DIGITAL FILTER DESIGN FOR AUDIO PROCESSING

Ethan Elenberg [email protected] Stephanie Ng [email protected] Anthony Hsu Marc LHeureux [email protected] [email protected] Alaap Parikh [email protected] Michelle Yu [email protected] E.J. Thiele [email protected]

Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

ABSTRACT
The goal of this research project was to delve into digital signal processing with audio files by learning the basics and then applying them to the two specific areas of equalization and delay/reverberation. Through the use of the engineering mathematics program MATLAB, it was possible to digitally create, apply, and analyze these effects. Original sound files were compared with their modified versions and the respective graphs were used to determine the effects of the filters, as well as the optimal parameters for the best filters.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION MATLAB

MATLAB is an engineering mathematics program. Unlike other similar programs, such as Mathematica, MATLAB is focused more on numerical computation than on algebraic analysis. This makes it much more suited for manipulating data than other programs. MATLAB also offers a variety of functions for analyzing and manipulating large collections of data (which is what a digital signal amounts to on a computer). Using the built-in functions of the MATLAB programming language and several functions provided by Professor Orfanadis of the Rutgers University Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, it was much easier to design and implement our digital filters than if we had programmed them in another language, such as C or Java. (1)

INTRODUCTION
Digital signal processing is the use of computer (or, more generally, digital) algorithms to alter a stream of data, and thus the information being represented by the stream. It is the extension of analog signal processing into the digital realm. The uses of digital signal processing are many-fold in a modern, computer-driven society. Filters may be used to scrub audio data streams to increase the reliability of RADAR for defense systems. They may also be used to boost and cut specific frequency ranges in an audio file to make it more pleasant to the ear. Even the echoes and reverberations heard in many popular songs are the products of post-recording digital signal processing. Digital signal processing is not only restricted to audio. It may be used to remove noise from digital pictures and television images. We used MATLAB to design and implement digital audio filters on sound files we created.

ANALOG VERSUS DIGITAL

As said before, digital signal processing may be thought of as the extension of the ideas and techniques of analog signal processing into the digital realm. Analog signals are representations of streams of data in a medium that is continuously variable with time. Stated differently, these streams of data may represent different values at different times, with an arbitrarily small (practically non-existent) amount of time between different values. These signals are usually electric, and the data is represented by some variable electric quantity (most usually voltage). They are processed by changing the pre-chosen quantity as prescribed by some algorithm. Digital signals are representations of analog signals using discrete points of data with some amount of time between them where the

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

values may not change. The accuracy of the digital representation of an analog signal can be increased by decreasing the amount of time between data points. Each data point is called a sample; by increasing the number of samples per second, one may increase the fidelity of the digital stream. Digital streams are processed by changing the individual samples, as prescribed by some pre-chosen algorithm. (2)

DIGITAL FREQUENCIES
A stream is said to have a sampling frequency, fs, if there are fs samples per second. Changing the fs of a stream during playback will change the perceived natural frequencies of the stream. An audio CD normally has a sampling frequency of 44,100 samples per second. The digital frequency, fd, is equal to
1

for some
Figure 1: Frequency Chart (1)

natural (continuous) frequency, f1. Since time has no meaning in a completely digital (discrete) system, samples are used instead. fd is, therefore, the digital analog of f1. The Nyquist interval is the minimum number of samples per second required to accurately represent an analog signal of a given maximum frequency, fmax. It is mathematically equal to 2*fmax. This is the reason that most audio CDs have a sampling frequency of 44,100 Hertz (Hz), or samples per second; the approximate upper bound of human hearing is about 20,000 Hz, or approximately one-half of 44,100 Hz. Most digital frequencies are also expressed as radial frequencies, meaning they have units of radians per cycle. To convert from a natural frequency, f1, to radial frequency, fR, one uses the equation fR = 2f1. (2)

FOURIER TRANSFORMS
A Fourier transform does for sound what a prism does for light; it breaks it up into its parts. Just as a beam of light is made up of many different colors, a segment of sound is made up of many different frequencies.

CONTINUOUS TIME FOURIER TRANSFORM (CTFT)

A Fourier transform is a linear operator that converts a function into a continuous function of its frequency components. The Fourier transform is mathematically written as

where :

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

: () :
Explained in more general terms, an audio signal can be described as the summation of sine functions, each with its own frequency and amplitude. A Fourier transform converts the signal into a continuous function with frequency f and amplitude x(f). Fundamentally, if you pass a given frequency to the function x(f), it will output the magnitude of that frequency in the sound sample.

where = () = 2 = 2

FINITE-LENGTH DTFT
One major problem with the DTFT is that it evaluates the summation from negative infinity to positive infinity. This, due to the fact that computers have a finite amount of memory, is impossible to evaluate on a computer. It is thus modified to the approximation

DISCRETE TIME FOURIER TRANSFORMS (DTFT)

A functional problem with the CTFT is that it requires a continuous function as an input. In real-world implementations, continuous functions are impossible to obtain. Instead, discrete time samples are used. This requires the use of a function that can use a discrete time function as an input. This function is the DTFT. Mathematically, it is a special case of the bilateral Z-transform where the Z-transform is evaluated around the unit circle in the complex domain. The bilateral Z-transform is defined as where

=
=0

: .
As L increases, the difference between the finite length DTFT and the unmodified sequence decreases. In practice, () is evaluated a finite number of times, n, over one period, 2. Thus,

2 , = 0,1,2 , 1 .

