In plain words: An automated process records a real amp's sound at every knob setting, then trains a neural network to copy that response live from any guitar input. In listening tests it matched a detailed circuit simulation of the same amp.
Abstract
This paper describes a data-driven approach to creating real-time neural network models of guitar amplifiers, recreating the amplifiers' sonic response to arbitrary inputs at the full range of controls present on the physical device. While the focus on the paper is on the data collection pipeline, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this conditioned black-box approach by training an LSTM model to the task, and comparing its performance to an offline white-box SPICE circuit simulation. Our listening test results demonstrate that the neural amplifier modeling approach can match the subjective performance of a high-quality SPICE model, all while using an automated, non-intrusive data collection process, and an end-to-end trainable, real-time feasible neural network model.
Lauri Juvela, Eero-Pekka Damskägg, Aleksi Peussa, Jaakko Mäkinen, Thomas Sherson, Stylianos I. Mimilakis, Athanasios Gotsopoulos
arXiv:2403.08559 · cs.SD, eess.AS · submitted Mar 13, 2024
abstract · pdf · html · Presented at ICASSP 2023 - 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP)
Meanwhile, they have an extremely labor-intensive set of techniques for modeling a device's analog circuitry, resulting in a model that allows the user to adjust gain, eq, etc. This isn't a consumer-level process; it happens in a laboratory somewhere, and the output is shipped as a software plugin or model on a digital effects unit.
This technology bridges the gap. Ultimately it's an unguided ML approach akin to the former, but introduces ML-guided robotic knob-turning (AKA "TINA") which (unlike the former) maps continuous changes within the device's parameter space, allowing to ship something more like the latter.