Electronic cymbals using spectral modeling synthesis with variable timbre by hitting strength and beater hardness

Abstract

Sound source for cymbals in electronic drums based on spectral model synthesis were proposed instead of wavetable based sound sources. In the sound source, the timbre of the synthesized sound can be changed by hitting strength. In the real acoustical cymbals, the timbre change is caused by the coupling among the eigenmodes due to geometrical nonlinearities. In the sound source, it was reproduced using a simple model. As well as the hitting strength, the hardness of beaters hitting a sensor pad are also reflected to the timbre. It was achieved by measuring pulse width in the output analog signal from a commercial sensor pad. The proposed sound source was implemented as a Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plugin. In the talk, the implemented sound source will be simply demonstrated.