The special case is when = , in which case the DTFT becomes

When you substitute into (), you get the following equation:

=
=

=
=0

[] .

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

Because = 0 for , if , the equation becomes:

algorithm, Rader's FFT algorithm, and Bluestein's FFT algorithm.

=
=0

[] .

MATLAB SPECTRUM FUNCTION

Spectrum is a function we used frequently in MATLAB to look at the spectral envelope of a recorded sine wave. Spectrum takes in a vector of numbers from a .wav file and the sampling frequency of the file. The function outputs the FFT of the .wav file in a graph. Figure 1 is what a sample of the raw plot of a 440 Hz sine wave looks like.

In this format, X[K] is now a discrete Fourier transform (DFT). In this format, N is the resolution at which the DTFT is sampled and L is the limit of the resolution of the DTFT. Thus, it makes sense for N and L to be very close to each other. N and L are almost always selected so that N L. Obtaining a DFT is important because a DFT is both discrete and finite, meaning that it can easily be processed by a computer.

FAST FOURIER TRANSFORMS (FFT)

An FFT is a method of evaluating a DFT on a computer system. If you were to directly evaluate the DFT function,

[] =
=0

2 []

Figure 2

,
it would take a time of ( 2 ). If an FFT is used, this is reduced to a time of ( log ). This means that on a sample of 1,024 bits, the FFT is 102.4 times faster then directly computing the DFT (2). Without the use of FFTs, Fourier transforms would be impractical for most applications. The most common FFT is the Cooley-Turkey algorithm. Other FFT algorithms include Prime-factor FFT algorithm, Bruun's FFT

The following example outputs the FFT of the 440 Hz sine wave. >>[x,fs]=wavread(440hzsine.wav); >>spectrum(x,fs);

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

This code outputs the graph shown in Figure 3.

This sample demonstrates the utility of the FFT because it contains many frequencies with different amplitudes, which would be very difficult to see with only the raw plot.

Figure 3

Because the input contains only one frequency at 440Hz, the output FFT has one sharp spike at the 440Hz position. An input with only one frequency never happens in practical applications. The next example is a more common sound, the human voice. This is what a sample of the raw plot of our voice sample looks like:

Figure 5

FIR AND IIR FILTERS

Filters are electronic circuits that respond to impulses, processing signals by enhancing certain aspects and/or reducing certain aspects. There are several different types of filters. A finite impulse response (FIR) filter is one in which the output signal goes to zero in some finite amount of time. In contrast, an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter may run for an arbitrarily long period of time and never have the output go to zero. The difference between the two types of filters is that an IIR filter is recursive; i.e., an IIR filter will take its previous output and use it as input for the next output, whereas an FIR filter will take as input the current sample in addition to some previous sample. In other words, an IIR filter has internal feedback while an FIR filter does not. Figure 6 shows an example of block diagrams for an FIR filter and an IIR filter. Some common FIR and IIR filters include low-pass and high-pass filters, which cut back high and low frequencies, while passing low and high frequencies, respectively (hence their names), while amplifying the passed

Figure 4

The following MATLAB code shows the FFT of the voice sample. >>[x,fs]=wavread(vocals2.wav); >>spectrum(x,fs);

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

frequencies. In addition, these filters also smooth out the signal in the time domain, making amplitude changes less pronounced.

sound's loudness will increase logarithmically. It so happens that the human hearing mechanism also operates logarithmically, so that by doubling the loudness of a sound in decibels, one also doubles the apparent loudness, even though the intensity has gone up one-hundred fold. The formula for decibels is

= 20 log10 .
Boosts and cuts are usually represented by gains stated in terms of decibels. A gain of a positive number of decibels will increase the loudness of (boost) the target frequencies, whereas a gain of a negative number of decibels will decrease the loudness of (cut) the target frequencies.

SHELVING
One specific equalization technique worth mentioning by itself is shelving. A shelf filter boosts or cuts an entire band of frequencies at the beginning or end of the spectrum. The maximum boost or cut is at the extremity from which the shelf originates. The shelf is useful because an entire set of frequencies can be boosted or cut relatively equally, unlike a peak boost or notch cut, where the central frequency is affected the most.

