Implementing a Finite Difference-Based Real-time Sound Synthesizer using GPUs

Marc Sosnick, and William Hsu

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2011
• Location: Oslo, Norway
• Pages: 264–267
• Keywords: Finite Difference, GPU, CUDA, Synthesis
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1178173 (Link to paper)
• PDF link

Abstract:

In this paper, we describe an implementation of a real-time sound synthesizer using Finite Difference-based simulation of a two-dimensional membrane. Finite Difference (FD) methods can be the basis for physics-based music instrument models that generate realistic audio output. However, such methods are compute-intensive; large simulations cannot run in real time on current CPUs. Many current systems now include powerful Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which are a good fit for FD methods. We demonstrate that it is possible to use this method to create a usable real-time audio synthesizer.

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Sosnick2011,
 abstract = {In this paper, we describe an implementation of a real-time sound synthesizer using Finite Difference-based simulation of a two-dimensional membrane. Finite Difference (FD) methods can be the basis for physics-based music instrument models that generate realistic audio output. However, such methods are compute-intensive; large simulations cannot run in real time on current CPUs. Many current systems now include powerful Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which are a good fit for FD methods. We demonstrate that it is possible to use this method to create a usable real-time audio synthesizer. },
 address = {Oslo, Norway},
 author = {Sosnick, Marc and Hsu, William},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1178173},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Finite Difference, GPU, CUDA, Synthesis },
 pages = {264--267},
 title = {Implementing a Finite Difference-Based Real-time Sound Synthesizer using {GPU}s},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2011/nime2011_264.pdf},
 year = {2011}
}