Bio

Smith is a professor of music and (by courtesy) electrical engineering (Information Systems Lab) based at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Teaching and research pertain to music and audio applications of signal processing. Former software engineer at NeXT Computer, Inc., responsible for signal processing software pertaining to music and audio. For more, see https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/.

Academic Appointments

Honors & Awards

  • Fellow, Audio Engineering Society (2008)
  • Heyser Lecture, Audio Engineering Society Conference (San Francisco) (2006)
  • Invited Masterclass, Audio Engineering Society Conference (San Francisco) (2006)
  • Keynote Speaker, Digital Audio Effects Conference (DAFx) (2006)
  • Keynote Speaker, IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio & Acoustics (WASPAA) (2005)
  • Fellow, Acoustical Society of America (2003)
  • Invited Speaker, first in the Opening Session, Stockholm Musical Acoustics Conference (2003)
  • Technical Program Chair, IEEE Audio & Acoustics Signal Processing Workshop (1997)
  • Member, IRCAM Scientific Council (1996)
  • Plenary Speaker, Nordic Acoustics Conference (1996)
  • Keynote Speaker, Tempo Reale Workshop on Physical Modeling (1996)
  • Inventor Recognition Award, Stanford Office of Technology and Licensing (1996)
  • Keynote Speaker, ICMC-91 (Int. Computer Music Conf.) (1996)
  • Graduate Fellowship, Hertz (Fall 1977 to Fall 1982)
  • CIRMMT Distinguished Lecture, McGill University (2010)
  • Keynote Speaker, Digital Audio Effects (DAFx) Converence, Como Italy (2009)
  • Keynote Speaker, Linux Audio Conference (2015)

Professional Education

  • B.Sc. (Hons), Rice University, Electrical Engineering (1975)
  • PhD, Stanford University, Electrical Engineering (1983)

Contact

Links

2016-17 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • Efficient Synthesis of Room Acoustics via Scattering Delay Networks IEEE-ACM TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING De Sena, E., Hacihabiboglu, H., Cvetkovic, Z., Smith, J. O. 2015; 23 (9): 1478-1492

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASLP.2015.2438547

    View details for Web of Science ID 000356006900007

  • Towards a physical model of the berimbau: Obtaining the modal synthesis of the cabaza. journal of the Acoustical Society of America Castellanos Macin, P., Smith, J. O. 2013; 134 (5): 4243-?

    Abstract

    The worldwide presence of Brazilian culture grows every day. However, some of the musical instruments used in its principal cultural activities lack of a formal acoustic analysis which would make them more understandable for the rest of the world. One of them is the berimbau-de-barriga (berimbau), which consists of a string (wire) attached to an arched rod and a resonance box called cabaza. Modeling the berimbau will not only open up possibilities for its application to other musical genres, but will also allow the incorporation of its characteristics into new virtual instruments. The present work describes the modal synthesis of the cabaza, i.e., modeling this sounding box as a parallel bank of digital resonators. Impulse response measurements were obtained using a force hammer, and second-order resonator frequency-responses were fit to the data using Matlab.

    View details for DOI 10.1121/1.4831602

    View details for PubMedID 24181934

  • Force-Sensitive Detents Improve User Performance for Linear Selection Tasks IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS Berdahl, E., Smith, J. O., Weinzierl, S., Niemeyer, G. 2013; 6 (2): 206-216

    View details for DOI 10.1109/ToH.2012.55

    View details for Web of Science ID 000319877500007

  • Fifty Years of Artificial Reverberation IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Valimaki, V., Parker, J. D., Savioja, L., Smith, J. O., Abel, J. S. 2012; 20 (5): 1421-1448

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASL.2012.2189567

    View details for Web of Science ID 000302210400001

  • Optimized Polynomial Spline Basis Function Design for Quasi-Bandlimited Classical Waveform Synthesis IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING LETTERS Pekonen, J., Juhan Nam, J., Smith, J. O., Valimaki, V. 2012; 19 (3): 159-162

    View details for DOI 10.1109/LSP.2012.2183123

    View details for Web of Science ID 000299811300001

  • EXPLOITING THE HARMONIC STRUCTURE FOR SPEECH ENHANCEMENT 2012 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ACOUSTICS, SPEECH AND SIGNAL PROCESSING (ICASSP) Cho, E., Smith, J. O., Widrow, B. 2012: 4569-4572

    View details for Web of Science ID 000312381404160

  • Feedback control of acoustic musical instruments: Collocated control using physical analogs JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA Berdahl, E., Smith, J. O., Niemeyer, G. 2012; 131 (1): 963-973

    Abstract

    Traditionally, the average professional musician has owned numerous acoustic musical instruments, many of them having distinctive acoustic qualities. However, a modern musician could prefer to have a single musical instrument whose acoustics are programmable by feedback control, where acoustic variables are estimated from sensor measurements in real time and then fed back in order to influence the controlled variables. In this paper, theory is presented that describes stable feedback control of an acoustic musical instrument. The presentation should be accessible to members of the musical acoustics community who may have limited or no experience with feedback control. First, the only control strategy guaranteed to be stable subject to any musical instrument mobility is described: the sensors and actuators must be collocated, and the controller must emulate a physical analog system. Next, the most fundamental feedback controllers and the corresponding physical analog systems are presented. The effects that these controllers have on acoustic musical instruments are described. Finally, practical design challenges are discussed. A proof explains why changing the resonance frequency of a musical resonance requires much more control power than changing the decay time of the resonance.

