Virtual violin produces realistic sounds

(news.mit.edu)

10 points by gmays2 days ago

3 comments

  • orthoxerox17 minutes ago
    Someone made a virtual car engine that was able to generate realistic sounds a few years ago.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=RKT-sKtR970" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=RKT-sKtR970</a>
  • mchinen37 minutes ago
    Bowed instruments are very cool to model because of the nonlinear slip of the bow against the string. A bit curious why bowing was not discussed or used in the example of a violin, just plucking. Do luthiers test violins more by plucking than bowing?
    • nwatson28 minutes ago
      It&#x27;s probably harder to model and the results &quot;aren&#x27;t quite there yet&quot;.
    • z3c012 minutes ago
      This is my own speculation, but I am a musician who specializes in synthesis so...<p>The Karplus Strong technique, a method for simulating string tones, has been around for a long time, since the 80s or so. KarplusStr has done bowing surprisingly well for a while. Plucking, not so much.<p>Long attack with a short decay&#x2F;release gives a very convincing bowing sound on nicer synths, but once you increase the attack to create plucking sounds, the synthetic nature of the tone becomes far more obvious.
  • shooly35 minutes ago
    Not sure if that&#x27;s news, Audio Modeling[1] has been doing that for quite a long time now. The big plus of physical modeling instead of sampling is disk size - instead of tens of GB of samples, you get a 15MB plugin.<p>It&#x27;s much more difficult to use, though - you have to control lots of aspects of the simulation (using automation in DAW or MIDI controllers) to make it sound actually realistic.<p>OK I guess it seems like this is more of a tool for luthiers than for composers or music producers.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;audiomodeling.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;audiomodeling.com&#x2F;</a>
    • vintermann2 minutes ago
      The first version of Pianoteq came back in 2006. There are apparently some exotic mid-90s synths with claims of being physically modeled too, don&#x27;t know how accurate that is.<p>I currently use a raspberry pi with Pianoteq as sound output for my digital piano. It got a reluctant stamp of approval from my pianist son, although of course he prefers the physical response of even a poor acoustic piano.