MUSI-6106-GroupA

Final Project for Audio Software Engineering, Spring 2022 You can find our user-demo here: https://vimeo.com/705188204 You can find our technical explanation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXx7ZnZADg

Requirements:

JUCE >= 6.1.5

Any C++ compiler that supports C++ 17 or later

Build:

Open OneKnobVocal.jucer with projucer, generate project for your specific environment and build with the generated project.

Motivation:

When editing vocals for singers, a variety of plug-ins are often necessary for sound design and music production

Problem:

Vocal editing requires knowledge and experience that not all may have yet obtaining better results can be easily achieved with standard plugin processing chains.

Target Users:

Amateur users who may not know what effects or parameters to use and want a quick and easy fix that sounds good (i.e., clear, reverberant, in-tune, saturated, etc.), users who want quick final touches on existing processing
Our main target audiences include amateur mixing engineers, mastering engineers, music producers, sound designers, and audio editors. We will focus specifically on applications involving sung vocals, rather than voice-over effects (i.e. podcasts).
The final plugin will also have an advanced user setting for us to easily prototype and if users want finer configuration.

Goal:

Create an “all-in-one” vocal plugin that includes any effect one may need to apply to a vocal track all within a single application. Real-time plug-in that can be rendered both online/offline. Includes audio presets for additional ease of use.

Use Cases:

Karaoke (set once for the machine/karaoke plugin, and then leave it),
Streaming music performances,
Hobby production functionality from user point of view and how it differentiates from similar products

Signal Flow Diagram

Description of Functionality:

UI:
- Basic Settings:
  - 1 knob controlling the extent of processing (0 = no processing, 1 = fully processed)
  - Preset Drop-down Menu
  - Input/Output Level Meter
- Advanced Settings:
  - Gate
  - Compression
  - De-esser
  - EQ
  - Saturation
  - Reverb
Audio presets in various styles
- Club
- Country
- Pop
- Rock

Work Packages:

JUCE: GUI, DSP packages

Algorithmic References:

Zölzer, Udo, et al. DAFX-Digital audio effects. John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
Pirkle, Will C. Designing Audio Effect Plugins in C++: For AAX, AU, and VST3 with DSP Theory. Routledge, 2019.
Reiss, Joshua D., and Andrew McPherson. Audio effects: theory, implementation and application. CRC Press, 2014.
https://juce.com/learn/tutorials
https://www.mathworks.com/help/dsp/examples.html?s_tid=CRUX_topnav

Milestones:

Milestone 1: Fully configurable parameters for advanced users (est. 03/07)
Milestone 2: Single knob with preset selector for amateur users (est. 04/14)

Timeline:

01/10-01/31: Ideas brainstorm, getting used to C++ & JUCE
01/31-02/07: Study best practices on how to implement the whole pipeline
02/07-02/14: Working on the skeleton code abstract class (general code to incorporate all empty FX classes) & UI knobs / switches for advanced/amateur user setting & linking to the audio effects (decide on what parameters to have)
02/14-02/21: Finish skeleton code for FX & UI classes
02/21-02/28: Implement baseline set of individual features in isolation
02/28-03/07: Implement baseline set of individual features in isolation
03/07-03/14: Finish implementing & testing baseline set of individual features in isolation
03/14-03/21: Creating presets for voiceover vs singing
03/21-03/28: Creating presets for bass vs treble (voiceover), bass vs treble (singing)
03/28-04/11: Testing / buffer time
04/11-04/18: Testing / buffer time
04/18-04/25: Finish

Assignments:

Refer to Trello Board
Group Members:
- Alison: Gate/De-esser, UI and audio class linking, Preset Parameters
- John: Delay/Reverb, Project Management/Trello Manager, UX Design
- Sile: EQ/Compression, Developer
- Nitin: Compression, UX Design, Developer
- Mike: Distortion, Developer

johnnymac647/MUSI-6106-GroupA