Figure 6

EQUALIZATION
Parametric equalizers allow for an engineer to selectively modify certain frequencies within a digital signal. By applying a boost (increasing the intensity of a given frequency) or a cut (decreasing the intensity of a given frequency) to a certain frequency range centered around some frequency, one may be able to eliminate noise in an audio file or make the melody of a song more prominent (usually by boosting the middle and high frequency ranges).

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The process of equalization is made much easier in MATLAB by the script files of Professor Orfanidis of the Rutgers University Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The three files that he provided are published in the appendix of this paper and are briefly discussed here.

DECIBELS
The loudness of a sound is usually measured in units called decibels. As the intensity (which is technically pressure on the eardrum) grows linearly, the measure of the

SPECTRUM.M
This script receives as parameters a vector containing the waveform data and the intended sampling rate for that waveform. After performing the FFT operation on the data, it

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outputs a graph showing the spectral envelope of the waveform. spectrum is especially useful for determining which cuts and boosts to apply to a stream and for reviewing the results of a cut or boost after application.

transfer function for the filter specified by the parameters of the script. The first gain value, G0, specifies which value to cut or boost from. For the purposes of this paper, G0 will remain 1, meaning that there is a net change on the signal of 0 dB or, more simply, there is no net change on the signal. The next parameter, G, specifies what amount of gain to apply to the frequency band specified later. The third gain parameter, GB, specifies the amount of gain to be applied at the edges of the bandwidth. For all non-shelf filters created in this paper, a constant of 1/ 2 is used, and for shelved filters, the bandwidth gain in decibels applied is equal to one half of the gain of the boost or cut. The two frequency values specify the band of frequencies to which the filter will be applied. The first, w0, is the center frequency of the boost or cut. The second, dw, specifies onehalf of the bandwidth of the filter.

MAGRESPONSE.M
This script receives as parameters two vectors a and b which contain the coefficients for descending powers of z for the denominator and numerator (respectively) of the transfer function (). It then plots them as though the unit impulse were filtered using the transfer function and displays that graph. This script is useful for determining the overall behavior of a specific cut or boost, or that of all of the cascaded cuts and boosts in the final filter.

PARMEQ.M
This script takes as parameters three gain values (all in magnitude gain, not decibels) and two frequency values (in radians per sample). parmeq returns a matrix that contains two vectors a and b which contain the coefficients for descending powers of z for the denominator and numerator (respectively) of the

GUITARDISTORT.M
The first of two parametric equalization filters we created is defined in a script called guitarDistort. The filter operates on an audio signal represented in the file guitarDistort.wav.

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Figure 7: guitardistort.wav (top to bottom) magnitude response of the filter, spectrum of input, spectrum of output

The raw signal (represented in the middle graph of figure 7) has a heavily saturated bass within the frequency band of approximately 80 Hz to 200 Hz. The band also has peak magnitudes that rival those of the frequencies in the middle band, where most of the melody comes from. The saturation of this band is probably due to the white (random) noise that was overlaid onto the signal of the guitar during recording, which means that we can cut the bass slightly. At the same time, the bass frequencies offer both character and melody to the sound that the signal represents, and cannot, therefore, be completely removed from the signal. To correct for the prominence of the bass frequencies, we applied a 12 dB cut centered at 150 Hz to this band, which removes a good deal of muddiness from the final signal. Upon applying the bass-cut filter, we realized that the middle frequencies (which have peaks in the range of approximately 200 Hz to 600 Hz) now seemed overbearing. The only option was to cut these as well, since restoring the bass to its original intensity would cause the sound to once again become muddy. We decided to design the cut such that the target frequencies would remain more intense (in terms of decibels) than the bass frequencies, but so that they would be cut to the same intensity

range as the other bands of frequencies. The cut applied is 4.5 dB, centered at 300 Hz. We finally noticed that the distortion effect was not as full as it should be, due to the filtering we applied. To correct this, we applied a 6.8 dB boost with a bandwidth of 2,000 Hz centered at 2,500 Hz to amplify the white noise in that region. The band chosen was selected specifically so that the boost would neither affect any of the areas of melody nor amplify any of the very high audible frequencies, which would result in a very distracting, high-pitched sound in the final audio representation.

PIANOMARIO.M
Our second parametric equalizer is defined in a script called pianoMario. The filter operates on an audio signal represented in the file pianoMario.wav. Similar to the guitarDistort filter, we recognized the bass frequencies to be slightly overbearing. We also noticed from the spectral envelope graph that there were some lowintensity, low-frequency disturbances. To fix both of these problems, we applied a low-shelf filter with a bandwidth of 220 Hz and a magnitude of 3 dB.

