ITWissen.info - Tech know how online

sound synthesis

In sound synthesis, sounds are generated synthetically, either analog, as in analog sound synthesis, or digital, as in digital sound synthesis. For both techniques of sound synthesis, there are various technical synthesis methods based on the generation of sounds with oscillators, modulation with mixers and filtering out sounds with filters.

Furthermore, there are also such synthesis methods that store sounds from instruments and combine them into new sound images. The former include FM synthesis, Fourier synthesis and waveguidesynthesis. Wavetable synthesis belongs to the second-mentioned.

Sound images consist of a multitude of tones and their harmonics that are created synthetically by generating, mixing, and filtering frequencies. While several of the aforementioned synthesis techniques rely on the mixing of synthetically generated frequencies, subtractive synthesis works by filtering out frequencies, using bandpass, highpass, and lowpass filters with relatively high slopes to filter out specific frequencies from the frequency mixture to create the sound image.

Components for analog and digital sound synthesis

Components for analog and digital sound synthesis

If, on the other hand, sinusoidal signals from two oscillators are modulated together, then the frequency ratio of the two frequencies is decisive for the new mixing frequency. If the modulation frequency is sufficiently low at below 20 Hz, then such a frequency modulation produces the sound of a vibrator. At higher frequencies, various harmonic spectra are created that can be used for sound generation. Such a sound synthesis is called FM synthesis.

In addition to the sound synthesis methods mentioned, there is the ADSR model, which stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release and in which the sound frequencies are broken down into time and amplitude-dependent factors, and the wavetable method in which sounds from different instruments are stored in memory in order to combine them later for sound synthesis.

Informations:
Englisch: sound synthesis
Updated at: 11.11.2021
#Words: 286
Links: indium (In), sound, analog, digital, modulation
Translations: DE
Sharing:    

All rights reserved DATACOM Buchverlag GmbH © 2024