String Synth is an electroacoustic synthesizer that turns vibrations of metal strings into synthetized digital audio.

It aims to offer a space for experimentation in terms of sound production. Unlike the classic button/knobs synthesisers, String Synth’s main feature is the generation of sounds through the gesture of touching or pressing metal strings, which offers a much wider range of movement and possibilities when generating sound.

In addition to the strings, four potentiometers are on the top of the electroacoustic synthesizer. They control parameters of the algorithms and the delay effect that is applied on top of them.

By analysing the wave that is being captured by the pickup, it creates a new sound with the same pitch and similar qualities. Nothing of the original string audio is passed directly onto the final output. This process happens using several different algorithms, as you can see in the schematics above.

The electro acoustic synthesizer comes with 10 waves in its wavetable that can generate different sound qualities and characteristics, thus creating a specific signature of the instrument. It’s possible to alternate between them using the knobs.

For code related further information, please visit the String Synths GitHub repository https://github.com/antoniohof/string_synth

This project was conceptualised, designed and built together with Antonio Hofmeister Ribeiro.