Auto-Programmable FM and Wavetable Synthesizers

Replicating musical instruments is a classic problem of computer music. Historically, FM and wavetable synthesis have required trial-and-error optimization of the parameters. Recent work has used evolutionary computation to evolve parameters for synthesizing sounds. Genetic algorithms are particularly efficient and effective at auto-programming FM and wavetable synthesizers to replicate given sounds. This paper surveys FM and wavetable matching techniques with an emphasis on evolutionary methods.