A Hilbert-Transformer Frequency Shifter for Audio.pdf

A Hilbert-Transformer Frequency Shifter for Audio Scott Wardle The Joint E-Mu/Creative Technology Center scottw@ Abstract In contrast to conventional pitch-shifting effects which attempt to maintain harmonic relationships in the signal, a frequency shifter translates all the component frequencies of the input signal by an equal amount, disrupting the harmonic relationships and radically altering the sonic qualities of the signal. Ring modulation is a generalization of double-sideband suppressed-carrier modulation, and the frequency shifter is equivalent to a single-sideband modulator. Applications of the frequency shifter include the creation of bizarre distortions, phaser, and rotating speaker effects. An implementation is presented that is suitable for fixed-point digital hardware. 1 Introduction Amplitude modulation effects have a long history of application in electronic and amplified music. Perhaps the most familiar of these is the tremelo effect, which is built into many popular electric guitar and keyboard amplifiers. Tremolo effects typically have sub-sonic modulating waveforms. If the frequency of the modulating waveform is within the audible range, the effect becomes what is called Ring Modulation, which has been used extensively by experimental composers such as Stockhausen. With the addition of a Hilbert Transformer, it is possible to maintain the original envelope of the signal, while shifting all its component frequencies by an equal amount. 2 Ring Modulation The basic ring modulator multiplies two signals together in the time domain. For input signal x(t) and modulating waveform w(t), the output y(t) = x(t)w(t). The envelope of the resulting signal is the product of the envelopes of the two inputs. The name given to this effect comes from the original implementation which used a ring of diodes to effectively multiply the input signal with a bipolar square wave[1]. The operation of multiplication in the time domain translates t