SSUM: Signals and Systems Using

MATLAB
by Bob L. Sturm and Dr. Jerry Gibson
Graduate Media Arts & Technology Program (MAT)
University of California, Santa Barbara
Introduction Application Reading Credits

Introduction
The SSUM package is a collection of demonstrations and exploratory applications programmed in
MATLAB to illustrate important, insightful, and inspiring concepts of media signal processing, using
audio, image, and video. SSUM is best for short signals and smaller images, rather than processing
large signals. Several test signals and images are located in the 'data' directory that comes with
SSUM.
Download SSUM 1.0 NOW!
Download SSUM 2.0 NOW! (Alpha)
Download SSUM 2.1 NOW! (Alpha) (Dec. 1, 2005)

The Applications
To use SSUM start MATLAB, change to the SSUM directory, and type ssum. You will see the menu
below, which contains all the available applications.

The following is a list of all the applications and their explanations.

Additive Synthesis Forest

Synthesized bird song using additive synthesis.

Audio Aliasing Explorer

Explore aliasing and folding for sound signals.

Downsample with or without anti-aliasing filters.

Catastochastic Additive
Random music generator with variable partials and
Synthesis Composition Machine envelopes.
Communication Models
Explorer

Explore different methods of modeling communication

systems.

Complex Number Explorer

Visualize complex numbers and phasors.

Convolution Explorer

Visualize linear and circular convolution with different

signals.

Cross-Synthesis Explorer

Cross-synthesize two sounds using convolution,

amplitude enveloping, or LPC.

Finite Difference Equation

Explorer

Type in a finite difference equation and see its

frequency and impulse responses.

FIR Filter Explorer

Create FIR filter and apply to a sound.

IIR Filter Explorer

Create IIR filter and apply to a sound.

Formant Explorer

Drag window across sound and watch the formant,

auto-correlation, and cepstrum change.

Fourier Explorer

Drag window across sound and watch the spectrum

change.

Fourier Series Explorer

Observe the Fourier series of a periodic step signal.

Image Aliasing Explorer

Explore downsampling images with and without antialiasing filter.

Image Analysis/Construction

Spectral analysis of image and resynthesis. Ability to

swap magnitudes and phases of other images.

Image Filter Explorer

Apply different filters to images.

Image Spectrum Explorer

Explore the spatial frequencies in images.

LPC Explorer

Use linear prediction to resynthesize a signal using

numerous excitations.

Modulation Explorer

Modulate one signal by another and see changes in

spectrum and waveform.

Pole-Zero Explorer

Drag poles and zeros around a unit circle to watch

frequency response change.

Pole-Zero Filter Explorer

Create filter using pole-zero plot and apply it to sound.

Sampling Explorer

Demonstrate sampling, quantization, and interpolation.

Signal Feature Explorer

Explore the statistics of a signal, such as RMS, and

spectral centroid.

Sinewave Speech Synthesis

Explorer

Use LPC to reduce sounds to four sine waves.

Sinusoidal Explorer

Basic parameters of sine waves; add and multiply two

sine waves.

Sonogram Explorer

Explore the STFT of a signal; trace partials with mouse

clicks.

Sound Analysis/Synthesis

Spectral analysis of sound and resynthesis. Ability to

swap magnitudes and phases of other sounds.

Waveform Explorer

Generate waveforms from 15 sinusoidal components.

Denoising Explorer

Use median and average filtering to remove noise from

audio signal.

Dynamic Time Alignment

Explorer

Explore dynamic time alignment of a test and reference

speech file.

Endpoint Explorer

See how speech endpoints can be detected using

spectral magnitudes and zero crossings.

Reverberation Explorer

Use allpass and comb filters to simulate reverberation

impulse responses.

String Explorer

See d'Alembert's solution to the one-dimensional wave

equation using two sample delay lines

Karplus-Strong String Explorer

Using two sample delay lines simulate the vibrational

acoustics of a string using ideal, or lossy models. Apply
musical instrument and room impulse responses to the
sound to make more realistic. Synthesis a MIDI file
using plucked or struck strings.

Vector Quantization Explorer

Explore vector quantization of cepstral coefficients and

LPC parameters for a given speech file.

Quantization Explorer

Explore scalar quantization.

Companding Explorer

Explore uniform quantization with compression.

Further reading
B. L. Sturm and J. Gibson, "Signals and Systems Using MATLAB: An Integrated Suite of
Applications for Exploring and Teaching Media Signal Processing," in Proc. of the 2005 IEEE
Frontiers in Education Conf. (FIE), Indianapolis, IN (2005).
B. L. Sturm, "Signals and Systems Using MATLAB: An Effective Application for Teaching Media
Signal Processing to Artists and Engineers," M.S. Thesis, University of California, Santa Barbara,
CA (2004).
B. L. Sturm and J. Gibson, "Signals and Systems Using MATLAB: An Effective Application for
Exploring and Teaching Media Signal Processing," in Proc. of the 2004 Int. Computer Music Conf.
(ICMC), Miami, FL (2004).

Credits
SSUM was inspired first by the need of students in MAT to grasp the difficult concepts inherent in
media signal signal processing. The design of SSUM owes much to the MATLAB Auditory
Demonstrations (MAD) toolkit developed by the Speech and Hearing Group at the University of
Sheffield, UK. These web-help pages are also constructed in a manner similar to theirs.
Produced by Bob L. Sturm and Dr. Jerry Gibson.
Release date: September 2, 2004
Copyright 2004 University of California, Santa Barbara