FM Synthesis of Acoustic Sound

Frequency modulation (FM) synthesis is a powerful method of sound synthesis, capable of creating a wide variety of tonal qualities with relatively few parameters. This project investigates the efficiency of a simple FM synthesis arrangement in replicating the timbres of two acoustic instruments: the cello and the organ. Using a least root mean square error (RMSE) approach to optimize the parameters, this study evaluates the complexity of timbres that this algorithm can accurately replicate, and its limitations. The findings indicate that this method is quite efficient at accurately replicating timbres with fewer partials, but struggles with richer overtone spectra. Specifically, it was more successful at replicating the timbre of organ pipes than cello tones, both in terms of the similarities of the overtone spectra and in the perceived likeness of sound.