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 Forum index » DIY Hardware and Software » ChucK programming language
Why do filters scream sometimes?
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cbit



Joined: Dec 01, 2005
Posts: 35

PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 3:02 pm    Post subject: Why do filters scream sometimes? Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

The following code (don't run it, for the sake of your ears) results in a deafening scream-like sound. I'd like to understand why (so I can avoid accidentally creating these noise shocks).

I'm guessing it's to do with the BPF wth it's frequency set to 20000. Any insights greatly appreciated!

Code:
PulseOsc osc => ADSR env => BPF filter => dac;
20000=>filter.freq;
0.5=>filter.Q;
while(true){
   1::second=>now;
   env.keyOn();
   20::ms=>now;
   env.keyOff();
}

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Antimon



Joined: Jan 18, 2005
Posts: 4145
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 2:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

This happens to me every now and then too. At first I thought it might be because you have leave the gain at unity, but doing 0.1 => filter.gain and 0.1 => osc.gain did hardly anything, even though I have a really low volume. Weird!

/Stefan

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cbit



Joined: Dec 01, 2005
Posts: 35

PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 3:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Yes, this was shocking for me because I always turn my laptop level right down when trying new audio code, but even with that precaution, the above code seemed to blast out at full volume, very alarming!
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kijjaz



Joined: Sep 20, 2004
Posts: 765
Location: bangkok, thailand
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 4:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I'm no DSP or Programming/Algorithm expert, but let's take a look at my inspection on the result first:

Code:
PulseOsc osc => BPF filter => blackhole;
20000 => filter.freq;
0.5 => filter.Q;
for(int i; i < 100; i++)
{
    <<< "osc: ", osc.last(), " filter: ", filter.last() >>>;
    samp => now;
}


We see the filtered result rises unstoppably all the time. This will surely overloaded the DAC very fast, and you might have to set DAC's gain to 1/MaxFloat to not let it clip hahahahah.. (seems silly)..

But i always suspected it has something to do with the combination of both freq and Q. First, i'll try to lower the filter's freq to the point that it won't behave like this:

Code:
PulseOsc osc => BPF filter => blackhole;
11000 => filter.freq;
0.5 => filter.Q;
for(int i; i < 100; i++)
{
    <<< "osc: ", osc.last(), " filter: ", filter.last() >>>;
    samp => now;
}


Ok, the result looks safer. How about changing the Q?
Around Q = 0.9, the filtered value still rises, but with Q = 1.0, it stops and behave just like what we'd like to se:

Code:
PulseOsc osc => BPF filter => blackhole;
20000 => filter.freq;
1.0 => filter.Q;
for(int i; i < 100; i++)
{
    <<< "osc: ", osc.last(), " filter: ", filter.last() >>>;
    samp => now;
}


So, i still don't know the math, but ok when i have to filter it out with very high freq, i normally increase the Q according to freq also so that it won't explode. for example:

Code:
PulseOsc osc => BPF filter => dac;
TriOsc lfo => blackhole;
0.5 => lfo.freq;

.1 => filter.gain;

while(true)
{
    (lfo.last() + 1)/2 * 22000 => filter.freq;
    (lfo.last() + 1)/2 * 4 + .5 => filter.Q;
    10::samp => now;
}


Yeah. This seems dangerous at first (with this high freq) but when played, comes out pretty smooth. And it's safe to change filter to LPF, HPF also --> it still function correctly. Even if we increase the filter.freq to 30000 = beyond nyquist frequency here with my VM running at sample rate = 44100, it still doesn't blow up.

So, one of my favourite solution is to increase Q according to the increased freq. I don't know the math behind this, but it does the trick and safe our ears. Maybe the ChucK developer team can identify the reason of this behavior from the butterworth codes in ChucK source code.
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kijjaz



Joined: Sep 20, 2004
Posts: 765
Location: bangkok, thailand
Audio files: 4

PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Code:
PulseOsc osc => BPF filter => LPF test => blackhole;
20000 => filter.freq;
0.5 => filter.Q;

22050 => test.freq;

for(int i; i < 100; i++)
{
    <<< "osc: ", osc.last(), " filter: ", filter.last(), "  test: ", test.last() >>>;
    samp => now;
}


This also stopped it from blowing up, but i don't know how safe it is.
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cbit



Joined: Dec 01, 2005
Posts: 35

PostPosted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Thanks kijjaz, its nice to notice how simple it is to do per-sample debugging with chuck.

I'd like to get a better idea of exactly how (and when) Q and frequency interact to create the screaming effect, (that would be quite disastrous during an ambient interlude Wink ). Will post back if I learn anything more.

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Kassen
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

cbit wrote:

I'd like to get a better idea of exactly how (and when) Q and frequency interact to create the screaming effect,


I think they simply become what is called "unstable" in filter design. It's fairly well understood how to prevent that (by science, I mean, not by me Smile ).

I noticed the same thing, BTW, it totally wrecked the start of one of my last livecode sessions on live radio. I don't know what I did to get it under controll, probably just change freq and Q randomly.

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cbit



Joined: Dec 01, 2005
Posts: 35

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

kijjaz wrote:
Code:
PulseOsc osc => BPF filter => LPF test => blackhole;
20000 => filter.freq;
0.5 => filter.Q;

22050 => test.freq;

for(int i; i < 100; i++)
{
    <<< "osc: ", osc.last(), " filter: ", filter.last(), "  test: ", test.last() >>>;
    samp => now;
}


This also stopped it from blowing up, but i don't know how safe it is.


That's odd. When I run this one, I do get the runaway 'blow up' effect (intel macbook).

Code:
osc:  0.000000  filter:  0.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -0.429949
osc:  1.000000  filter:  0.747586
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -1.247810
osc:  1.000000  filter:  2.027038
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -3.230805
osc:  1.000000  filter:  5.078371
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -7.899556
osc:  1.000000  filter:  12.189869
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -18.692963
osc:  1.000000  filter:  28.523933
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -43.353687
osc:  1.000000  filter:  65.684448
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -99.261597
osc:  1.000000  filter:  149.688995

[snip...]

osc:  1.000000  filter:  396605358080.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -592206823424.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  884276723712.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -1320392327168.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  1971595116544.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -2943963103232.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  4395892736000.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -6563897540608.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  9801136340992.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -14634940628992.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  21852720201728.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -32630219210752.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  48723056918528.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -72752694296576.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  108633480232960.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -162210244460544.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  242210436022272.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  841182498258944.000000
osc:  1.000000  filter:  -0.429949
osc:  1.000000  filter:  0.747586

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Kassen
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

cbit wrote:

That's odd. When I run this one, I do get the runaway 'blow up' effect (intel macbook).


My bet is that Kijjaz is running audio at 48KHz while you will be at 44.1KHz (I think those are the Linux & Mac defaults and I think those are your platforms). For digital filters sample rate matters. A given cut-off will mean different coefficients for different sample rates and in this case one of those may have a instability-causing rounding error. At other frequencies the reverse may hold true.

I think I'm going to report this to the list where we may reach Perry. Perry is probably our digital filter expert.

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kijjaz



Joined: Sep 20, 2004
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

hmm.. i see. i'll look more into this.
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cbit



Joined: Dec 01, 2005
Posts: 35

PostPosted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 6:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Looking around some more i noticed that BiQuad filter class has .norm (normalization) and .eqzs (equal gain zeroes) parameters. Hunting on the chuck list suggests to me that these parameters relate to an auto 'anti-blowing-up capability' of the BiQuad filter class.

The HP BP and LP have no such params. I understand that it's possible to use BiQuad to recreate these standard types (while taking advantage of its anti-blowup functionality?), but unfortunately that's a task way beyond my modest understanding of filter design.

(I've started reading introductory papers, but my eyes glaze over before anything starts to make sense. I have the feeling that smarter people than me must have already figured this stuff out Wink )

I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be a built-in set of 'safe' standard filters in ChucK, of the kind that exist in all other audio synthesis environments I've used (HP BP LP BR). I think the existence of a set like this would go a long way towards increasing the accessibility of ChucK for new users.

If I'm interpreting the situation correctly, is there hope of something like this for the future?

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Kassen
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 1:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Actually, LPF, BPF, HPF and ResonZ are supposed to be the convenience ones. I think they should be normalised already. They just don't work like they should Smile.

I think this is a bug that should be fixed. If all is well Perry should be looking into it.

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cbit



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PostPosted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Oh that's great! thanks for passing it on.
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