Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 1 Issue 1 | Page 50

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Sound Design with Interactive Genetic Algorithms
Tom Prescott
(PhD Music Technology, Keele University)
This paper describes a system for designing sounds and composing with
an interactive genetic algorithm. The Evolutionary Sound Design
Environment allows users without formal musical training to design
complex and varied sounds using the interactive genetic algorithm. The
interactive genetic algorithm addresses the issue of search space
navigation which arises due to the complexity of modern sound synthesis
and processing techniques, which often consist of tens or hundreds of
parameters. The vast number of parameters and potential values which
can be assigned to each one results in billions or trillions of combinations;
manually evaluating each one is clearly not viable. This means that in
some cases these techniques are not being used to their full potential.
Furthermore, the comp