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

Figure 8: panomario.wav (top to bottom) magnitude response of the filter, spectrum of input, spectrum of output

We also found a narrow band of frequencies between approximately 250 Hz and 350 Hz that were much more intense than those that surrounded them. We applied a 5 dB cut centered at 300Hz with a bandwidth of 90 Hz to reduce the intensity of this band so that the middle tones would sound evenly loud.

DELAY AND REVERBERATION DELAY

The effect of delay is achieved when a signal is played and then a modified version of that signal is played back after a period of time, either one time or multiple times, resulting in an echoing effect. The simplest version of delay is an FIR filter through which a signal is played back only one time. This is called simple delay. Delay time and relative amplitude (and hence relative intensity) for the echo are two parameters that can be specified.

Reverberation, or reverb, is a slightly more complex IIR form of delay. Reverb is used to digitally simulate a surrounding by modeling echoes that would naturally be present in that environment. The simplest type of reverb is the plain reverb, which is essentially just a simple delay in an IIR form. In this form, part of the echo output is re-inputted into the system every delay period. In each iteration, the preceding delayed output is multiplied by the multiplier coefficient. It is important that the multiplier coefficient is less than one, or else the reverberations will grow increasingly louder. With a coefficient less than one, the reverberations decay exponentially and approach zero.

UNIT IMPULSES AND IMPULSE FUNCTIONS

A unit impulse is a pulse with no width that still maintains an area of unity, i.e., 1. This causes the amplitude to be infinite. The unit impulse function, (x), is defined to be infinity at

REVERBERATION

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

x = 0 and 0 for all other values of x. It can be expressed mathematically as

For the remainder of this paper, the discrete unit impulse function is referred to as a unit impulse. An impulse response is the output of a system when a unit impulse is inputted. In reality, however, it is impossible to input a unit impulse, i.e., a pulse with zero width, so a very brief pulse is used to simulate a unit impulse. As long as the unit impulse is short compared to the impulse response, this approximation of the unit impulse yields impulse responses very close to the theoretical impulse responses. To generate a unit impulse in MATLAB, a vector is defined with a value of 1 for one sample and a value of 0 for all other samples. The single sample with a value of 1 acts as the unit pulse. In theory, it should not matter how many zeros are added after the 1 because the important thing is passing the unit pulse through. However, in MATLAB, the output length is only as long as the input length, so in order to see the impulse response of a filter, you need to specify an appropriate input length that will yield a meaningful output length.

and graphically as

This is a theoretical conceptualization that is impossible for real systems. However, there is a discrete digital version of the unit impulse function. In the world of digital signal processing, the discrete unit impulse function, (n), returns 1 if n = 0 and 0 if n 0. It can be expressed mathematically as

DIFFERENCE EQUATION AND TRANSFER FUNCTION

The general form of a difference equation, which relates the input signal to the output signal, for an FIR filter is

and graphically as

y[n] b0 x[n] b1 x[n 1] ... bN x[n N ] .

The simple delay is the simplest FIR delay filter, and it creates a single echo of an input at a specified later time. Thus, for a simple delay, the difference equation becomes

y[n] b0 x[n] bN x[n N ] .

Since the first term on the right side of the equation corresponds to the original input and is not being altered, the coefficient b0 is always 1. The second term on the right side is the single echo. N is the order of the filter and refers to the

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Digital Filter Design for Audio Processing

time delay of the echo. Digitally, a time delay is expressed in terms of samples. Thus, N is in terms of samples. For a simple delay, b0 = 1, bN is expressed as , and N is referred to as the delay D, which is, again, in units of samples. The difference equation then becomes

y(n) x(n) x(n D) .

is called the weighting factor, which is a measure of the relative amplitude of the echo compared to the input. For example, if = 0.5, the echo would have half the amplitude of the input and would sound about half as loud. The Z-transform is applied to the difference equation to convert it from a timedomain signal to a complex frequency-domain representation. The application of the Ztransform to the difference equation yields the transfer function, which applies the desired effect in the complex frequency-domain. The general form of the transfer function is

In MATLAB, the function simple.m acts as the difference equation and the corresponding transfer function. It takes as input a vector x, which could be a sound file, along with a weighting factor , a delay time Dt, in seconds, which is easily converted to samples D by multiplying Dt by the sampling frequency, fs, which is the last input parameter. So in summary, the function simple.m takes as input (x, , Dt, fs). The function outputs the filtered result y, along with the filter coefficients a and b. Supposing the input x were a sound file, the output y would be the filtered sound with the delay effect. a is a matrix of the filter coefficients in the denominator of the transfer function, and b is a matrix of the numerator filter coefficients in the same function. As suggested by the general form of a transfer function for a simple delay, a is always 1 for a FIR simple delay filter. b is a 1 by D (which is equal to Dt fs) matrix that has a value of 1 for the first column, a value of a for th the D column, and a value of 0 for all other columns. The filter coefficients a and b can then be passed through the function imresponse.m, which takes as input these filter coefficients along with two more parameters, impulse length and sampling frequency. This function outputs a plot of the impulse response of the generated filter, which in this case was a simple delay filter. When dealing with IIR filters, such as plain reverb filters, different versions of the difference equation and transfer function are used. The general form of the difference equation is

