When people ask how we do our math, only one answer comes to mind.  We do math like musicians do math.  So much of music is mathematical yet it’s all artistic and by feel.  A song starts with a “a one, a two, a one – two – three…badah dah dah dah! badah dah dah dah dah, badah dah dah dah!….” and the music goes on without counting, yet in the music there is a great deal of counting without counting.

Painting and color frequencies, music and mathematics, both Artistic yet rooted in math and science.

We think in sound, hear sound, even countdown with numbers and digits, but as designers/acousticians we hear the final sound before a design even begins.  Always working toward that vision of a sound auralized in our minds.

Nature is the best teacher and the best cook.  As with so many things we find the ingredients all in Nature, Biology or Evolution.  Designs are like recipes or songs, mixed in the primordial soup of Nature Based math:  Chaos Theory and The Butterfly effect, Fractal Scalability for the same effect large & small, and finally, the elegant Fibonacci Sequence, lending it’s artistry to so very many inspiring shapes and forms in Nature.

Our Chef friends have always told us that quality ingredients are crucial to creating truly phenomenal food.  Apparently this applies to acoustics as well.  Quality ingredients such as pure math, specific high grade materials and an idyllic vision of a sound, always and consistently creates the most stunning of acoustical imagery.

Again and again we find new truths rooted in what may be a universal quantum principle.  The most basic of which is true in electronics, the oldest and most successful application of quantum physics in the history of mankind:  that Resolution and Geometry are more effective than Mass and Density.  It’s Metaphorically like saying a well thought out design or plan will outperform a knee jerk reaction rooted in muscle and force.  It makes very clear sense, as evidenced by so much of electronics and the natural world.  And yet the world of acoustics is still rooted in Mass and Density.  Some things do not change quickly, and despite the fact that electronics in music and audio fully embraced innovation, the world of acoustics prefers heavy thick materials and walls made with paradigms from the 1950’s.  Einstein would roll over in his grave and laugh at us.

Acoustics is Art & Science like Music is Art & Math.  It’s a creative and scientific all wrapped into one.

One process with many elements intertwined.  A truly lovely painting of sound.

The Art of Acoustics (part 1)  |  to be continued