| Session Name: | Creating Sound Effects and Sound Textures from Examples |
| Speaker(s): | Jim Parker |
| Company Name(s): | MinkHollow Media Ltd. |
| Track / Format: | Audio |
| Overview: | Computer based methods for creating sound textures and sound effects will be discussed, as these create sounds very similar to any example selected. An audio texture can be described as a sound having a somewhat random character, but a recognizable quality. For instance, the sounds of water flowing, a vehicle engine, or a fire burning are textures. Software has been built for the generation of audio textures given a small sample. Much more of a given sound can be created, and the sound created will not be a simple repetition of the sample. This method has been extended to generate sound effects from examples, which are not textures, and will lead to less repetition in the audio track of a game. This method somewhat resembles granular synthesis, and uses methods related to those used by graphics researchers to generate visual textures from example images. To oversimplify, small sound samples are recombined in a new order, piecing them together in a way that maximizes the similarity where they meet, at the beginning and end of the blocks. The extension of sound effects is accomplished by fitting an appropriate envelope to the sound, and using texture generation for each section of the signal. Examples of synthesized and original textures and sound effects created by this system will be presented. This technique can generate sound as a game is being played, and is being extended to deal with music. |
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