Now, how are damping factors
used? Well, one way they are used is in the only thing as
cool as math: MUSIC!
 |
Music is an
intricate combination of sine waves. This is
what 5 seconds of Autumn Fell looks like: |
If we
zoom in to look at just .07 seconds (7/100 of a second)
of this song, we find something that looks just like a messy
trig function!
It looks
similar to something I can graph on my calculator...
(Graphing window: x on [-15.58, 15.58], y on [-4, 4])
So, where
do damping functions come in? They're used at the end of
the song, where the sound "fades out!"
When the
song's final mix is done, the producer decides if and how
the song should be faded out. The process is all done by
computer! The software used, SAW
Plus in this case, gives the engineer three main choices:
1)
Linear Fade
2) Logarithmic Fade
3) Inverse Logarithmic Fade
(Remember that inverse logs are
just exponentials!) |
