Michele Ducceschi: Sound synthesis of gongs using a modal scheme – development and examples

When: Monday, June 16th, 2014 @ 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Where: Room G.07/a, Informatics Forum, Crichton Street, University of Edinburgh

Seminar Title

Sound synthesis of gongs using a modal scheme – development and examples

Seminar Speaker(s)

Dr. Michele Ducceschi (UME ENSTA, Paris Tech, France)

Seminar Abstract

Sound synthesis of gongs can be obtained, in a first approximation, by solving the dynamical equations of a flat plate. In fact, despite a trivial geometry, a plate vibrating in a nonlinear regime shares the same salient characteristics as a gong or a cymbal. Particularly, the degree of nonlinearity can be given in terms of the amplitude of vibrations. In this talk, the nonlinear plate equations will be described and a solution in terms of the linear modes given.

Examples will range from typical linear feautures (bell-like sounds and plate reverb) to the most dramatic nonlinear effects (gongs struck at high amplitudes). The talk will feature video contributions as well as a web-app for wave visualisation (development by Theo Armour).

Speaker Bio

Michele Ducceschi is a post-doctoral researcher at the Unité de Mecanique at ENSTA (Paris). His current research focuses on the development of the dynamics of a permanently magnetised elastic beam for energy harvesting. In addition, he is continuing to improve a sound-synthesis algorithm for gongs developed during his PhD, based on modal decomposition. Michele received a BSc in Physics from the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy (2008), an MSc in Acoustics and Music Technology from the University of Edinburgh (2010) and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from ENSTA and École Polytechnique, France (2014).