Introduction to Spectral Analysis and Resynthesis in the Kyma Sound Design Environment
Channel: Spectral Evolver
Date: 03/06/2019

In this introductory tutorial we will take a basic look at spectral analysis and resynthesis specifically in the Kyma sound design environment. Also, some common terms used in spectral processing will be defined. To be sure, this is an introduction aimed at understanding some of the fundamentals.   

As stated in the video, spectral analysis is a process by which the time varying amplitude and frequency envelopes of a sound are extracted.

Resynthesis is the process of adding sine waves (most commonly) together whose time varying amplitude and frequency envelopes are controlled by the spectral analysis. 

A track of the spectrum is a time varying frequency and amplitude envelope that describes those changes in a single sine wave oscillator. For example, if your analysis has 128 tracks then you can have up to 128 oscillators (having more won't make the sound better). If you use less oscillators then you are synthesizing less partials. More partials should mean "better" sound but play with this as it's an interesting concept.  

A frame of the spectrum is the amplitude and frequency values of all the tracks at any one point in time.  

Using the resynthesis process of adding individual sine waves together to reconstruct the sampled sound (to an extent), instead of simply playing and scaling the playing of the recorded sample, we can now independently control the rate at which we read through the envelopes and independently control the frequencies of the oscillators. As a result, this allows for things like time compression and expansion to happen without changing the perceived pitch. In other words, we can control those parameters separately unlike when we are playing the sample itself. An A/B comparison of this is shown in the video. 

Further, with this spectral information we have set ourselves up, at least in part, for a spectral morph- a process in which we crossfade the spectra of sounds instead of simply crossfading the amplitude. 

If all of this seems a bit confusing, don't worry, just keep reading this description,  watching the video and practicing with your own spectral analyses and things will start to click (maybe literally). Also, here's a link to a ton of information on the subject for those that are curious: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/sasp/sasp.html

Thanks for watching and I welcome your questions and comments below.

00:00 - Intro 
00:34 - Kyma Tutorial 
01:43 - Understanding Resynthesis 
04:18 - Track Definition 
04:38 - Frame Definition 
06:13 - Spectra in the Sum of Sines Prototype
09:16 - Comparing with scaling sample playback 

Recommended reading on Kyma and computer music:
Kyma and the SumOfSines Disco Club: https://amzn.to/3lDiYv0
The Computer Music Tutorial: https://amzn.to/3noHqka
The Csound Book: https://amzn.to/38PZcc6

#kymasounddesign #kymademo #symbolicsoundkyma #frequencydomain #sounddesign #spectralanalysis #resynthesis #spectralframe #spectraltrack #spectralwindow #tutorial #beginner #introduction 

Sounds of the Month Sample Packs: https://gumroad.com/willklingenmeier

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