Feedback Amplitude Modulation Synthesis

Sound Examples From the Paper

Additional Sound Examples

This vocal formant example has a 4-voice polyphony, with slightly randomized attacks. Each voice is implemented using five parallel variation 3-II operators that are arranged into a topology shown in Figure (a) above. The modulator operators produce pure cosine waveforms (variation 1, ß = 0), and their frequencies are tuned to vocal formants. The carrier modulationi index ß's are set to values from 0.1 to 0.3, higher value for a wider formant. The fundamental operator contains additionally a randomized amount of sinusoidal vibrato. The output of the algorithm is routed through a reverb effect.

This example emulates an FM-style electric piano timbre using the algorithm shown in Figure (b) above The metallic attack portion of the sound was generated using two stacked variation 3-I operators (modulator: f0 = 440 Hz, q = 8, ß = 0.24, carrier: f0 = 440 Hz, q = 21, ß = 0.5). The body of the sound was produced by a pair of slightly detuned variation 2 operators (ß = 0.42, f0_1 = 440 Hz, f0_2 = 441 Hz). The output level of the modulator was shaped with a linearly decaying envelope (the modulation index ß was kept constant). This sound is adopted from the author's DAFx-2009 paper.

This example modifies the previous timbre, and augments it with a flute-like sustain-segment as shown in Figure (c) above. These types of sounds were popular during the early days of MIDI synthesizers, when it became possible to combine timbres of different synthesis techniques by playing several synthesizers in unison. Here we are employing FBAM alone, using a stacked pair of variations 1 (modulator q = 12, ß = 0, g = 1) and 3-I (carrier ß = 0.29, g = 0.15) for the bright metallic attack portion of the timbre, a self-modulated carrier of the basic FBAM providing the body (ß = 0.29, g = 0.18), and finally, a cascade of variation 4 (modulator ß = 0, g = 1, and carrier ß = 0.64, ws = ABS, g = 0.04) for the flute-like sustain segment. The latter operator is slowly faded in using the amplitude envelope of the carrier operator, and accompanied with additional vibrato that is produced by a slight detuning between the modulator and the carrier. The spectrogram of the sound is shown below: