Wavelet Scattering on the Pitch Spiral

Abstract: We present a new representation of harmonic sounds that linearizes the dynamics of pitch and spectral envelope, while remaining stable to deformations in the time-frequency plane. It is an instance of the scattering transform, a generic operator which cascades wavelet convolutions and modulus nonlinearities. It is derived from the pitch spiral, in that convolutions are successively performed in time, log-frequency, and octave index. We give a closed-form approximation of spiral scattering coefficients for a nonstationary generalization of the harmonic source-filter model.