H ( z)

b z
i 0 i

N i

zN

For a simple delay, this equation becomes

H ( z)

b z
i 0 i

D i

zD

However, this can be simplified further: b0 = 1 and bD = . For all other values of i, bi = 0. Thus, the transfer function for a simple delay becomes

y[n] bi x[n i] a j y[n j ] .

i 0 j 1

1 z D 0 z D D H ( z) 1 z D . D z

The first summation refers to feed-forward filtering, where P is the feed-forward filter order and the bi is the feed-forward filter coefficient. The second summation refers to feedback filtering, where Q is the feedback filter order and

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the aj is the feedback filter coefficient. x[n] is the input signal and y[n] is the output signal. In our case, for a plain reverb filter, we are not dealing with feed-forward filtering, so P = 0. Thus, we can simplify the general form of the difference equation to

Now recall that P = 0, b0 = 1, Q = D, and aj = 0 except for aD, which equals . Then the transfer function becomes

H ( z)

1 . 1 z D

y[n] b0 x[n] a j y[n j ] .

j 1

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN SIMPLE.M

However, this can be simplified further. We are only casting a single delay in IIR form, which we specify to occur D samples later. D is equivalent to Q, so D also represents the feedback filter order. b0 = 1 because this coefficient corresponds to the original input x[n], which we are not altering. aD is usually represented by , which is called the weighting sample and is a measure of the relative amplitude of the next reverb compared to the previous one (or the original sample if the next reverb is the first reverb). All other aj coefficients have a value of 0 because we are only casting a single delay, rather than multiple delays, in IIR form. The simplest general form of the difference equation of a plain reverb filter is thus

y[n] x[n] y[n D] .

You will notice that the second term on the right side of the equation is a function of y. This is the previous output that is re-inputted, which leads to the reverberation effect. Now, to find our transfer function, we again apply the Z-transform to the difference equation. The general form of the transfer function is

In MATLAB, the function simple.m acts as the difference equation and the corresponding transfer function. It takes as input a vector x, which could be a sound file, along with a weighting factor , a delay time Dt, in seconds, which is easily converted to samples D by multiplying Dt by the sampling frequency, fs, which is the last input parameter. So in summary, the function simple.m takes as input (x, , Dt, fs). The function outputs the filtered result y, along with the filter coefficients a and b. Supposing the input x were a sound file, the output y would be the filtered sound with the delay effect. a is a matrix of the filter coefficients in the denominator of the transfer function, and b is a matrix of the numerator filter coefficients in the same function. As suggested by the general form of a transfer function for a simple delay, a is always 1 for a FIR simple delay filter. b is a 1 by D (which is equal to Dt fs) matrix that has a value of 1 for the first column, a value of a for th the D column, and a value of 0 for all other columns. For this project, we wrote a program called simpledelay.m, which serves four purposes. First, it takes a .wav file as input and converts it to a vector of samples. Then, the script runs simple.m using the two inputted parameters, plays the modified signal, and generates graphs of the impulse response, original waveform, and output waveform.

H ( z)

b z a
j 0 i 0 Q i j

.
z
j

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COMPLEXDELAY.M
To more accurately simulate natural reverberation, we also designed a program called complexdelay.m. This script takes as input a .wav file and five sets of factors and delay times, corresponding to five plain reverb effects. After converting the file to samples, three plain reverbs are applied independently to the original waveform. It sums the resulting signals before performing two additional reverbs.

Figure 9

PLAIN.M
The MATLAB function plain.m applies the difference equation and the transfer function. It takes the same parameters as simple.m and outputs the same things. The only difference is that the filtered sound has a reverberation effect applied and the filter coefficients a and b are different. b, the numerator coefficient, is always 1, and a is a 1 D matrix that has 1 as its first column, as its last column, and zeros for all other columns. Our program, called plaindelay.m, works similarly to simpledelay.m; it imports a .wav file, adds reverb using plain.m, plays the new signal, and generates impulse, input, and output graphs.

Figure 11

IMRESPONSE.M
Both the simple.m filter and the plain.m filter output filter coefficients a and b. These filter coefficients can then be passed through the function imresponse.m, which takes as input these filter coefficients along with two more parameters, impulse length and sampling frequency. This function then outputs a plot of the impulse response of the generated filter.

GUITARARPEG.WAV
This file is a recording of arpeggiated guitar notes at 120 beats per minute. First we applied the simpledelay.m program with a weighting factor of 0.8 and a delay time of 0.25 seconds. Because the delay time was half the notes durations, the effect fills in the space in between notes without overlapping. See figure.