    View details for DOI 10.1121/1.3651091

    View details for Web of Science ID 000299131200032

    View details for PubMedID 22280719

  • Audio Signal Processing Using Graphics Processing Units JOURNAL OF THE AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY Savioja, L., Valimaki, V., Smith, J. O. 2011; 59 (1-2): 3-19

    View details for Web of Science ID 000288572800001

  • Analysis and Synthesis of Coupled Vibrating Strings Using a Hybrid Modal-Waveguide Synthesis Model IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Lee, N., Smith, J. O., Valimaki, V. 2010; 18 (4): 833-842

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASL.2009.2033979

    View details for Web of Science ID 000276621600012

  • Introduction to the Special Issue on Virtual Analog Audio Effects and Musical Instruments IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Valimaki, V., Fontana, F., Smith, J. O., Zoelzer, U. 2010; 18 (4): 713-714

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASL.2010.2046449

    View details for Web of Science ID 000276621600001

  • Automated Physical Modeling of Nonlinear Audio Circuits For Real-Time Audio Effects-Part I: Theoretical Development IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Yeh, D. T., Abel, J. S., Smith, J. O. 2010; 18 (4): 728-737

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASL.2009.2033978

    View details for Web of Science ID 000276621600003

  • Alias-Suppressed Oscillators Based on Differentiated Polynomial Waveforms IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Valimaki, V., Nam, J., Smith, J. O., Abel, J. S. 2010; 18 (4): 786-798

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASL.2009.2026507

    View details for Web of Science ID 000276621600008

  • Efficient Antialiasing Oscillator Algorithms Using Low-Order Fractional Delay Filters IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Nam, J., Valimaki, V., Abel, J. S., Smith, J. O. 2010; 18 (4): 773-785

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASL.2009.2035039

    View details for Web of Science ID 000276621600007

  • Spectral Delay Filters JOURNAL OF THE AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY Valimaki, V., Abel, J. S., Smith, J. O. 2009; 57 (7-8): 521-531

    View details for Web of Science ID 000269367300004

  • Numerical methods for simulation of guitar distortion circuits COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Yeh, D. T., Abei, J. S., Vladimirescu, A., Smith, J. O. 2008; 32 (2): 23-42

    View details for Web of Science ID 000256805700002

  • Parameterized finite difference schemes for plates: Stability, the reduction of directional dispersion and frequency warping IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Bilbao, S., Savioja, L., Smith, J. O. 2007; 15 (4): 1488-1495

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TASL.2006.889737

    View details for Web of Science ID 000245909800032

  • Generative model of voice in noise for structured coding applications 2007 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ACOUSTICS, SPEECH, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL I, PTS 1-3, PROCEEDINGS Jinachitra, P., Smith, J. O. 2007: 281-284

    View details for Web of Science ID 000249040000071

  • Humming Control Interface for Hand-held Devices ASSETS'07: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH INTERNATIONAL ACM SIGACCESS CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS AND ACCESSIBILITY Won, S. Y., Lee, D., Smith, J. 2007: 259-260

    View details for Web of Science ID 000268617200049

  • Efficient time-varying loudness estimation via the hopping Goertzel DFT 2007 50TH MIDWEST SYMPOSIUM ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, VOLS 1-3 Cassidy, R. J., Smith, J. O. 2007: 362-363

    View details for Web of Science ID 000257110900092

  • Inducing unusual dynamics in acoustic musical instruments PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2007 IEEE CONFERENCE ON CONTROL APPLICATIONS, VOLS 1-3 Berdahl, E., Smith, J. O. 2007: 411-416

    View details for Web of Science ID 000253024000070

  • Singer-dependent falsetto detection for live vocal processing based on support vector classification 2006 FORTIETH ASILOMAR CONFERENCE ON SIGNALS, SYSTEMS AND COMPUTERS, VOLS 1-5 Mysore, G. J., Cassidy, R. J., Smith, J. O. 2006: 1139-1142

    View details for Web of Science ID 000246925202054

  • Energy-conserving finite difference schemes for nonlinear strings ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Bilbao, S., Smith, J. O. 2005; 91 (2): 299-311

    View details for Web of Science ID 000228392800012

  • Joint estimation of glottal source and vocal tract for vocal synthesis using Kalman smoothing and EM algorithm 2005 WORKSHOP ON APPLICATIONS OF SIGNAL PROCESSING TO AUDIO AND ACOUSTICS (WASPAA) Jinachitra, P., Smith, J. O. 2005: 327-330

    View details for Web of Science ID 000236204100082

  • Finite difference schemes and digital waveguide networks for the wave equation: Stability, passivity, and numerical dispersion IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SPEECH AND AUDIO PROCESSING Bilbao, S., Smith, J. O. 2003; 11 (3): 255-266

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TSA.2003.811535

    View details for Web of Science ID 000183877300009

  • PHYSICAL MODELING USING DIGITAL WAVE-GUIDES COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Smith, J. O. 1992; 16 (4): 74-98

    View details for Web of Science ID A1992KH76800010

  • SMITH,J.O. COMMENTS ON SULLIVAN KARPLUS-STRONG ARTICLE COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Smith, J. O. 1991; 15 (2): 10-11

    View details for Web of Science ID A1991FP42600005

  • FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGITAL-FILTER THEORY COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Smith, J. O. 1985; 9 (3): 13-23

    View details for Web of Science ID A1985ASN4300003

  • EXTENSIONS OF THE KARPLUS-STRONG PLUCKED-STRING ALGORITHM COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Jaffe, D. A., Smith, J. O. 1983; 7 (2): 56-69

    View details for Web of Science ID A1983QT84000004

  • A CONSTANT-GAIN DIGITAL RESONATOR TUNED BY A SINGLE COEFFICIENT COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Smith, J. O., ANGELL, J. B. 1982; 6 (4): 36-40

    View details for Web of Science ID A1982PU40500007