A real-time sound synthesis model for propeller sounds is presented. Equations obtained from fluid dynamics and aerodynamics research are utilised to produce authentic propellerpowered aircraft sounds. The result is a physical model in which the geometries of the objects involved are used in sound synthesis calculations. The model operates in real-time making it ideal for integration within a game or virtual reality environment. Comparison with real propeller-powered aircraft sounds indicates that some aspects of real recordings are not replicated by our model. Listening tests suggest that our model performs as well as another synthesis method but is not as plausible as a real recording.

Aeroacoustics is a branch of engineering within fluid dynamics. It encompasses sounds generated by disturbances in air either by an airflow being disturbed by an object or an object moving through air. A number of fundamental sound sources exist depending on the geometry of the interacting objects and the characteristics of the flow. An example of a fundamental aeroacoustic sound source is the Aeolian tone, generated by vortex shedding as air flows around an object. A compact source model of this sound is informed from fluid dynamics principles, operating in real-time, and presenting highly relevant parameters to the user. A swinging sword, Aeolian harp, and propeller are behavior models are presented to illustrate how a taxonomy of real-time aeroacoustic sound synthesis can be achieved through physical informed modeling. Evaluation indicates that the resulting sounds are perceptually as believable as sounds produced by other synthesis methods, while objective evaluations reveal similarities and differences between our models, pre-recorded samples, and those generated by computationally complex offline methods.

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Featured Application: A real-time physical model sound effect that can replicate the sound of a number of swinging objects, such as a sword, baseball bat and golf club, has great potential for dynamic environments within virtual reality or games. The properties exposed by the sound effects model could be automatically adjusted by a physics engine giving a wide corpus of sounds from one simple model, all based on fundamental fluid dynamics principles.Abstract: A real-time physically-derived sound synthesis model is presented that replicates the sounds generated as an object swings through the air. Equations obtained from fluid dynamics are used to determine the sounds generated while exposing practical parameters for a user or game engine to vary. Listening tests reveal that for the majority of objects modelled, participants rated the sounds from our model as plausible as actual recordings. The sword sound effect performed worse than others, and it is speculated that one cause may be linked to the difference between expectations of a sound and the actual sound for a given object.

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