Applied Acoustics 30 (1990) 247-264 Analysis and Synthesis of Atonal Percussion Using High Order Linear Predictive Coding M. B. Sandier Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, King's College, London WC2R 2LS, UK A BSTRA CT bl this paper the Linear Predictive Coding ( LPC) algorithm is discussed showing how it may be used to formulate a data efficient representation of acoustic phenomena, in particular for drums. Its use in analysis and synthesis of drums is developed and some time domain graphs, showing the effectiveness of the algorithm for synthesis, are presented. 1 INTRODUCTION The LPC algorithm is now established as the primary means for efficient coding of human speech signals for digital transmission purposes. It has been developed to produce many varieties, but in one of the more basic forms is capable of data reduction in the order of 10:i compared to straightforward PCM (8 bits is the norm for speech). LPC works by making the assumption that the acoustic system producing the phenomenon is resonant. This is in distinction to the Fourier model (as used in the Fourier Transform and the FFT), which assumes a superposition of sinusoids as the generative process. It is also otherwise known in some branches of the Digital Signal Processing community, and in economics and statistics, as an Auto- regressive (AR) modelling algorithm. 247