pysyn

A simple additive synthesizer.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my friend, Uzay Islek, who guided me through the intricacies of music theory and provided feedback on my ideas; the project would not have moved forward without his musical expertise.

Objectives

Overall, create a simple additive synthesizer in Python.

Short-term

1. Implement four basic oscillators: sine, square, triangle and sawtooth
2. Implement a "mixer" which:
   • Is able to handle several "tracks"
   • Can change the level/volume of the "tracks" in the mix
   • Is the interface for making any changes on the actual "track"
   • Compiles all the "tracks"
3. The "track" will be an internal object which will be responsible for:
   • Compiling the oscillator assigned to this track using a step sequence
4. Implement a scripted step-sequence - a way to write sheet music as code
   • Explore existing solutions:
     • MIDI (?)
     • LilyPond
   • Update (11.06.2024): Create a parser for abc notation - clean syntax, get sheet music, and easily expandable.

Long-term

1. Implement envelopes and ADSR for oscillators
2. Improve sound richness by adding harmonics - a new oscillator class (?)
3. Implement filters e.g. low pass, or high pass
4. Add samples from real instruments
5. Create a GUI for the synthesizer

Potential Issues

1. Implementing sheet-music into code may prove to be a huge challenge...
   • May require some simplifications
2. Making more complex sounds could be computationally expensive
   • Can explore HPC technqiues or store data of samples

Desired Product

import pysyn

mix = pysyn.Mixer()

mix.add_track(
    osc=pysyn.Oscillator(wave=pysyn.Oscillators.SIN),
    steps=[...],  # Step sequence of some song
    name='Track 1'
)

mix.set_level(track='Track 1', level=0.7)

mix.add_filter(
    track='Track 1',
    filter=pysyn.LowPassFilter(cutoff=440),
    start=5  # seconds
)

mix.compile_play()

For current progress refer to example.py.

Tech Stack

• Python 3.10+
• NumPy - For fast array calculations and mathematical constants and functions.

Further Reading

• Additive synthesis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis