Auditory representations as landmarks in the sound design space

A graphical tool for the timbre space exploration and interactive design of complex sounds by physical modeling synthesis is presented. It is built around an auditory representation of sounds based on spike functions and provides the designer with both a graphical and an auditory insight. The auditory representation of a number of reference sounds, located as landmarks in a 2D sound design space, provides the designer with an effective aid to direct his search along the paths that lie in the proximity of the most inspiring landmarks.