I don't have any friends who are into music production, so I thought I would post this here. (Not really Linux-related, but I am using Linux for my recordings.)
I just wanted to share an example of how math (maths, for my right-pondlian brothers and sisters) can play a role in music production. This could be helpful to the young rebel who sits in class and says, "Who gives a fig about math(s)? I just wanna rawk!"
The situation:
I have a song for which I want to use a hold delay effect on the guitar, so I can loop a chord progression and then play a lead over-top of it. The effect starts recording what I play when I tap the switch on the pedal board, and starts to repeat it after whatever amount of time I have set.
The song is 128 beats per minute, in 4/4 time. I want the delay effect to kick in after 4 bars.
The problemo:
How many milliseconds should I set the delay to?
The calculation:
60 seconds ÷ 128 beats = 0.46875 seconds per beat = 467.75 milliseconds per beat
x 16 beats (which is how many beats are in 4 bars using 4/4 time signature) = 7500 milliseconds
So by a beautiful coincidence, the result is a nice, whole number that I can plug into my hold delay to get a precisely repeated guitar riff to play a lead over.
Math(s)!