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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

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

Marc Sosnick, and William Hsu. 2011. Implementing a Finite Difference-Based Real-time Sound Synthesizer using GPUs. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1178173 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry


@inproceedings{nime2011_Sosnick,
author = {Sosnick, Marc and Hsu, William},
title = {Implementing a Finite Difference-Based Real-time Sound Synthesizer using GPUs},
pages = {264--267},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
year = {2011},
address = {Oslo, Norway},
issn = {2220-4806},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1178173},
url = {https://nime.org/proceedings/2011/nime2011_264.pdf},
keywords = {Finite Difference, GPU, CUDA, Synthesis },
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. }
}