05), Barcelona, Spain, pp. 399-402, Sept. 2005.
• V. Välimäki and A. Huovilainen, "Virtuaalista nostalgiaa - digitaalinen vähentävä äänisynteesi,'' Musiikki, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 78-98, 2005. Musiikki ja teknologia -erikoisnumero. In Finnish.
• J. Pakarinen, M. Karjalainen, V. Välimäki, and S. Bilbao, "Energy Behavior in Time-Varying Fractional Delay Filters for Physical Modeling of Musical Instruments," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP'05), vol. 3, pp. 1-4, Philadelphia, PA, USA, March 19-23, 2005.
• J. Pakarinen, V. Välimäki, and M. Karjalainen, "Physics-based methods for modeling nonlinear vibrating strings,” Acta Acustica united with Acustica, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 312–325, March/April 2005. Special issue on string instruments.
• H. Penttinen, C. Erkut, J. Pölkki, V. Välimäki, and M. Karjalainen, ''Design and analysis of a modified kantele with increased loudness,'' Acta Acustica united with Acustica, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 261-268, March/April 2005. Special issue on string instruments.
• V. Välimäki, “Discrete-time synthesis of the sawtooth waveform with reduced aliasing,” IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 214–217, March 2005.
• J. Pakarinen, "Slide-kitarasynteesi soitinmallinnuksen avulla," Proc. IX Suomen musiikintutkijoiden symposium, pp. 105-109, Jyväskylä, Finland, March 2005. In Finnish.
• J. Rauhala and V. Välimäki, “Pianon äänen synteesi,” in Proc. IX Suomen musiikintutkijoiden symposium, pp. 129-132, Jyväskylä, Finland, March 2005. In Finnish.
• M. Karjalainen, T. Mäki-Patola, A. Kanerva, A. Huovilainen, and P. Jänis, "Virtual Air Guitar," in Proc. AES 117th Convention, preprint 6203, p. 19, San Francisco, CA, USA, October 28-31, 2004.
• A. Huovilainen, "Non-linear Digital Implementation of the Moog Ladder Filter," in Proc. 7th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx'04), pp. 61-64, Naples, Italy, October 5-8, 2004.
• V. Välimäki, “Physics-based modeling of musical instruments,” Acta Acustica united with Acustica, vol. 90, no. 4, pp. 611–617, July/August 2004. Invited paper.
• T. Lukkari and V. Välimäki, ''Modal Synthesis of Wind Chime Sounds with Stochastic Event Triggering,'' in Proc. 6th Nordic Signal Processing Symposium (NORSIG 2004), pp. 212-215, Espoo, Finland, June 9-11, 2004.
• L. Peltola, Analysis, Parametric Synthesis, and Control of Hand Clapping Sounds. M.Sc. thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, Dec. 2004.

• T. Raitio, H.-M. Lehtonen, P. Laine, and V. Pulkki, “Detection and lateralization of sinusoidal signals in presence of dichotic pink noise,” accepted for presentation at the AES 122nd Convention, Vienna, Austria, May 5-8, 2007.