Rhythm and Transforms

William Sethares is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches about electro-acoustics and signal processing. A focus of his research is the relationship between the rhythmic qualities of music – how they are perceived biologically and the qualities of the instruments or machine making the sounds.

What is Rhythm?
Visualizing and Conceptualizing Rhythm
Variety of Rhythmic Experience
Auditory Perception
Transforms
Adaptive Oscillators
Statistical Models
Automated Rhythm Analysis
Beat-based Signal Processing
Musical Composition and Recomposition
Musical Analysis via Feature Scores
Speculations, Interpretations, Conclusions

From the reviews:"Rhythm and Transforms, is a fitting sequel. … There is no doubt that Sethares is a good writer … . His extensive glossary will be a great help to those who are encountering some of the ideas for the first time … . Overall, Rhythm and Transforms is a worthwhile addition to the literature. I’m sure it will find a place … in many personal libraries, as it will in mine." (Thomas D. Rossing, Physics Today, August, 2008)"This book is about understand the link between the physical stimuli and the subsequent cognitive responses, with the goal of developing algorithms to assist with various applications … . this book contains good material to motivate the interests of students about the ‘importance of mathematics in applications.’ … Your brain will enjoy the entrainment such synchronization performs between electrical impulses and the words in this book." (Robert S. Anderssen, SIAM Review, Vol. 50 (3), 2008)“This book explores the temporal and rhythmic relationships between sounds and the structure of music, between perceptual aspects of the human auditory system and the sound machines … . This book is useful for engineers and musicians interested in the design of audio devices.” (Manfred Tasche, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1189, 2010)