Bubble Stream

A preliminary real-time experiment in stochastic resonance and the first step toward a fully procedural water stream generator.

Requires user gesture to start AudioContext

Flow Intensity

Controls the stochastic density of bubble events.

Turbulence

Rate of frequency modulation in the background flow.

Stream Depth

Shifts the spectral balance from 'Trickle' to 'Gurgle'.

The Physics of Liquid Sound

The sound of running water is not a single continuous noise, but the cumulative result of thousands of tiny, individual acoustic events. The primary mechanism is Minnaert Resonance: the harmonic oscillation of air bubbles trapped in the fluid.

This experiment uses a stochastic model to trigger these "bubble grains." Each bubble is synthesized as a short sine wave with a rapid downward frequency sweep, mimicking the pressure change as a bubble stabilizes. The background "rush" is generated via pink noise processed through a series of meandering bandpass filters, simulating the non-linear flow over a stream bed.

Bubble Stream Signal Chain Architecture

graph TD subgraph Signal_Sources [1. Signal Generation] PN[Pink Noise Generator] SG[Stochastic Trigger] end subgraph Flow_DSP [2. Procedural Flow] F1[BP Filter 400Hz] F2[BP Filter 1200Hz] L1((LFO 1: Meander)) L2((LFO 2: Meander)) L1 -.-> F1 L2 -.-> F2 end subgraph Bubble_DSP [3. Minnaert Resonance] SO[Sine Oscillator] AE[Amplitude Envelope] SG -->|Trigger| SO SG -->|Trigger| AE SO -->|Grain| AE end subgraph Output_Mixing [4. Final Stage] FG[Flow Gain] BG[Bubble Gain] PN --> F1 & F2 F1 & F2 --> FG AE --> BG FG & BG --> DAC[Audio Destination] end subgraph UI_Sync [5. Telemetry] SG -->|Callback| CV[Canvas Visualizer] end

Academic References

  • Minnaert, M. (1933). "On musical air-bubbles and the sounds of running water." London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science.
  • van den Doel, K. (2005). "Physically-based real-time synthesis of splashing water." ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG).
  • Farnell, A. (2010). "Designing Sound." MIT Press. Chapter 42: Water.

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