Figure 10

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Figure 12: Simple Delay Impulse Response (.25 sec) (Guitararpeg.wav)

Then we applied the same simple delay with an of 0.75 and a half second delay time. This time the delay time was the same length as

the duration of the notes. The sounds overlapped with nothing in between.

Figure 13: Simple Impulse Response (.5 sec) (Guitararpeg.wav)

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Figure 14: Plain Reverb Impulse Response (Guitararpeg.wav)

Last, we decided to run plaindelay.m with an of 0.7 and a delay time of 0.25 seconds. The reverberation filled the space in

between notes and overlapped into the next note.

Figure 15: Slap-Back Delay (Talkfemale.wav)

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Figure 16: Simple Delay Response (Talkfemale.wav)

delayed sound are still differentiable.(Figure 16)

TALKFEMALE.WAV
This signal is one recorded paragraph of a womans voice. First, we set the weighting factor to 0.5 and ran simpledelay.m with a 0.060 second delay time. This created a quick, simple echo in which the original sound and the

Although the delay was quick, it was not a true slap-back delay effect. By reducing the delay time to 25 milliseconds and re-executing the program, we created a delay that blended with the original sound. The voice was almost doubled on itself.(Figure 15)

Figure 17: Complex Reverb Response (Talkfemale.wav)

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Finally, we ran the complexdelay.m script with 1 = .4, dt1 = .14, 2 = .38, dt2 = .118, 3 = .42, dt3 = 0.094, 4 = .15, dt4 = 0.086, = .35, and dt5 = .073. The first three plain reverbs were applied separately and then added together. Then, the last two were applied in succession to the already modified file. This complex reverb simulates the natural echoing of a large room or hall. (Figure 17)

dt3 = .094, 4 = .25, dt4 = .086, 5 = .45, and dt5 = .073. This series of plain reverbs recreated the environment of a large hall for a piano.

APPLICATIONS
A common application of a simple delay filter is a slap-back delay effect. This filter applies a very short delay (about 25 milliseconds), which is too close to the original sample for the human ear to distinguish it as an echo. Instead, we hear it as a richer, fuller voice. In practice, long delay times are generally not used, since reverb should not

PIANOMARIOEND.WAV

This audio file is a short piano recording.

Figure 18: Plain Reverb Response (Panomarioend.wav)

First, we ran plaindelay.m with an of 0.67 and a delay time of 0.089 seconds to add a plain reverb effect. This quick effect simulated a slight echo similar to that of a small room. Then, we ran another complex reverb with 1 = .5, dt1 = .14, 2 = .48,dt2 =.118, 3 = .52,

sound like distinct repetitions of the original sample but should create an interesting effect through a blend of multiple delays that creates a dynamic texture. However, long delay times can be used with arpeggiated guitar tracks with substantial rests to give the effect of multiple

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Figure 19: Complex Reverb Response (Pianomarioend.wav)

guitars playing simultaneously and to add harmonics behind a tone.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

Today, any group of friends can get together in a garage, record some songs, edit them, and put out a decent CD. A basic recording studio costs less than $1,000, and plenty of free recording software is available on the web, which allows bands to easily edit their music by applying filters and effects. This project investigated how some simple filters actually work. We programmed all the functions that comprise the filters ourselves. This project served as an introduction to digital signal processing, primarily audio signal processing. We specifically investigated delay, reverb, and equalization filters. We learned about various digital transforms that accomplish the actual filtering effects of delay, reverb, and equalization. Most of us had prior experience with audio equipment or technical theater work, so we had some familiarity with how audio systems and processing work. However, this project

actually delved into the inner workings of these systems and we created our own filters from scratch. We recorded our own sound samples, which we processed with the filters we created. We were given an overview of the involved math behind signal conversion and transformation. Equipment and software that we had previously only used at a superficial level we now understood and could manipulate at a much deeper level. Our project focused on digital signal analysis and manipulation via MATLAB. However, the average user of equalization and reverb effects does not want to input lines of code and parameters into a mathematical program. A good future project would be to design a convenient, graphical user interface similar to todays recording programs. In reality, audio equipment and software apply much more complicated filters than just simple delay, plain reverb, basic parametric equalization, low shelving, and high shelving. Multiple delays, complex reverb, and cascading filters that combine many kinds of parametric equalizers are actually used. Given more time, more sophisticated and practical filters could be designed and applied.

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Throughout the course of this project, we created programs to perform multiple tasks. Another topic of study could focus on using an artificial-intelligence algorithm to analyze a given waveform, detect imperfections, suggest filter parameters, and apply them in one implementation. Finally, all the filtering done was completely digitalized. If we were to extend this project to incorporate live filtering, we would have to work in the analog domain as well as the field of analog to digital conversion. This would require an introduction into the theory and background of analog signal processing. This project gave us a sample of the huge world of signal processing. The background behind it is very technical, but this field has very clear real-world applications.

