Summer of Research: Where Music Meets Computer Science

This video is part of a series on summer research opportunities for undergraduates at the University of Rochester, both for our own students, and for students from other research universities.

Listening to the landmark Miles Davis record Kind of Blue, it's clear to even the casual jazz listener just why this album is so revered nearly six decades after its release. What you're probably not thinking about when you hear each note reproduced from the original 1959 recording is what affect the format has on the sound.

That's the very question that Jake Altabef, a rising junior computer systems engineering major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is looking into this summer. Along with Graham Palmer, a rising senior who is a computer science and oboe performance double major at University of Michigan, the aim of a 8 week-long federally funded REU (research experiences for undergraduates) program is to tackle some audio music engineering project and bring some data analysis to it.

Under the guidance of Stephen Roessner, a lecturer and instructor of audio music engineering and Darren Mueller, an assistant professor of musicology, the two undergrads have been focusing on older recordings like the tune "So What" off the Kind of Blue album. Their project takes various releases from over the years, on vinyl, cassette, CD, from different decades to analyze different measurable aspects of each release and then comparing them. While the recording didn't change, things like the signal to noise ratio vary quite a bit, which can significantly impact the listener experience.

The team has been well suited to the task, especially considering the varied backgrounds of each student, and the different expertise of each faculty mentor. Most of all, it's been an opportunity to immerse themselves in a research project full-time, in a way that they couldn't do during a busy academic semester.

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