Joshua Tyler is pursuing his Ph.D. in computational engineering at UTC. He is the recipient of a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UTC in 2020 and a master’s degree in 2022. Photo by Angela Foster.
Having recorded his own music as well as others, Joshua Tyler knows good sound when he hears it.
He also knows most recorded music could have better sound.
A quest for improved sound led the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga doctoral student to develop a mathematical method of improving the quality of sound recordings, especially musical ones. As part of cultivating a culture of innovation, he is working on the project with Guerry and UC Foundation Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Don Reising.
“There’s all this voodoo right now in the audio production world of: ‘OK, what’s the best way to mix this so I don’t lose audio quality when I release it?’” explained Tyler, the recipient of a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UTC in 2020 and a master’s degree in 2022.
He is working on his Ph.D. in computational engineering, which he hopes to finish in 2025.
In audio recording, “mixing” takes all the recorded parts—drums, bass, guitar, vocals, etc.—and combines them into a single audio track. While doing so, Tyler explains, there’s invariably some loss of audio quality. Perhaps it’s not enough for the average listener to hear, but it’s something most audio engineers will listen to and possibly cringe over.
“You do all this compression and filtering while you’re mixing it, so you’re overall limiting the sonic quality of your mix,” he said.
Reising said Tyler’s research “can revolutionize digital media by providing an audio quality unavailable to consumers, producers and distributors.”
“It also has applications outside audio that can impact communications systems as well,” said Reising, who has been Tyler’s academic advisor since his senior year at UTC. “Time will tell as to its full importance and the impact it can have. Josh and I are committed to working to maximize its impact and value.”
Tyler said the algorithm can be uploaded into a studio’s system software and be part of the recording process. Tests have shown that it maintains 98% of the recording’s original quality when all is said and done.
“You just mix it how you want in the studio, you release it and you’re guaranteed that whoever’s listening to the music will hear what you did in the studio,” he said. “It’s behind-the-scenes and just makes things run better.”
Along with recording his own music, he has worked on recording and sound mixing at a church “right in my backyard, so I started going there and then got involved doing audio production,” Tyler said.
Reising described Tyler as “a very dedicated and passionate person.”
“He enjoys uncovering new solutions and methods to find them,” Reising said. “He can understand things quickly and make connections between concepts he has learned and built upon. He is astute and a competent researcher.”
During his Mocs experience, Tyler has received $5,000 from the Clarence E. Harris Chair Commercialization Acceleration Mini-Grant program in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business. He also received a $5,000 Maturation Grant from the University of Tennessee Research Foundation.
He’s using grant money to buy studio equipment to test the algorithm further.
“With those results generated, we go out and do marketing for this. It’s easy to implement. It’s still electrical engineering at the end of the day,” Tyler said.
“For me it’s like, ‘Can I take what I learned from electrical engineering and apply it to make a better-sounding mix? Can I make it sound full? Can I make it sound clear? Can I have all this stuff going on at the same time and still maintain all this clarity?’”
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UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science
Joshua Tyler has developed a mathematical algorithm to improve the quality of sound recordings.
