The role of frequency warping in physical models of sound sources

The accuracy or the results obtained by physical models in sound synthesis depends on the versatility of the computational model components. In fact, fitting a model to reality and perception is always necessary as on one hand the complex details of the physics of the source are often ignored and on the other hand it is impossible to take into account the variability of the system with respect to fine tuning. set up and adjustment. This is the paradigm of Physics-Based Sound Synthesis. Frequency warping, which consists in remapping the frequency axis in order to adjust the characteristics of the system is certainly a candidate method for model fitting. In this paper we illustrate warping algorithms that allow us to increase the flexibility of physical models of musical instruments. In particular, methods for obtaining approximate warping characteristics of arbitrary shapes at contained computational costs. useful for real-lime synthesis. are discussed.