Real-time finite difference-based sound synthesis using graphics processors

Abstract

Finite difference methods can be used to model the vibrations of plates and membranes; the output of these numerical simulations can then be used to generate realistic and dynamic sounds. To create interactive, playable software instruments with finite difference methods, we need to be able run large simulations in real-time. Real-time finite difference-based simulations of large models are typically too compute-intensive to run on CPUs. The ubiquity of graphics processors (GPUs) today make them obvious choices for speeding up such applications. We have implemented finite difference simulations that run in real-time on GPUs. We will describe how we address the problems that arise from interactions between real-time audio constraints and GPU architecture and performance characteristics, and demonstrate the current version of FDS, our Finite Difference Synthesizer.