Transient modeling with a frequency-transform subspace algorithm and "transient+sinusoidal" scheme

We present an efficient modeling method for strong transient character audio signals. It is shown that the parametric non-stationary exponentially damped sinusoids (EDS) model permits good performance for time domain modeling of quasi-stationary signals or "weak" transients. However, a decay in modeling performance is observed when dealing with highly nonstationary signals as in a variety of musical sounds (various percussions, castanets, triangle,...). The idea is then to process the signal in a well chosen frequency-transform domain in which the transient temporal characteristics are better modeled by EDS. As a result, better representations of the transient signal class are obtained with no pre-echo artifacts (energy before the attack) and a very good signal onset dynamic reproduction. Finally, an original "transient+sinusoidal" modeling scheme is proposed.