Interactive sound synthesis by the Lotka-Volterra population model

The predator-prey population model based on the Lotka- Volterra system of nonlinear differential equations is here solved using discrete-time signal processing techniques. This approach makes the model solution appealing for in- teractive sound synthesis purposes, meanwhile making its numerical integration easy to understand for the sound de- signer and the music composer. The resulting digital filter network requires to compute two delay-free loops sharing a signal multiplier, in practice realizing an implicit solver: this family of solvers provides robustness in front of the structural instability of the Lotka-Volterra system even in presence of abrupt changes of the evolutionary parame- ters, hence affording interactive model control. A real-time implementation of the resulting realization is provided in form of a Java external for the software Puredata.