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Music and mathematics make the unlikeliest of pairs. Arguments
abound about how the two are interrelated, and how mathematics can be used to
understand, evaluate and analyze music. Some even passionately debate how at the
core of a composition is an algebraic equation. Still, the correlation between
the genius of Fibonacci and the brilliance of Beethoven is a little hard to
swallow. Notwithstanding the debate, the contribution of mathematician Karlheinz
Brandenburg to the mellifluous universe of music is incontestable. The audio
engineer, by using simple algorithm, unshackled music in a way it was barely
conceivable.
Brandenburg (and his team of inventors) invented the Motion
Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Audio Layer 3, more popularly known by the file
extension MP3, at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany in the early nineties. It
was on July 7, 1994, that the Fraunhofer Society released the first software MP3
encoder called l3enc. And it completely changed the way we looked at and heard
music. All of sudden, music had turned portable; it could be played anywhere and
was more or less freely available. Over the next few years, MP3 completely
lorded over all the music formats that existed in the past and the present.
But instead of basking in the glory of his invention, or raking
in money by the millions, Brandenburg decided to return to Fraunhofer as the
director of the Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) in the picturesque
town of Ilmenau, Germany. He now enjoys simple pleasures of life like listening
to music on his iPod Nano, swimming or trekking.
Widely regarded as the father of MP3, Brandenburg is
currently working on futuristic technologies in the same domain, like a program
that automatically discerns and unearths music based on the type of music that
we listen to from the Internet. In an interview with Dataquest,
Brandenburg talks about his invention and himself. Excerpts.
It has been around thirteen years since the MP3 format was
publicly launched, and yet it continues to be the most popular format for music.
In this rapidly changing world isnt that a sort an anomaly?
I think MP3 is a common ground for compressed music; it is one format that
is supported by all kinds of equipment and can be decoded and listened to
anytime, anywhere. People like this continuity; they dont want to change the
format of their music every other year. It is due to this universitality that
MP3 continues to be popular.
MP3 is the second most popular search item on the Internet, and,
ironically, it wasnt even invented keeping the computer in mind. Did you have
an inkling of how popular it would be?
Yes and no. One always has dreams, when I did my PHD work, I was dreaming
that my work would be used by millions of people. But I dont think I or
anybody else in the group had a feeling of how large our work would really be.
How do you feel about the marriage between Internet and MP3?
In was in late 1994 and early 1995, that we at Fraunhofer had an internal
discussion about the future potential of the Internet. We knew that we had a
window of opportunity to make MP3 the Internet audio standard. Quite shortly
after we released the shareware encoder and decoder software, we saw the first
people using MP3 on the Internetthat was in 1995.
How does it feel to be referred to as the father of MP3?
I am certainly not the father of MP3. I know who else contributed in the
development of MP3, whose shoulders I stand on and who else worked on the topic.
Hence, I never refer to myself as the father of MP3, I do know that I
contributed significantly to the development of the standard, so feel very
connected to the MP3, thats it. Page(s) 1 2
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