Substractive Synthesis and Filters

Lecture Slides

A series of gif images of the lecture slides... (only accesible from within Stanford University)

Substractive Synthesis

Basic concepts.

Filters

Definition

input -> operation -> output; anything is a filter... usually applied to devices that boost or attenuate regions of the spectrum.

Characterization

amplitude versus frequency response curve

lowpass
highpass
bandpass
bandreject (notch)
shelving

Cutoff Frequency

half power point (0.707 or -3dB)

Center Frequency

[maximum|minimum] amplitude in a [bandpass|bandreject]

Stopband vs Passband

Bandwidth

Slope

Q and Gain

Comb and Allpass Filters

Examples

Here is a bunch of very simple instruments that use the stock filters that come with the clm distribution ("/usr/ccrma/lisp/src/clm").

onepole.ins

A simple One Pole filter (filtering white noise)...

(definstrument onepole(start-time duration amplitude
				  &key
				  (b1 '(0 0.5 1 0.5)))
  (multiple-value-bind (beg end) (get-beg-end start-time duration)
    (let* ((noise (make-randh :frequency (* 0.49 sampling-rate) 
			      :amplitude amplitude))
	   (b1-env (make-env :envelope b1))
	   (opfilt (make-one-pole :a0 1.0 :b1 0.5)))
      (Run
       (loop for i from beg to end do
	     (setf (smpflt-b1 opfilt) (env b1-env))
	     (outa i (one-pole opfilt (randh noise))))))))

onezero.ins

A simple One Zero filter (filtering white noise)...

(definstrument onezero(start-time duration amplitude
				  &key
				  (a1 '(0 0.5 1 0.5)))
  (multiple-value-bind (beg end) (get-beg-end start-time duration)
    (let* ((noise (make-randh :frequency (* 0.49 sampling-rate) 
			      :amplitude amplitude))
	   (a1-env (make-env :envelope a1))
	   (ozfilt (make-one-zero :a0 1.0 :a1 0.5)))
      (Run
       (loop for i from beg to end do
	     (setf (smpflt-a1 ozfilt) (env a1-env))
	     (outa i (one-zero ozfilt (randh noise))))))))

ppolar.ins

A simple Two Pole filter with resonance based on the ppolar clm ug (filtering white noise)...

(defmacro b1-from-r-freq (r freq) `(- (* 2.0 ,r (cos (in-hz ,freq)))))
(defmacro b2-from-r (r) `(* ,r ,r))

(definstrument twopole(start-time duration amplitude
				  &key
				  (freq '(0 20 1 10000))
				  (r '(0 0.5 1 0.5)))
  (multiple-value-bind (beg end) (get-beg-end start-time duration)
    (let* ((noise (make-randh :frequency (* 0.49 sampling-rate) 
			      :amplitude amplitude))
	   (freq-env (make-env :envelope freq))
	   (r-env (make-env :envelope r))
	   (ppfilt (make-ppolar :r 0.5 :frequency 440.0)))
      (Run
       (loop for i from beg to end do
	     (let* ((freq0 (env freq-env))
		    (r0 (env r-env)))
	       (setf (smpflt-b1 ppfilt) (b1-from-r-freq r0 freq0))
	       (setf (smpflt-b2 ppfilt) (b2-from-r r0))
	       (outa i (ppolar ppfilt (randh noise)))))))))

formnt.ins

A simple Two Pole / Two Zero formant filter (filtering white noise)...

(defmacro set-formnt(filter freq r)
  `(let* ((freq ,freq)
	  (r ,r))
     (setf (smpflt-a2 (frmnt-tz ,filter)) (- r)
	   (smpflt-b1 (frmnt-tp ,filter)) (- (* 2.0 r (cos (in-hz freq))))
	   (smpflt-b2 (frmnt-tp ,filter)) (* r r))))

(definstrument simp-formnt(start-time duration amplitude
				  &key
				  (freq '(0 20 1 10000))
				  (r '(0 0.707 1 0.707)))
  (multiple-value-bind (beg end) (get-beg-end start-time duration)
    (let* ((noise (make-randh :frequency (* 0.5 sampling-rate) :amplitude amplitude))
	   (freq-env (make-env :envelope freq
			       :start-time start-time
			       :duration duration))
	   (r-env (make-env :envelope r
			    :start-time start-time
			    :duration duration))
	   (fmfilt (make-formnt :frequency 440 :r 0.99)))
      (Run
       (loop for i from beg to end do
	     (set-formnt fmfilt (env freq-env) (env r-env))
	     (outa i (formnt fmfilt (randh noise))))))))

All of these example instrument do some internal contortions to move through envelopes the center frequency, resonance and or assorted internal coefficients. Hope you can figure things out. Believe it or not everything that's being done is documented in the clm manual... :-)

addflt.ins

Take a look at a more sophisticated example that is included in the clm distribution, a multiple resonante filter instrument called addflt.ins