A novel musical synthesizer embedded with physical modeling sound synthesis algorithm

Abstract

This paper describes a novel synthesizer that can generate sounds of two plucked string and one woodwind instrument. This consists of laser strings, frets, physical modeling sound engine. Laser strings constructed by pairs of a laser module and a photodiode describe plucking, strumming and blowing. Frets are implemented by using voltage divider and they enable the player to represent various playing styles such as guitar solos. Each fret has different voltage values to adjust intonation on the synthesizer. These values are converted into 12-bit data and served as an argument of the sound engine based on digital waveguide model with time-varying propagation speed (DWTVPS). Sound synthesis algorithm is embedded onto the digital signal processor. Consequently, the synthesized sounds are played through a speaker in real-time. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.