A recent comparative study evaluated all known thunder synthesis techniques in terms of their perceptual realness. The findings concluded that none of the synthesised audio extracts seemed as realistic as the genuine phenomenon. The work presented herein is motivated by those findings, and attempts to create a synthesised sound effect of thunder indistinguishable from a real recording. The technique supplements an existing implementation with physics-inspired, signal-based design elements intended to simulate environmental occurrences. In a listening test conducted with over 50 participants, this new implementation was perceived as the most realistic synthesised sound, though still distinguishable from a real recording. Further improvements to the model, based on insights from the listening test, were also implemented and described herein.

Authors: Fineberg, Eva; Walters, Jack; Reiss, Joshua
Affiliations: Queen Mary University of London, UK; Nemisindo Ltd, UK; Native Instruments GmbH, Germany(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 152 (May 2022) Paper Number: 10574
Publication Date: May 2, 2022
Subject: Audio Synthesis & Audio Effects

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