ERC PhD Studentship - Listening to the Future: Next generation Sound Synthesis through Simulation

Edinburgh College of Art

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh seeks applicants for a PhD project in the area of Brass instrument modelling and synthesis, funded through an ERC Starting Investigator award entitled “Listening to the Future: Next generation Sound Synthesis through Simulation (NeSS). Funding of £30,000 per annum (subject to tax and national insurance deductions) will be payable to the successful student on a monthly basis for the three-year duration of the award.

The PhD student will be based in Edinburgh College of Art and the Musical Acoustics group, which together with the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, will work as part of a team of eight on the NeSS project, plus two other project students.

Project

The project "Brass Instrument Modelling and Synthesis" centres around Brass Synthesis which poses many interesting and severe challenges; among all instrument families, numerical simulation difficulties are probably greatest in this case. Three features specific to brass instruments lead to important perceptual effects which cannot be ignored: a) viscous boundary layer effects have a direct impact on the resonance widths of the acoustic tube, and thus on playability; b) nonlinear shock wave propagation leads to characteristic “brassiness” under loud playing conditions; and c) variable instrument geometry allows pitch changes (through slides and valves), and a wide array of multiphonic timbres (in-between notes). The first two features have been approached in simulation, in a very crude form, according to a digital waveguide framework. The third, the most important in the quest for a playable synthetic instrument, has never been attempted for general instrument bores. The result will be a synthesis instrument capable of emulating any existing instrument—and further, any imaginable design.

For career development purposes, the student will also be expected under their award to undertake a maximum of two hours a week of tutorial assistance and occasional lecturing for the MSc course in Acoustics and Music Technology, during term-time. Additional funds are available through the project for conference attendance, to facilitate the presentation of project results. The successful applicant should be available to take up their PhD studentship position in early 2012. Subject to satisfactory progress, the award is tenable for up to three years

Eligibility

Applicants should have a Bachelor/Master level degree in one of the following areas: Physics, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or Computer Science/Informatics. As the focus of the project is on numerical simulation and algorithm design, the candidate should have excellent programming skills, particularly within the Matlab prototyping environment. The candidate should also have some familiarity with numerical methods for time dependent systems, such as, e.g., finite difference methods.

The awards are open to UK, EU and Overseas students. Please note that successful candidates will be responsible for the payment of their own tuition fees – these are not funded by the project (information on rates for 2011/12 are available from http://www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/fees/research_2011-2012.cfm (fee rates equivalent to PhD in Music in Edinburgh College of Art).

Application Procedure

Applications should be submitted through the University of Edinburgh online postgraduate application system, at http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/finder/details.php?id=55 Please ensure that you indicate you wish to apply for the Brass Instrument modelling and synthesis project in your application. Applicants should apply though the PhD in Music route.

Applications should be accompanied by copies of your original transcripts and degree certificates, a statement of application, a C.V and two references. A covering letter should also be sent to Louise Fleming, by email to Louise.Fleming@ed.ac.uk

Deadline

The deadline for applications is Friday 1st June 2012. We cannot guarantee to consider late applications.

Enquiries

Informal enquiries should be made to the Project Principal Investigator, Dr Stefan Bilbao, at Stefan.Bilbao@ed.ac.uk

Further Project Information: “Listening to the Future: Next generation Sound Synthesis through Simulation

This project is concerned with simulation-based approaches to sound synthesis, in the interest of generating very high-quality synthetic sound of a natural acoustic character – partly to emulate real instruments, but also to explore the classes of sounds which cannot be produced using conventional synthesis methods, or acoustic instruments. A further goal is to introduce such physical modelling synthesis methods definitely into the world of electronic music, virtual environments, and to the greater public.

Target systems to be studied and simulated include highly nonlinear acoustic systems (brass instruments, and percussion based on plate and shell vibration); electromechanical instruments; full 3D acoustic spaces, for room acoustics modelling; embedding of instruments within 3D spaces in order to achieve fully virtual and spatialized audio; and finally modular connections of systems in order to allow the eventual user, a composer, an instrument design environment. Such complex systems, including strong nonlinear effects, have never before seen a rigorous exploration from a numerical synthesis perspective. This proposed project is of an interdisciplinary nature, and rooted in music, numerical analysis, time-domain simulation, and high-performance computing
Work will be carried out at various levels: a) theoretical work and time domain algorithm design, with special attention paid to the appropriate choice of model, efficiency and real time operation, as well as various issues critical in audio, including: adequate perceptual rendering of system responses at audio sample rates; reduction of aliasing; robust algorithm design, ensuring numerical stability under highly nonlinear conditions; and modular constructions. b) large-scale parallel implementations on multicore processors and general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), and c) experimental testing and prototyping through collaborative work with established composers of electronic music, leading to performances of original multichannel and fully synthetic music