I590/N564/N364 QUIZ #2 - 15 February 2006

                                                 Name _____________________________
													

	According to both the Byrd and Crawford paper and my lectures, the three basic
	representations of music and audio are: audio; MIDI; and music notation.
	
	
10>	1. (a) What is the essential difference between a representation and an encoding?
	
		A REPRESENTATION IS ABSTRACT; AN ENCODING IS CONCRETE.

	
5>	(b) Give an example of a _specific_ representation of music.
	
		WAVEFORM, TIME-STAMPED MIDI, CMN, TABLATURE, ETC.
	
5>	(c) Give an example of an encoding of music.
	
		.WAV, CD AUDIO, STANDARD MIDI FILE, NOTELIST, MUSICXML, ETC.

	
10>	2. Mockingbird pioneered three domains _domains_ of music notation; SMDL added
	a fourth. Two of the four are the _logical_ and the _analytic_. Name and define
	one other.
	
		PERFORMANCE (GESTURAL)
		GRAPHIC

	
5>	3. What is a sequencer?
	
		A PROGRAM FOR RECORDING, EDITING AND PLAYING BACK MUSIC PRIMARILY IN MIDI FORM.
		ORIGINALLY SEQUENCERS COULD HANDLE ONLY MIDI (STORED IN SMFS), BUT MORE AND MORE
		"DIGITAL AUDIO SEQUENCERS", WHICH INTEGRATE AUDIO AND MIDI (STORED IN HYBRID
		ENCODINGS), HAVE BECOME AVAILABLE.

	
5>	4. I said "How many voices does this synthesizer have?" was a "perilous question".
	(a) What peril or danger was I talking about?
	
		THE TERM "VOICE" IS VERY AMBIGUOUS: IT COULD MEAN SEVERAL DIFFERENT THINGS.
	
	
5>	(b) What would be a better way to ask the question about the synthesizer's voices?
	I'll accept any reasonable answer.
	
		WHAT IS THIS SYNTHESIZER'S MAXIMUM POLYPHONY or HOW MANY NOTES CAN IT PLAY
			AT ONCE?
		[Less good but OK] HOW MANY PATCHES DOES IT HAVE?
	
	
10>	5. I argued that "Separating Representations Doesn't Work" -- or, really, that
	it can't always be done. I cited Jimi Hendrix's version of the Star-Spangled
	Banner as "an extreme example of musical necessity" for _not_ seperating them,
	meaning that it's not really possible to represent the musical content of his
	solo in any one of the basic representations. Do you agree? Why or why not? (The
	reason why or why not is the important thing. You'll get full credit either way,
	as long as you give a reason that's well thought-out -- even if I still think
	you're wrong.)

		[NO SIMPLE ANSWER]

	
5>	6. (a) What's the difference between a harmonic and a partial?
	
		A HARMONIC HAS A FREQUENCY THAT'S AN INTEGER MULTIPLE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL;
		A PARTIAL CAN HAVE ANY FREQUENCY (IT MAY OR MAY NOT BE A HARMONIC).
	
	
	
5>	(b) What's the difference in sound between a note all of whose partials are
	harmonics, and a note with strong partials that are nowhere near being harmonics?
	
		THE FORMER HAS A FAIRLY "PURE" AND CONSTANT SOUND; THE LATTER HAS A MORE
		COMPLEX SOUND, PERHAPS INVOLVING BEATS OR WAVERING.


5>	7. (a) Ignoring the header, about how much disk space would a .wav file of a
	one-minute song, recorded in stereo with 48,000 16-bit samples per second,
	occupy?
	
		IN BITS, 48,000 * 16 * 2 * 60 = 92,160,000
		IN BYTES, 48,000 * 2 * 2 * 60 = 11,520,000
	
	
5>	(b) About how much space would it take it if it was recorded in mono with
	48,000 8-bit samples per second? 
	
		IN BITS, 48,000 * 8 * 1 * 60 = 23,040,000
		IN BYTES, 48,000 * 1 * 1 * 60 = 2,880,000	
	
	
5>	8. Define _any_ of the following (and don't forget to say which one):
	CMN, expressive completeness, patch, structural generality.

		[VARIOUS]




+10>(EXTRA CREDIT) 3/2 to the 12th power = 129.746; 2 to the 7th power = 128. The
	numbers are close, but not _that_ close. What does this fact have to do with
	music?
	
		3/2 (1.5:1) IS THE FREQUENCY RATIO OF NOTES A PERFECT 5TH APART, 2:1 THE
		FREQUENCY RATIO OF NOTES AN OCTAVE APART. If you go up 12 5ths (=84 semitones),
		that should give you a frequency 3/2 to the 12th power times where you
		started; if you go up 7 octaves (=84 semitones), that should give a frequency
		2 to the 7th power where you started. But the numbers aren't the same, so you
		can't have _all_ 5ths pure at the same time you have pure octaves. The various
		ways to solve the problem are _temperaments_ (tuning systems).