Examples of Using Amplitude Control Systems in Music Synthesis

Feedback control systems have been used in the past to keep physical models in tune; similarly, other variables can be controlled, such as amplitude, which is explored in this paper. There can be various interesting behaviors; affecting, for example, stability and attack transient characteristics. Examples are shown for a simple waveguide model. The nonlinearity introduced by amplitude control can also approximate various characteristics of popular nonlinearities, such as saturation. In one example, a control system is applied to a linear Moog-style filter to emulate some saturation effects of the analog filter under high-amplitude conditions.