{"ID":2922032,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-02T02:42:49.606572591Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-02T08:44:59.422964516Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00629","arxiv_id":"2606.00629","title":"Quality Audio Prototyping: a prototype system for unified sound retrieval and procedural generation","abstract":"Sound design workflows frequently oscillate between time-consuming library searches and the complexity of procedural synthesis, with practitioners typically relying on disconnected tools to address each challenge separately. This paper introduces Quality Audio Prototyping (QuAP), a working prototype that unifies content-based audio retrieval and procedural sound generation within a single interface, reducing the procedural distance between a narrative concept and its sonic realisation. QuAP integrates a similarity-based retrieval engine with real-time procedural audio models, complemented by a rule-based assistant that provides perceptually informed parameter guidance, offering definitions and recommendations derived from empirical optimisation rather than requiring prior synthesis knowledge. Preliminary evaluation confirms the viability of this approach: subjective assessment demonstrated statistically significant quality improvements in five of six embedded synthesis models, and an encoder ablation study established the preferred retrieval architecture on a sound effect dataset. A user evaluation with 16 practitioners confirmed the tool's workflow utility, with all participants agreeing that the parameter assistant preserved creative agency while lowering the barrier to procedural interaction.","short_abstract":"Sound design workflows frequently oscillate between time-consuming library searches and the complexity of procedural synthesis, with practitioners typically relying on disconnected tools to address each challenge separately. This paper introduces Quality Audio Prototyping (QuAP), a working prototype that unifies conten...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00629","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.00629v1","authors":"[\"Nelly Garcia\",\"Aditya Bhattacharjee\",\"Gabryel Mason-Williams\",\"Israel Mason-Williams\",\"Emmanouil Benetos\",\"Joshua Reiss\"]","published":"2026-05-30T09:05:11Z","proceeding":"cs.SD","tasks":"[\"cs.SD\",\"cs.HC\",\"cs.LG\",\"eess.AS\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}