Overview of Model Types

There are many kinds of signal models to consider for musical instruments and audio effects. This book emphasizes physical signal models, that is, signal models derived from mathematical physical descriptions of acoustic instruments or electronic effects. To set a more general context, some of the more successful non-physical signal models are mentioned below. After that, we will consider only physics-based models in this book. The next volume [456] in the music signal processing series discusses spectral signal models, which are models based on the encoding of sound by the ear (the ``receiver'') as opposed to the mechanics of sound production (the ``source''). In all cases, a good signal model must have the property that it generates the desired sound in response to intuitive controls by the performing musician.

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About the Author: Julius Orion Smith III
Julius Smith's background is in electrical engineering (BS Rice 1975, PhD Stanford 1983). He is presently Professor of Music and Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), teaching courses and pursuing research related to signal processing applied to music and audio systems. See http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/ for details.