The Emulated Ensemble: Real-Time Simulation of Musical Instruments using Finite-Difference Time-Domain Methods

Digital versions of musical instruments have been created for several decades, and for good reasons! They are more compact, more easy to maintain, and less difficult to play than their real-life counterparts. One way to digitise an instrument is to record it and play back the samples, but this does not capture the entire range of expression of the real instrument. Simulating an instrument based on its physics, including its geometry and material properties, is much more flexible to player control. Although it requires more computational power to generate the sound in real time, the simulation could possibly go beyond what is physically possible. A violin growing into a cello, bowing your trumpet, your imagination is the limit...