Procedural Sound Now! [LINKS]

Procedural Sound is a topic that I feel has a great potential to solve some of the challenges facing game audio. Whether it's the dynamic composition of music in real-time, geometric sound propagation modeling , or harnessing already available simulations to create approximations of sound using synthesis, there exists a tremendous amount of solutions to the problems of how to make our virtual worlds more directly reactive and immersive. It's with optimism that I set upon trying to raise awareness of some of these techniques and technologies available outside the confines of console specific runtimes. It's my hope that by looking outside of our industry we can catch a glimpse of the future for game audio, and set our sights on some new ways to provide engaging, dynamically reactive, and emotionally resonating interactive sound.

In a companion article entitled "Procedural Sound Now!" at DesigningSound.org as part of the Audio Implementation Greats series, I've made a case for a return to the formative years of game audio with an eye towards new developments in synthesis and procedural. The article wraps with a QA with three audio professionals working with procedural sound in some capacity.

This post is an attempt to round up the cadre of links I was able to unearth in relation to the article. You'll get a bit of sound modeling, some procedural, a bit of music, white papers, and research materials. Keep an eye on this space over time, as I hope to keep adding to this list as a resource for people who are interested in new developments and articles. Please send along any further suggestions or post below in the comments section.

Additionally we have released Game Audio Podcast Episode 4: Procedural Game Audio  - Head over and subscribe via iTunes and give it a listen!

It's taken the help of many dedicated sound professionals to bring to light and assemble the different pieces of the puzzle. My deepest thanks and gratitude go to: Anton Woldhek, Karen Collins, Andy Farnell, David Thall, Mads Lykke, Francois Thibault, and all of the inspirational audio futurists pushing the envelope.

Andy Farnell:

Andy Farnell: Audio, code and tutorials on synthesis
(See links section for additional jumps)

Andy Farnell: Synthetic game audio with Puredata
Andy Farnell: An Intro to Procedural Audio in Games
Andy Farnell: Designing Sound

Stefan Bilbao

Stefan Bilbao: Conference Proceedings
Stefan Bilbao: Numerical Sound Synthesis

Kees van den Doel

Kees van den Doel: Publications
Sounds of Shapes

Mark Grimshaw

Mark Grimshaw: Publications
Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments

Dylan Menzies:

Dyland Menzies: Publications

Phya: Physical Audio for Virtual Worlds
 
Phya and VFoley, Physically Motivated Audio for Virtual Environments

General:

Procedural Audio.com Papers

Nicolas Fournell

Leonard Paul: Video Game Audio

Cosyne Synthesis Engine

USO: Generative Music: an interview with Peter Chilvers

Create a scalable and creative audio environment: middleware project PLAY ALL
Procedural Audio for Game using GAF

Master of Sound: Automatic Sound Synthesis from Fluid Simulation

FOLEYAUTOMATIC: Physically-based Sound Effects for Interactive Simulation and Animation 

Audiokinetic: Sound Seed

FMOD Designer

Princeton SoundLab: Publications

Banded Waveguides and Propagation Modeling: Efficient Physical Models of Solid Objects

A Brief Overview of Physical Modeling

Perry Cook: Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications

Procedural Audio in Computer Games by Mads Lykke



Sound Synthesis in Game - MuCell


Realistic Real-Time Sound Re-Synthesis and Processing for Interactive Virtual Worlds

Spore:

Brian Eno with Wright on Spore and Generative Systems


Spore Anthem Creator Tutorial

 
Spore City Music Planner from GDC 08


Aaron Mcleran: Procedural Music for Spore

The Beat Goes on: Dynamic Music in Spore

The Generation of Procedural Generation

Liveblogging Procedual Music in Spore @ GDC08

Audio Interview with Cyril Saint Girons (Audio Engineer)

Brian Eno: Before and After Darwin

Brian Eno: Generative Music

GAMMA:

Geometric Algorithms for Modeling, Motion, and Animation

GAMMA - Projects Overview: Sound Synthesis and Propagation

SIGGRAPH 2009: Interactive Sound Rendering Presentations and Proceedings

Symphony: Interactive Sound Synthesis for Large Scale Environments


Synthesizing Contact Sounds Between Textured Objects


Sounding Liquids: Automatic Sound Synthesis from Fluid Simulation


AD-Frustum: Adaptive Frustum Tracing for Interactive Sound Propagation


Efficient and Accurate Numerical Simulation of Sound Propagation



Precomputed Wave Simulation for Real-Time Sound Propagation of Dynamic Sources in Complex Scenes


Next Generation Virtual Musical Instruments Using Multi-touch Interfaces



Interactive Sound Propagation in Dynamic Scenes Using Frustum Tracing

Fast Edge-Diffraction for Sound Propagation in Complex Virtual Environments

An efficient time-domain solver for the acoustic wave equation on graphics processors

Fast Geometric Sound Propagation with Finite Edge Diffraction

RESound: Interactive Sound Rendering for Dynamic Virtual Environments

Direct-to-Indirect Acoustic Radiance Transfer

Cornell

Sound Rendering for Physically Based Simulation

Rigid-Body Fracture Sound with Precomputed Soundbanks


Harmonic Shells: A Practical Nonlinear Sound Model for Near-Rigid Thin Shells

New Scientist: Virtual crashes and clatters get real 

Crash, bang, rumble! Bringing noise to virtual worlds 


Harmonic Fluids

Other:

Fast Modal Sounds with Scalable Frequency-Domain Synthesis

Precomputed Acoustic Transfer: Output-sensitive, accurate sound generation for geometrically complex vibration sources


I hope that get's you started on the wide world of Procedural Sound and Synthesis.
If you have any additional suggestions for links to interesting materials please drop a line or comment.

Proceduraly yours,
-lcl