2022/04/17 by Eva Fineberg, Fineberg, Eva, Jack H. Walters +3
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Computer Science · Engineering · #Acoustic Wave Phenomena Research #Audio and Speech Processing (eess.AS) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #Greenhouse Technology and Climate Control #Music Technology and Sound Studies #Signal Processing (eess.SP) #Sound (cs.SD) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2204.08026
openalex publication_date 2022/04/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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.