Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-17), Edinburgh, UK, September 5–9, 2017 REAL-TIME PHYSICAL MODEL OF A WURLITZER AND RHODES ELECTRIC PIANO Florian Pfeifle Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg Hamburg, DE
[email protected] ABSTRACT tation methodology as is published in [21]. This work aims at extending the existing physical models of mentioned publications Two well known examples of electro-acoustical keyboards played in two regards by (1) implementing them on a FPGA for real-time since the 60s to the present day are the Wurlitzer electric piano synthesis and (2) making the physical model more accurate when and the Rhodes piano. They are used in such diverse musical gen- compared to physical measurements as is discussed in more detail res as Jazz, Funk, Fusion or Pop as well as in modern Electronic in section 4 and 5. and Dance music. Due to the popularity of their unique sound and timbre, there exist various hardware and software emulations which are either based on a physical model or consist of a sample 2. RELATED WORK based method for sound generation. In this paper, a real-time phys- ical model implementation of both instruments using field pro- Scientific research regarding acoustic and electro-mechanic prop- grammable gate array (FPGA) hardware is presented. The work erties of both instruments is comparably sparse. Freely available presented herein is an extension of simplified models published user manuals as well as patents surrounding the tone production before. Both implementations consist of a physical model of the of the instruments give an overview of basic physical properties of main acoustic sound production parts as well as a model for the both instrument [5]; [7]; [8]; [13]; [4].