[sdiy] Re: 1970's again?

[Magnus Danielson]

From: "john mahoney" <jmahoney at gate.net>
Subject: Re: 1970's again? (was Re: [sdiy] pro EQs)
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 16:11:11 -0500
Message-ID: <014201c4fc0f$e7c2f880$6500a8c0 at BABYUTEST>

John,

You rang!

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tom Arnold" <xyzzy at sysabend.org>
> 
> 
> > On Sun, Jan 16, 2005 at 02:50:23PM -0500, john mahoney wrote:
> > > It isn't that SDIY (the list) is anti-digital. Rather, the activity and
> > > expertise here lean heavily toward analog.
> >
> > Actually, the real reason is Math is Hard. :-)
> 
> Bah! I laugh at your puny counterargument!! ;-)
> 
> There is plenty of heavy math on the analog side of this hobby. Magnus, for
> one, can spew some serious math porn. Just ask him how to calculate the
> corner frequencies of a filter. (I know, Magnus, it depends on the type of
> filter!)

Actually, while the math I toss onto this list may seem heavy, I know that I am
a lightweight on the math-side, but the math I know I know pretty darn well.
Also, some of the math I toss here is to show that "it isn't worse than this"
and with plenty of details in the intermediary steps so that one can pick them
up and learn how to DO IT YOURSELF. If this math is in the analogue or digital
domain is a minor detail. They are not equalent but similar while different.

I'm not the kind of guy that was satisfied with premade formulas with magic
constants like 1.163, so I learned enought to do it myself. Many more here
could learn. While I am nerd enought to think math itself is fun, the real
power that attracts me is when I can use it as a tool to help making good
designs. Just like having a good solderingiron or good component.

Except for a few details, the math is mostly not even on University level and
there excists many tools to do the exercises unless you do them by paper and
pen as I usually do them (or directly in the mailer as I do for this email
list). People can learn it, the trick thing isn't the math itself, but
understanding its applicability and what these things called poles and zeros
are all about, what their placement means and what the various responces one
can calculate actually means. I.e. interprenting the input and output of the
tools rather than the tools themself. People doesn't have to learn how the
inner workings of various transforms work, it can be very helpfull, but usually
you use shortcuts anyway, so you rarely do straight conversions.

Cheers,
Magnus