Examining the Oscillator Waveform Animation Effect

An enhancing effect that can be applied to analogue oscillators in subtractive synthesizers is termed Animation, which is an efficient way to create a sound of many closely detuned oscillators playing in unison. This is often referred to as a supersaw oscillator. This paper first explains the operating principle of this effect using a combination of additive and frequency modulation synthesis. The Fourier series will be derived and results will be presented to demonstrate its accuracy. This will then provide new insights into how other more general waveform animation processors can be designed

AM/FM Dafx

In this work we explore audio effects based on the manipulation of estimated AM/FM decomposition of input signals, followed by resynthesis. The framework is based on an incoherent monocomponent based decomposition. Contrary to reports that discourage the usage of this simple scenario, our results have shown that the artefacts introduced in the audio produced are acceptable and not even noticeable in some cases. Useful and musically interesting effects were obtained in this study, illustrated with audio samples that accompany the text. We also make available Octave code for future experiments and new Csound opcodes for real-time implementations

Extending Physical Simulation to the Audio Domain

Using physical simulation to control movement and interactions between objects in a 3D environment, such as a computer game, has become increasingly common However; this idea has not been extended in a general sense to the audio domain. The audio component of these systems usually comprises of pre-recorded WAV files that are triggered in response to events. We argue that this approach has serious limitations and propose instead that the physical information made available by physics engines provides an opportunity to carry out synthesis of appropriate sounds from scratch. We outline a framework for adding a sound synthesis module to a physics engine and discuss some approaches to implementing this

Machinic affinities

Audio-Visionaries is a body of work that includes open-circuits and assemblages that create audio-visual outputs. Through electronic experimentation, exploration and improvisation the work practically investigates the notion of machinic affinities, whose theoretical implications this paper will investigate. The work, and this paper, engage in media archaeology as a methodology, an emerging field of media theory which re-examines forgotten or quashed ideas and practices dealing with media technologies. This methodology manifests itself in the work by employing everyday media machines, along with heirloom technologies, and by appropriating historical and contemporary interdisciplinary techniques, in order to reveal machinic liveness. The paper examines these techniques and their relationship to threads of both esoteric and popular philosophy, science and psychology that discuss the ontology of machines. Machinic affinity is a feeling of closeness or fondness for machines. For the purpose of this paper I will limit my discussion to machines of a specific nature, excluding computer technology in order to focus on a more general class of machines that generate audio or video media; media-machines. This affinity is precipitated by an animist belief; that all objects are living or have a spirit. This esoteric philosophy, often associated with primitive cultures, has been recently re-examined by contemporary theorists and artists. I will discuss how this discourse has influenced my art making

Laser Plasma Radiation Studies For Droplet Sources In The Extreme Ultraviolet

The advancement of laboratory based Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) radiation has escalated with the desire to use EUV as a source for semiconductor device printing. Laser plasmas based on a mass-limited target concept, developed within the Laser Plasma Laboratory demonstrate a much needed versatility for satisfying rigorous source requirements. This concept produces minimal debris concerns and allows for the attainment of high repetition rates as well as the accommodation of various laser and target configurations. This work demonstrates the generation of EUV radiation by creating laser plasmas from mass-limited targets with indium, tin, and antimony doped droplets. Spectral emission from the laser plasmas is quantified using a flat-field spectrometer. COWAN code oscillator strength predications for each of the dopants were convolved with narrow Gaussian functions creating synthetic spectra for the EUV region between 10 nm - 20 nm. A preliminary comparison was made between the theoretical spectra and experimental results. From this comparison, ion stage transitions for each of the hot dense plasmas generated were assessed

Hauntings – A nodalist study

Since Deleuze and Guattari first described the concept of the rhizome as a model of cultural transmission in A Thousand Plateaus (1980), a new way of processing information in the Arts and Social Sciences has emerged – ‘Nodalism’. Philip Gochenour has convincingly argued that units of culture can now be thought of as ‘nodes’ existing in a nonhierarchical, web-like network. Information transfer between nodes in the network is horizontal, omni-directional and not necessarily teleological, a way of viewing the world which has been paralleled and actualized in the last twenty years by the emergence, growth and ubiquity of the internet and the World Wide Web. The author – a developing audiovisual artist – here offers four videomusic pieces and one virtual sound-synthesis tool. At first glance, the pieces may appear to have little in common. However, the commentary will attempt to show that they are subtly linked together, immersed in a cocoon of rhizomatic, pluralistic, thread-like connections. The strongest ‘thread’ holding them together appears to be the trope of being ‘haunted’ in some way – either by influence, genre, or overarching concept. However, this thesis will attempt to show how a detailed consideration of each piece results in a highly complex final picture in which the pieces can be thought of as individual cultural nodes suspended in a dense rhizomatic mass of lateral cultural threads. For the sake of completion, however, the project has received the name Hauntings in reference to one of the strongest shared tropes running throughout all five works