2. Rossing, Thomas D, Moore, Richard and Wheeler, Paul A. The Science of Sound. New York : Addison Wesley, 2002. 0-8053-8565-7. 3. Oppenheim, Alan V and Willsky, Alan S. Signals & Systems. Upper Saddle River : Prentice Hall, 1997. 0-13-814757-4. 4. IDCS. Frequency Chart. [Online] [Cited: July 16, 2007.] http://www.idcs.info/images/frequency_chart_we b.jpg. 5. Peters, Randall D. Graphical explanation for the speed of the Fast Fourier Transform . [Online] Febuary 18, 2003. [Cited: July 18, 2007.] http://arxiv.org/html/math.HO/0302212.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would first like to thank Rutgers, the Governor's School of New Jersey, and all of the Governor's School Staff and Organizers for providing us with this great program and research opportunity. We would also like to thank Brian Maguire, our research mentor, for generously lending us his time and experience in teaching, helping, and pushing us along with our research project. Also, we would like to thank Blase Ur, the Governor's School program coordinator, for his advice and suggestions as well as his guidance on the project and paper, and all of the great counselors for their motivation and assistance throughout our stay at Rutgers. Finally, we would like to thank all of our parents and teachers for everything that they have done for us throughout the years.

CITATIONS
1. Palm III, William J. Introduction to Matlab 7 for Engineers. New York : Mc Graw Hill, 2005. 007-254818-5.

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APPENDIX A (MATLAB CODE) SIMPLE.M

function [y,b,a]=simple(x,alpha,Dt,fs)

Dsamp=Dt*fs; b=[1 zeros(1,Dsamp-2) alpha]; a=1;

y=filter(b,a,x);

PLAIN.M

function [y,b,a]=plain(x,alpha,Dt,fs)

Dsamp=round(Dt*fs); b=1; a=[1 zeros(1,Dsamp-2) -alpha];

y=filter(b,a,x);

IMRESPONSE.M

function imresponse(b,a,ln,fs)

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im=[1 zeros(1,ln-1)]; yim=filter(b,a,im);

tplot=(0:ln-1)/fs; stem(tplot,abs(yim),'.') xlabel('time (sec)') title('Impulse Response')

SIMPLEDELAYTEST.M

function [y,b,a,fs]=simpledelay(file,alpha,Dt) [x,fs]=wavread(file); x=transpose(x); [y,b,a]=simple(x,alpha,Dt,fs);

sound(y,fs)

%GRAPHING tplot=(0:(fs-1))/fs; subplot(3,1,1); imresponse(b,a,fs,fs); title('Simple Delay Impulse Response') xlabel('time (seconds)'); subplot(3,1,2);

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plot(tplot,x(1:fs)); axis([0 1 -.35 .35]) title('Input'); xlabel('time (seconds)'); subplot(3,1,3); plot(tplot,y(1:fs)); title('Output'); axis([0 1 -.35 .35]) xlabel('time (seconds)');

PLAINDELAYTEST.M

function [y,b,a,fs]=plaindelay(file,alpha,Dt) [x,fs]=wavread(file); x=transpose(x); [y,b,a]=plain(x,alpha,Dt,fs);

sound(y,fs)

%GRAPHING tplot=(0:(fs-1))/fs; subplot(3,1,1); imresponse(b,a,fs,fs); title('Simple Reverb Impulse Response')

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xlabel('time (seconds)'); subplot(3,1,2); plot(tplot,x(1:fs)); axis([0 1 -.75 .75]) title('Input'); xlabel('time (seconds)'); subplot(3,1,3); plot(tplot,y(1:fs)); axis([0 1 -.75 .75]) title('Output'); xlabel('time (seconds)');

COMPLEXDELAYTEST.M

function [y,b5,a5,fs]=complexdelay(file,alpha1,Dt1,alpha2,Dt2,alpha3,Dt3,alpha5,Dt5,alpha6,Dt6) [x,fs]=wavread(file); x=transpose(x); [x1,b1,a1]=plain(x,alpha1,Dt1,fs); [x2,b2,a2]=plain(x,alpha2,Dt2,fs); [x3,b3,a3]=plain(x,alpha3,Dt3,fs); x4=x1+.8*x2+.63*x3; [x5,b5,a5]=plain(x4,alpha5,Dt5,fs); [y,b6,a6]=plain(x5,alpha6,Dt6,fs);

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sound(y,fs)

%impulse tplot=(0:fs-1)/fs; im=[1,zeros(1,fs-1)]; [im1,ima1,imb1]=plain(im,alpha1,Dt1,fs); [im2,imb2,ima2]=plain(im,alpha2,Dt2,fs); [im3,imb3,ima3]=plain(im,alpha3,Dt3,fs); im4=im1+.8*im2+.63*im3; [im5,b5,a5]=plain(im4,alpha5,Dt5,fs); [yim,b6,a6]=plain(im5,alpha6,Dt6,fs);

