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Music and Math

post #1 of 5
1/12/10 at 12:33am
Thread Starter 
Hey, I need some help from my fellow head-fiers. I'm doing a math project and I need some insight into the world of audio engineers and the like.

How is math applied/used in audio engineering?

Thanks in advanced!
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post #2 of 5
1/13/10 at 12:38am
I'm only taking intro computer engineering courses, but my teacher has spoken a lot about how analog is converted to digital, and different methods of doing so.. That is mostly on the computer side of things though, not necessarily audio engineers. If I had to guess, I would think that the audio engineers simply convert analog to digital using methods already created by electrical and software engineers.

Sorry for being vague, it's been a while since he's talked about it..
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post #3 of 5
1/13/10 at 5:02am
Amazon.com: Science and Music (9780486619644): Sir James H. Jeans: Books

awesome book. i don't know if that'll get you on the track of where you want to go... i'd like to help. if i may ask, what level of school is this for? if college, what is the scope of the class? you can pm if you want.
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post #4 of 5
1/13/10 at 12:44pm
Aside from the masses of other applications, Fourier series are often used in harmonic analysis to provide functions for waves using infinite series combined with trigonometry: Fourier series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia / 5. Harmonic Analysis

You do need a working understanding of calculus & infinite series, though. But if you have that--and maybe some Taylor series under the hood as well--they can be quite easily understood.

Here's a cool java applet to play around with: Fourier Series Applet

How exactly this is used in engineering audio-related products, I do not know.
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post #5 of 5
1/13/10 at 1:54pm
Fourier Series :
(a1 cos t + b1 sin t) is the fundamental.

(a2 cos 2t + b2 sin 2t) is the second harmonic.

(a3 cos 3t + b3 sin 3t) is the third harmonic, etc.



The distance between notes is 2^(n/12) hz in the well tempered system where n is the number of semitones (eg. 12 semitones is an octave; therefore frequency is doubled. 2^(2/12) will give you a tone, so if we multiple A 440 by 1.1224etc we get 493.88etc) (which results in an change in duration of a particular recorded clip by the same amount).


Not sure how "math is used in the studio", but math and music sure.

There's also a lot of relation to phi Detailed here a little

If I recall correctly, the climax of most songs occurs at 1/phi (0.61803398874989484820458683436564), but dont quote me on this.
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