Rod Selfridge
rod selfridge

Dr Rod Selfridge

Lecturer

Biography

My main research interests are sound and music computing, physical modelling, procedural audio, sound design, sound effects, acoustics and audio within VR/MR/AR.

I joined Edinburgh Napier University in March 2022 having been employed as Post Doctoral Researcher in Sound Computing and Media Production at the Division of Media Technology and Interaction Design (MID), School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) since 2020. Prior to this I was working in different roles at University of Edinburgh and at Queen Mary University of London.

Recent Projects

https://nemisindo.com/

https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/research/space-place-sound-and-memory

Background

I completed my Honours degree at Edinburgh Napier in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 1995 before working as a field engineer on oil rigs in the North Sea. In 1997 I went back into education and completed a post graduate diploma in Mechatronics at Abertay University, Dundee, before heading to Leeds Conservatoire to complete a BTec diploma in Popular Music.

Between 2008 and 2010, while working in an unrelated sector, I completed a Masters degree in Digital Music Processing at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). This was part-time and almost completely carried out online. In 2013 I returned to QMUL to join the Media and Arts Technology doctoral college and joined the Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) in 2014. Here I completed a PhD titled Real-Time Sound Synthesis of Aeroacoustic Sounds using Physically Derived Models, supervised by Professor Josh Reiss (2nd Supervisor: Dr Andrew McPherson, External: Andy Farnell)

In 2018 I joined The University of Edinburgh to work on the Space, Place, Sound and Memory project, where two spaces that have been either lost or adapted over time were recreated in virtual reality, including their acoustics. Musicians were recorded in anechoic chambers and then placed as sound sources within virtual reality, with state-of-the-art spatialisation software used to recreate the lost acoustics. We have now recorded a classical music album using the lost acoustics and is due to be released in 2021. A video describing the making of the album is available here.

In 2019 I joined FXive (now Nemisindo), an incubator start-up at QMUL as the Technical Lead (Sound Synthesis and Procedural Audio). Here we designed a wide number of synthesised sound effects recreating a procedural sound effect library available in the browser, using JavaScript and the Web Audio API.

At KTH I carried out a user study of professional sound designers, focusing on their initial processes to help inform sonic new tools and procedures for sonic interaction design. I was also part of the Sound for Energy project - using sound to promote energy efficiency in the household.

Date


15 results

Sound design ideation: a structured and systematic analysis

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Selfridge, R., Delle Monache, S., & Pauletto, S. (2024, September)
Sound design ideation: a structured and systematic analysis. Presented at AM '24: Audio Mostly 2024 - Explorations in Sonic Cultures, Milan, Italy
Recent research identified sixteen dimensions along which sound designers make decisions when ideating and sketching sounds. These 16 dimensions can be grouped into “Overarchi...

Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference

Conference Proceeding
(2023)
Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference. . https://doi.org/10.1145/3616195
Audio Mostly is an interdisciplinary conference on design and experience of interaction with sound that prides itself on embracing applied theory and reflective practice. Its ...

Procedural Audio For Virtual Environments Workshop

Presentation / Conference
Di Donato, B., & Selfridge, R. (2022, September)
Procedural Audio For Virtual Environments Workshop. Presented at Audio Mostly, St. Pölten, Austria
Sound design is a crucial aspect of interactive virtual environments (VEs). Often, this activity is fixated by the constraints of the tools we use or our perception of that me...

Creating Real-Time Aeroacoustic Sound Effects Using Physically Informed Models

Journal Article
Selfridge, R., Moffat, D., Avital, E., & Reiss, J. (2018)
Creating Real-Time Aeroacoustic Sound Effects Using Physically Informed Models. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 66(7/8), 594-607. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2018.0033
Aeroacoustics is a branch of engineering within fluid dynamics. It encompasses sounds generated by disturbances in air either by an airflow being disturbed by an object or an ...

Space, place, sound, and memory: immersive experiences of the past

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Selfridge, R., Cook, J., McAlpine, K., & Whittaker, A. (2018, July)
Space, place, sound, and memory: immersive experiences of the past. Presented at Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, Maynooth
Conference session exploring the role of acoustics and space in historic music performance, and live demonstration of emerging technologies that allow for their recreation in ...

The Binchois Consort: Hearing Historic Scotland

Exhibition / Performance
Selfridge, R., McAlpine, K., & Cook, J. The Binchois Consort: Hearing Historic Scotland. [Concert and talk]. 14 June 2018

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Selfridge, R., McAlpine, K., & Cook, J. The Binchois Consort: Hearing Historic Scotland. [Concert and talk]. 14 June 2018
A virtual reconstruction of the Music of King James IV’s Chapel Royal as heard at Linlithgow Palace, featuring the Binchois Consort

Hearing Historic Scotland

Exhibition / Performance
Selfridge, R., Cook, J., McAlpine, K., & Consort, B. Hearing Historic Scotland. [Concert]. 14 June 2018

)
Selfridge, R., Cook, J., McAlpine, K., & Consort, B. Hearing Historic Scotland. [Concert]. 14 June 2018
A virtual reconstruction of the Music of King James IV’s Chapel Royal as heard at Linlithgow Palace, featuring the Binchois Consort. Live concert showcasing early music perfo...

Physically Derived Synthesis Model of an Edge Tone

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Selfridge, R., Reiss, J. D., & Avital, E. J. (2018, May)
Physically Derived Synthesis Model of an Edge Tone. Presented at 144th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Milan, Italy
The edge tone is the sound generated when a planar jet of air from a nozzle comes into contact with a wedge and a number of physical conditions are met. Fluid dynamics equatio...

Physically derived synthesis model of a cavity tone

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Selfridge, R., Reiss, J., & Avital, E. (2017, September)
Physically derived synthesis model of a cavity tone. Presented at 20th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects, Edinburgh, UK
The cavity tone is the sound generated when air flows over the open surface of a cavity and a number of physical conditions are met. Equations obtained from fluid dynamics and...

Physically Derived Sound Synthesis Model of a Propeller

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Selfridge, R., Moffat, D., & Reiss, J. (2017, August)
Physically Derived Sound Synthesis Model of a Propeller. Presented at AM '17: Audio Mostly 2017, London United Kingdom
A real-time sound synthesis model for propeller sounds is presented. Equations obtained from fluid dynamics and aerodynamics research are utilised to produce authentic propell...