Analysis and resynthesis of polyphonic music

This thesis examines applications of Digital Signal Processing to the analysis, transformation, and resynthesis of musical audio. First I give an overview of the human perception of music. I then examine in detail the requirements for a system that can analyse, transcribe, process, and resynthesise monaural polyphonic music. I then describe and compare the possible hardware and software platforms. After this I describe a prototype hybrid system that attempts to carry out these tasks using a method based on additive synthesis. Next I present results from its application to a variety of musical examples, and critically assess its performance and limitations. I then address these issues in the design of a second system based on Gabor wavelets. I conclude by summarising the research and outlining suggestions for future developments

Pulsatile Flow Through Idealized Renal Tubules: Fluid-structure Interaction and Dynamic Pathologies

Kidney tubules are lined with flow-sensing structures, yet information about the flow itself is not easily obtained. We aim to generate a multiscale biomechanical model for analyzing fluid flow and fluid-structure interactions within an elastic kidney tubule when the driving pressure is pulsatile. We developed a two-dimensional macroscopic mathematical model of a single fluid-filled tubule corresponding to a distal nephron segment and determined both flow dynamics and wall strains over a range of driving frequencies and wall compliances using finite-element analysis. The results presented here demonstrate good agreement with available analytical solutions and form a foundation for future inclusion of elastohydrodynamic coupling by neighboring tubules. Overall, we are interested in exploring the idea of dynamic pathology to better understand the progression of chronic kidney diseases such as Polycystic Kidney Disease

Performance Improvement of Wide-Area-Monitoring-System (WAMS) and Applications Development

Wide area monitoring system (WAMS), as an application of situation awareness, provides essential information for power system monitoring, planning, operation, and control. To fully utilize WAMS in smart grid, it is important to investigate and improve its performance, and develop advanced applications based on the data from WAMS. In this dissertation, the work on improving the WAMS performance and developing advanced applications are introduced.To improve the performance of WAMS, the work includes investigation of the impacts of measurement error and the requirements of system based on WAMS, and the solutions. PMU is one of the main sensors for WAMS. The phasor and frequency estimation algorithms implemented highly influence the performance of PMUs, and therefore the WAMS. The algorithms of PMUs are reviewed in Chapter 2. To understand how the errors impact WAMS application, different applications are investigated in Chapter 3, and their requirements of accuracy are given. In chapter 4, the error model of PMUs are developed, regarding different parameters of input signals and PMU operation conditions. The factors influence of accuracy of PMUs are analyzed in Chapter 5, including both internal and external error sources. Specifically, the impacts of increase renewables are analyzed. Based on the analysis above, a novel PMU is developed in Chapter 6, including algorithm and realization. This PMU is able to provide high accurate and fast responding measurements during both steady and dynamic state. It is potential to improve the performance of WAMS. To improve the interoperability, the C37.118.2 based data communication protocol is curtailed and realized for single-phase distribution-level PMUs, which are presented in Chapter 7.WAMS-based applications are developed and introduced in Chapter 8-10. The first application is to use the spatial and temporal characterization of power system frequency for data authentication, location estimation and the detection of cyber-attack. The second application is to detect the GPS attack on the synchronized time interval. The third application is to detect the geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) resulted from GMD and EMP-E3. These applications, benefited from the novel PMU proposed in Chapter 6, can be used to enhance the security and robust of power system

Relation of spontaneous and evoked brain activity to language development in young children

Separate studies have shown connections between spontaneous alpha oscillations and language ability in 4-6 year-olds, and between auditory evoked potential (AEP) maturity and language in 7-10-year-olds. The thesis aimed to further our understanding of how these spontaneous and evoked neural measures relate to language development in younger children than previously studied. In this thesis, I first propose a method to investigate spontaneous alpha oscillations and language in 1-4-year-olds. Next, I examined alpha oscillations, AEP maturity, and language ability in 5-6-year-olds. Results revealed that AEP maturity did not predict language ability and correlated with alpha long-range-temporal-correlation but not with alpha power or flexibility. Next, I examined the possibility that this study did not have enough AEP trials. Using a new index called standardized measurement error, I found that AEP trial-by-trial noise decreases with age between 4-7 years, suggesting that future studies of AEP maturity may need more trials for younger ages