Method of sound synthesis
AssigneeSandia Corporation
InventorsNadine E. Miner, Thomas P. Caudell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sound synthesis method for modeling and synthesizing dynamic, parameterized sounds. The sound synthesis method yields perceptually convincing sounds and provides flexibility through model parameterization. By manipulating model parameters, a variety of related, but perceptually different sounds can be generated. The result is subtle changes in sounds, in addition to synthesis of a variety of sounds, all from a small set of models. The sound models can change dynamically according to changes in the simulation environment. The method is applicable to both stochastic (impulse-based) and non-stochastic (pitched) sounds.
Claims25
A method for generating a synthesized sound, comprising:
- a) obtaining a wavelet representation of a first sound according to:
- i) determining a characteristic shape of the first sound by inspecting the first sound at each of a plurality of scales;
- ii) comparing the characteristic shape with each of a plurality of wavelet types;
- iii) selecting the wavelet type from the plurality of wavelet types that most closely matches the characteristic shape;
- iv) obtaining a wavelet representation of the first sound using a wavelet transform of the first sound based on the selected wavelet type;
- b) obtaining a plurality of parameters which characterize the wavelet representation;
- and
- c) generating the synthesized sound by varying at least some of the plurality of parameters.
A method for generating models for synthesizing sounds, comprising:
- a) obtaining a digitized representation of a first sound;
- b) obtaining a wavelet representation from a wavelet decomposition of the first sound, according to:
- i) determining a characteristic shape of the first sound by inspecting the first sound at each of a plurality of scales;
- ii) comparing the characteristic shape with each of a plurality of wavelet types;
- iii) selecting the wavelet type from the plurality of wavelet types that most closely matches the characteristic shape;
- iv) obtaining a wavelet representation of the first sound using a wavelet transform of the first sound based on the selected wavelet type;
- and
- c) parameterizing the wavelet representation to yield a model for synthesizing sounds.
A method for synthesizing a sound with specified perceptual characteristics from a parameterized wavelet representation, comprising:
- a) manipulating the parameterized wavelet representation according to:
- i) selecting coefficients from the wavelet representation;
- ii) generating a test wavelet representation by changing the values of the selected coefficients in the wavelet representation;
- iii) generating a test sound from the test wavelet representation;
- iv) evaluating the test sound for conformance with the specified perceptual characteristics;
- and
- v) repeating steps i) through v) until the test sound conforms to the specified perceptual characteristics;
- b) constructing a synthesized sound from a wavelet reconstruction of the wavelet representation after manipulation;
- c) communicating the synthesized sound.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.