%graphing

subplot(3,1,1); plot(tplot,yim); axis([0 1 0 1]) title('Complex Reverb Impulse Response') xlabel('time (seconds)'); subplot(3,1,2); plot(tplot,x(1:fs));

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title('Input'); xlabel('time (seconds)'); axis([0 1 -.75 .75]) subplot(3,1,3); plot(tplot,y(1:fs)); title('Output'); axis([0 1 -.75 .75]) xlabel('time (seconds)');

GUITARDISTORT.M

function [samp,filt,fs,b,a] = guitarDistort() [samp,fs] = wavread('guitardistort.wav');

f1 = 150; df = 250; w1 = 2 * pi * f1 / fs; dw = 2 * pi * df / fs; GdB = -12; G = 10 ^ (GdB / 20); [b1, a1] = parmeq(1, G, 1 / sqrt(2), w1, dw); %Reduces muddieness (-.25)

f1 = 300;

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df = 150; w1 = 2 * pi * f1 / fs; dw = 2 * pi * df / fs; GdB = -4.5; G = 10 ^ (GdB / 20); [b2, a2] = parmeq(1, G, 1 / sqrt(2), w1, dw); %Evens mid-frequencies (-.6)

f1 = 2500; df = 1000; w1 = 2 * pi * f1 / fs; dw = 2 * pi * df / fs; GdB = 6.8; G = 10 ^ (GdB / 20); [b3, a3] = parmeq(1, G, 1 / sqrt(2), w1, dw); %Raised the distortion in the %high frequencies. %(2.2) b = conv(b1,b2); b = conv(b,b3); a = conv(a1,a2); a = conv(a,a3);

filt = filter(b,a,samp);

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PIANOMARIO.M

function [samp, filt, fs, b, a] = pianoMario() [samp,fs] = wavread('pianomario.wav');

% The following is a low shelf filter to cut out % an obstrusively loud bass sound. The width of the % shelf is 220 Hz, and cuts 3 dB.

f1 = 0; df = 220; w1 = 2 * pi * f1 / fs; dw = 2 * pi * df / fs; GdB = -3; GBdB = GdB / 2; G = 10 ^ (GdB / 20); GB = 10 ^ (GBdB / 20); [b1, a1] = parmeq(1, G, GB, w1, dw);

% The following is a 5 dB cut to lower a small % spectrum of frequencies. The frequency band % is centered at 300 Hz, and has a band width % of 45 Hz.

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f1 = 300; df = 45; w1 = 2 * pi * f1 / fs; dw = 2 * pi * df / fs; GdB = -5; GBdB = GdB / 2; G = 10 ^ (GdB / 20); GB = 10 ^ (GBdB / 20); [b2, a2] = parmeq(1, G, GB, w1, dw);

% The following combines the two filters b = conv(b1, b2); a = conv(a1, a2); filt = filter(b, a, samp);

MAGRESPONSE.M

function magresponse(b,a,fs)

im=[1 zeros(1,fs-1)]; yim=filter(b,a,im);

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yimf=fft(yim); lf=ceil(length(yimf)/2); yimf=yimf(1:lf);

fplot=linspace(0,round(fs/2),lf); semilogx(fplot,20*log10(abs(yimf))) ylabel('dB') axis([10 22050 -9 9]) grid on

PARMEQ.M

%Program parmeq % parmeq.m - second-order parametric EQ filter design % % [b, a, beta] = parmeq(G0, G, GB, w0, Dw) % % b = [b0, b1, b2] = numerator coefficients % a = [1, a1, a2] = denominator coefficients % G0, G, GB = reference, boost/cut, and bandwidth gains % w0, Dw = center frequency and bandwidth in [rads/sample] % beta = design parameter % % for plain PEAK use: G0=0, G=1, GB=1/sqrt(2)

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% for plain NOTCH use: G0=1, G=0, GB=1/sqrt(2)

function [b, a, beta] = parmeq(G0, G, GB, w0, Dw)

beta = tan(Dw/2) * sqrt(abs(GB^2 - G0^2)) / sqrt(abs(G^2 - GB^2)); b = [(G0 + G*beta), -2*G0*cos(w0), (G0 - G*beta)] / (1+beta); a = [1, -2*cos(w0)/(1+beta), (1-beta)/(1+beta)];

SPECTRUM.M

function spectrum(x,fs)

xf=fft(x); lf=ceil(length(xf)/2); xf=xf(1:lf);

fplot=linspace(0,round(fs/2),lf); semilogx(fplot,abs(xf)) axis([10 22050 0 max(xf)]) grid on;

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