Modal Synthesis of Weapon Sounds

Sound synthesis can be used as an effective tool in sound design. This paper presents an interactive model that synthesizes high quality, impact-based combat weapons and gunfire sound effects. A procedural audio approach was taken to compute the model. The model was devised by extracting the frequency peaks of the sound source. Sound variations were then created in real-time using additive synthesis and amplitude envelope generation. A subtractive method was implemented to recreate the signal envelope and residual background noise. Existing work is improved through the use of procedural audio methodologies and application of audio effects. Finally, a perceptual evaluation was undertaken by comparing the synthesis engine to some of the analyzed recorded samples. In 4 out of 7 cases, the synthesis engine generated sounds that were indistinguishable, in terms of perceived realism, from recorded samples.

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L. Mengual, D. Moffat and J. D. Reiss, “Modal Synthesis of Weapon Sounds”, in Audio Engineering Society 61st International Conference: Audio for Games, 2016.