Category: Research

Wave field synthesis build progress

Spent the week building speakers. 12 modules complete (48 speakers). Have yet to wire them all up. Still waiting on a few power adapters.

Wave field synthesis first speaker module

I built the first WFS speaker module and it turned out well. Now I have to build 11 more before Christmas. Just like Santa's workshop 🙂

Wave field synthesis array plans

Plans are coming along for construction of the ALMWFSLA (pronounced "almwfslah"), or Absurdly Large Modular Wave Field Synthesis Loudspeaker Array. The modules will be 18" x 4.5" with an open-back enclosure. This will allow for a 4'-6" x 3' plane array, a full surround line array 11 feet in diameter, and many more fascinating configurations. […]

Research Topics

Some research topics and project ideas for Fall 2010. Originally posted September 25, 2010 Wave field synthesis (thesis topic) desktop line array construction 96 driver modular array construction incorporate source directivity in software simulation FEM or parametric simulation with parallel acceleration (jCUDA); Java applet for visualizing loudspeaker array acoustic wave field, "wave box" Low-latency touch […]

PADsynth in MATLAB

Update, February 15, 2019: Try PADsynth in your browser. PADsynth is a synthesis technique that generates a lush sound with a simple algorithm. The algorithm begins with additive synthesis, where you build a timbre with a sine wave at the fundamental and each overtone. A frequency magnitude plot of this would show several thin spikes. […]

Loudspeaker Array Simulation

This is a simple acoustic beam steering simulation built in Processing/Java. The simulation has physical correspondence; it runs at 1/2000th realtime and at a scale of 10 pixels = 1 meter. The array size is fixed at 2.5 meters (25 pixels tall), positioned at the left edge of the display region. More at HRTF and […]

Wave Field Synthesis speakers

The first batch of 25 speakers for the WFS array has arrived. These will go into a mini-array configuration for testing nearfield listening. I bought these 4 ohm, 2" drivers from a distributor that happens to be in southern Florida.

4D Wave Field Synthesis

If you surround a listener with a great sphere of loudspeakers at a fixed distance, it should be trivial to produce a virtual source at any direction. What isn't trivial is producing a virtual source at an arbitrary distance, since the loudspeaker positions are fixed at a given distance from the listener. It could be […]