In this day and age, we are constantly being presented with new ways to create and inspire new art forms.
This is particularly true in music production, with the invention of new electronic technologies such as computers which open doors as a way to conveniently create songs digitally, without the need for instruments, musicians, or a performance space, which could cost time and money for an artist or producer. This is done through a synthesiser, which is a digital musical instrument that generates electronic signals that are then converted to acoustic sound that we can hear when they are amplified through headphones or speakers. Hardware synthesisers can also be referred to as Musical Interface Digital Instruments (MIDI). Sounds pretty straightforward, right? No?
That’s because there are many methods to achieving this method of sound production, each manipulating the flow of electrical signals to create slightly different music. The kind of synthesis that I will be focusing on today is called physical modelling synthesis.
Physical modelling synthesis is a type of sound synthesis that is generated by a series of scientific equations and algorithms. It uses mathematical models which simulate a physical source of sound, such as a musical instrument. This synthesis technique creates physical models of a sound source so that it may hope to recreate that source, by replicating the laws of physics that govern sound production and the parameters that describe physical materials and dimensions of an instrument.
Physical modelling synthesis is the most comment type of synthesis for replicating real instruments and their sound characters, and this is because they aim to directly model the sound mechanism itself, instead of the acoustics the mechanism produces, which is the aim of most other kinds of synthesis which can be categorised as sample-based synthesis, which use sampled sounds instead of algorithms and waveforms.
While sample-based synthesisers are still the best choice for recreating live instruments, physical modelling synthesis is most often chosen for its ability to closely mimic the richness and complexity of natural sounds, as well as offering the ability to control a large number of parameters of its algorithm, allowing producers to create completely new sounds if they wish, such as having a cello body that has piano sound characteristics.
Physical modelling synthesis is also said to be better than sample-based synthesisers because they can emulate the actual behaviour of the instrument, rather than just replicating a note which will be identical every time, no matter how the musician plays it.
Bibliography
Clark, J. (2003). Chapter 7. Physical Modeling . Retrieved March 2, 2018, from Advanced Programming Techniques for Modular Synthesis: https://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmodularbook/nm_physical.html
Sievers, B. (n.d.). A Young Person's Guide to the Principles of Music Synthesis. Retrieved March 2, 2018, from beausievers.com: http://beausievers.com/synth/synthbasics/
Sound Bridge. (2017, March 9). Physical Modelling Synthesis. Retrieved March 2, 2018, from soundbridge.io: https://soundbridge.io/physical-modelling-synthesis/
zioguido. (2016, April 23). GSI: The Advantages of Physical Modeling. YouTube.
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