Date:     Jan. 28, 3:30 pm, SPECIAL LOCATION: 1227 Engr. Hall

Title:    Perception-Based Audio Signal Processing

Speaker:  Bill Sethares, ECE Department

Abstract:

At the intersection of signal processing, music, and psychology lies 
perception-based audio processing, which investigates the 
relationships between the structure of sounds, the structure of music, 
and the underlying biological/perceptual aspects of the human 
auditory system.  

The talk begins by showing how to build a device that can measure 
the ``sensory'' consonance and/or dissonance of a sound in its musical 
context. As shown in my recent book ``Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, 
Scale'', such a ``dissonance meter'' has implications in music theory, in 
synthesizer design, in the construction of musical scales and tunings, 
and in the design of musical instruments. 

The talk then examines some of the signal processing problems that 
arise when trying to manipulate sounds so as to remain faithful to 
psychoacoustic principles. These involve complex (and sometimes ill-
posed) optimization problems, as well as (nonlinear and/or time 
varying) algorithms designed to decrease (or increase!) the 
dissonance of a sound. In particular, we discuss various ``spectral 
mapping'' algorithms that try to move the partials of a sound without 
changing its ``character''.

Sound examples are present throughout.


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***  NOTE LOCATION: 1227 Engineering Hall  ***
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