AUDITORY REPRESENTATIONS AS LANDMARKS IN THE SOUND DESIGN SPACE

A graphical tool for the timbre space exploration and inter- active design of complex sounds by physical modeling syn- thesis is presented. It is built around an auditory represen- tation of sounds based on spike functions and provides the designer with both a graphical and an auditory insight. The auditory representation of a number of reference sounds, lo- cated as landmarks in a 2D sound design space, provides the designer with an effective aid to direct his search along the paths that lie in the proximity of the most inspiring land- marks.