ELEN E4896 MUSIC SIGNAL PROCESSING

Lecture 4:
Analog Synthesizers
1.
2.
3.
4.

The Problem Of Electronic Synthesis

Oscillators
Envelopes
Filters
Dan Ellis

Dept. Electrical Engineering, Columbia University

dpwe@ee.columbia.edu
E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/e4896/
2013-02-11 - 1 /17

1. The Problem of Electronic Synthesis

How can we synthesize notes and music

... and have it sound as good as real instruments?
Real instrument tones are complex

Piano

Trumpet

Plucked Violin

Bowed Violin

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

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The Analog Synthesizer

Minimum useful configuration

t
+
+

Vibrato

Oscillator
t

Cutoff
freq
Sound

Filter
f

Gain

Minimoog, 1972

(1970s technology)

Trigger
Pitch

Pitch + harmonics
Amplitude variation
(dynamics)
Spectral variation

Envelope

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Digital Simulation of Analog

Loomer Aspect
E.g.
http://www.loomer.co.uk/aspect.htm

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PureData (Pd)

Visual metaphor based on analog synths

wires connect modules

Tutorial: http://en.flossmanuals.net/PureData/
E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

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2. Oscillators

Pitch = sinusoid?
only a single color
Real instruments have more harmonics
static spectrum determines instrument sound?
Additive: Combine individual harmonics
calculating sinusoids in real time is expensive...
Subtractive: Shape harmonics with filters
start with a spectrally rich signal
shape harmonics efficiently with LTI filters

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

2013-02-11 - 6 /17

Basic waveforms

Sinusoid

Square wave
Pulse waveform
Sawtooth
Triangle
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Aside: Bandlimiting

Its easy to sample ideal simple waveforms

but the ideal ones are not bandlimited
lots of aliased energy

Solution: Bandlimited waveforms

e.g. fill a table with precalculated sum of sinusoids

up to a fixed frequency

Variable waveforms can be derived

PWM by integrating bandlimited impulses

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~stilti/papers/blit.pdf

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

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Modulation

Stationary spectra sound unnatural

real sources have random jitter
Variations in pitch
Low Frequency
Oscillator
frequency
modulation

random noise

Variations in timbre

can be imposed by filters...

Pulse-width modulation

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

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Aside: PWM Spectrum

What are harmonics of Pulse-Width Modulated

(PWM) waveforms?

consider as impulses convolved with a pulse W

Fourier transforms multiply
=
time

1.5

1.5

1.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

-0.5
40

frequency

500

1000

-0.5
40

500

1000

-0.5
40

20

20

20

-20

-20

-20

-40

200

400

-40

200

400

-40

500

200

1000

400

or integral of sum of two opposite impulse trains

with relative delay W
pw (t) = p(t) p(t W )dt
(good for bandlimiting)
E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

2013-02-11 - 10/17

3. Envelopes

Notes need to be limited in time

simple gating not enough
amplitude envelope

Different (real) instruments have clear

variations in envelope

struck/plucked vs. bowed/blown

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ADSR

Attack - initial rise time

Decay - fall time immediately following initial attack
Key depressed
Sustain - amplitude of
asymptote of decay
while key is held down
Release - decay from
sustain to zero after
key released

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

Tobias R. - Metoc

4-parameter classic envelope model

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Pd ADSR Abstraction

Any patch can become a unit

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

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4. Filtering

Amplitude modulation alone is not enough

real instruments have time-varying spectra
e.g. plucked string

Generally just LPF (+ resonance)

high frequencies die away after initial transient

resonance can give some BPF effect

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

2013-02-11 - 14/17

The Biquad filter

Flexible circuit design to achieve

variable cutoff frequency

but just single pole-pair LPF (or repeats)

constant Q (bandwidth/center freq) resonance
s plane

0.5

gain / dB

Imag

50

0
-0.5
-1

-1

gain / dB

0
-0.5
-1

0
Real

10
freq / rad/s

50

0.5

-1

-50
-1
10

z plane

Imag

0
Real

10

-50

0.2

0.4
0.6
norm freq /

0.8

Analog synths provided 12-24 dB/oct rolloff

E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

2013-02-11 - 15/17

5. Examples

Juno-106 preset patches

from http://www.synthmania.com/juno-106.htm

Brass

Piano
E4896 Music Signal Processing (Dan Ellis)

Trumpet

Strings
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Summary

Analog synthesizers provided

musical flexibility with simple units

20 years of evolution

Need instrument-like dynamics

to make an interesting sound
but only up to a point...

Analog synths provide intuitive controls

each knob has a distinct effect

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