Spatial Granular Synthesis

Henrik von Coler

Granular synthesis - introduced in detail in the Sound Synthesis Introduction - is particularly well suited for extensions in the spatial domain. Each grain can be assigned an individual position, thus creating spatially extended textures. Granularity also increases the localization of the single events, this emphasizing the spread. Hence, various approaches have been proposed in the past and present, implemented in all common audio programming environments.

Various Approaches

Curtis Roads' book Microsound features several examples of spatial granular synthesis (Roads, 2004). Scattering - a stochastic panning of single grains - is introduced by McLeran et al. (McLeran, 2008). The approach is designed to work with stereo and 2D loudspeaker setups. The BMSwarmGranulator (Wilson, 2008) uses the Boids algorithm for spatial granular sound textures. Designed for the BEAST, the approach aims at a 'diffuse but localized sound', rather then individually perceivable grains.

Crowd Noise Synthesis

A project at TU Berlin aimed at the parametric synthesis of crown noise, more precisely the indistinct chatter (babbling) of large groups of people (Grimaldi, 2017). The project is best described on the corresponding paper or the master thesis.

References

2017

Grimaldi, Vincent and Böhm, Christoph and Weinzierl, Stefan and von Coler, Henrik. Parametric Synthesis of Crowd Noises in Virtual Acoustic Environments. In Proceedings of the 142nd Audio Engineering Society Convention. Audio Engineering Society, 2017.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@inproceedings{grimaldi2017parametric,
    author = {{Grimaldi, Vincent and B{\"o}hm, Christoph and Weinzierl, Stefan and von Coler, Henrik}},
    booktitle = "{Proceedings of the 142nd Audio Engineering Society Convention}",
    location = "Berlin, Germany",
    organization = "Audio Engineering Society",
    title = "{Parametric Synthesis of Crowd Noises in Virtual Acoustic Environments}",
    year = "2017"
}

2015

Stuart James. Spectromorphology and spatiomorphology of sound shapes: audio-rate AEP and DBAP panning of spectra. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). 2015.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@inproceedings{james2015spectromorphology,
    author = "James, Stuart",
    booktitle = "{Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC)}",
    location = "Denton, Texas, United States",
    title = "Spectromorphology and Spatiomorphology of Sound Shapes: audio-rate {AEP} and {DBAP} panning of spectra",
    year = "2015"
}

Ryan McGee. Spatial modulation synthesis. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). 2015.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@inproceedings{mcgee2015spatial,
    author = "McGee, Ryan",
    booktitle = "{Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC)}",
    location = "Denton, USA",
    title = "Spatial Modulation Synthesis",
    year = "2015"
}

2009

Alexander Müller and Rudolf Rabenstein. Physical modeling for spatial sound synthesis. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Digital Audio Effects (DAFx). 2009.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@inproceedings{muller2009physical,
    author = {M{\"u}ller, Alexander and Rabenstein, Rudolf},
    booktitle = "{Proceedings of the International Conference of Digital Audio Effects (DAFx)}",
    location = "Como, Italy",
    title = "Physical Modeling for Spatial Sound Synthesis",
    year = "2009"
}

2008

Scott Wilson. Spatial swarm granulation. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). 2008.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@inproceedings{wilson2008spatial,
    author = "Wilson, Scott",
    booktitle = "{Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC)}",
    location = "Belfast, Ireland",
    title = "Spatial Swarm Granulation",
    year = "2008"
}

David Kim-Boyle. Spectral spatialization - an overview. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). Belfast, UK, 2008.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@inproceedings{kim2008spectral,
    author = "Kim-Boyle, David",
    address = "Belfast, UK",
    booktitle = "{Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC)}",
    title = "Spectral Spatialization - an Overview",
    year = "2008"
}

2004

Curtis Roads. Microsound. The MIT Press, 2004. ISBN 0262681544.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@book{roads2004microsound,
    author = "Roads, Curtis",
    isbn = "0262681544",
    publisher = "The MIT Press",
    title = "{Microsound}",
    year = "2004"
}

2002

David Topper, Matthew Burtner, and Stefania Serafin. Spatio-operational spectral (SOS) synthesis. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Digital Audio Effects (DAFx). Singapore, 2002.
[details] [BibTeX▼]

@inproceedings{topper2003spatio,
    author = "Topper, David and Burtner, Matthew and Serafin, Stefania",
    address = "Singapore",
    booktitle = "{Proceedings of the International Conference of Digital Audio Effects (DAFx)}",
    location = "Hamburg, Germany",
    title = "Spatio-Operational Spectral ({SOS}) Synthesis",
    year = "2002"
}