I am delighted to be able to announce that my article on Creating Real-Time Aeroacoustic Sound Effects Using Physically Informed Models is in this months Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. This is an invited article following winning the best paper award at the Audio Engineering Society 141st Convention in LA. It is an open access article so free for all to download!
The article extends the original paper by examining how the Aeolian tone synthesis models can be used to create a number of sound effects. The benefits of these models are that the produce plausible sound effects which operate in real-time. Users are presented with a number of highly relevant parameters to control the effects which can be mapped directly to 3D models within game engines.
The basics of the Aeolian tone were given in a previous blog post. To summarise, a tone is generated when air passes around an object and vortices are shed behind it. Fluid dynamic equations are available which allow a prediction of the tone frequency based on the physics of the interaction between the air and object. The Aeolian tone is modelled as a compact sound source.
To model a sword or similar object a number of these compact sound sources are placed in a row. A previous blog post describes this in more detail. The majority of compact sound sources are placed at the tip as this is where the airspeed is greatest and the greatest sound is generated.
The behaviour of a sword when being swung has to be modelled which then used to control some of the parameters in the equations. This behaviour can be controlled by a game engine making fully integrated procedural audio models.
The sword model was extended to include objects like a baseball bat and golf club, as well as a broom handle. The compact sound source of a cavity tone was also added in to replicate swords which have grooved profiles. Subjective evaluation gave excellent results, especially for thicker objects which were perceived as plausible as pre-recorded samples.
The synthesis model could be extended to look at a range of sword cross sections as well as any influence of the material of the sword. It is envisaged that other sporting equipment which swing or fly through the air could be modelled using compact sound sources.
A propeller sound is one which is common in games and film and partially based on the sounds generated from the Aeolian tone and vortex shedding. As a blade passes through the air vortices are shed at a specific frequency along the length. To model individual propeller blades the profiles of a number were obtained with specific span length (centre to tip) and chord lengths (leading edge to trailing edge).
Another major sound source is the loading sounds generated by the torque and thrust. A procedure for modelling these sounds is outlined in the article. Missing from the propeller model is distortion sounds. These are more associated with rotors which turn in the horizontal plane.
An important sound when hearing a propeller powered aircraft is the engine sound. The one taken for this model was based on one of Andy Farnell’s from his book Designing Sound. Once complete a user is able to select an aircraft from a pre-programmed bank and set the flight path. If linked to a game engine the physical dimensions and flight paths can all be controlled procedurally.
Listening tests indicate that the synthesis model was as plausible as an alternative method but still not as plausible as pre-recorded samples. It is believed that results may have been more favourable if modelling electric-powered drones and aircraft which do not have the sound of a combustion engine.
The final model exploring the use of the Aeolian tone was that of an Aeolian Harp. This is a musical instrument that is activated by wind blowing around the strings. The vortices that are shed behind the string can activate a mechanical vibration if they are around the frequency of one of the strings natural harmonics. This produces a distinctive sound.
The digital model allows a user to synthesis a harp of up to 13 strings. Tension, mass density, length and diameter can all be adjusted to replicate a wide variety of string material and harp size. Users can also control a wind model modified from one presented in Andy Farnell’s book Designing Sound, with control over the amount of gusts. Listening tests indicate that the sound is not as plausible as pre-recorded ones but is as plausible as alternative synthesis methods.
The article describes the design processes in more detail as well as the fluid dynamic principles each was developed from. All models developed are open source and implemented in pure data. Links to these are in the paper as well as my previous publications. Demo videos can be found on YouTube.
Intelligent sound engineering 