After I graduated from Glasgow University in 1967, I moved to Edinburgh where I became an astronomer for three years and four months. I was a PhD student at Edinburgh University’s Astronomy Department which was based, not at the University itself, but in a section of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.

In these days, the spectra of stars were obtained using a telescope linked to a diffraction grating which acted as a prism spreading the spectrum onto a photographic plate. The plate was analysed by having its density along the spectrum plotted on graph paper by a machine called a densitometer. Absorption lines, caused by elements in the star’s atmosphere, produced a dip in the graph which could be measured by drawing a line along the top of the recorded graph and counting the squares on the graph paper caused by the dip. From these values the abundance of elements in the star’s atmosphere could be estimated.

The densitometer was also capable of producing a paper tape of the graph’s values and this could be read by a computer, which, in those days, filled an entire room. My PhD supervisor realised that by using this method it was possible to compute the absorption line measurements. My project was to help him do this, apply the method to a real astronomical problem, and write a computer program to calculate the abundances of the elements from our measurements. By doing so, we were among the first globally to analyse spectra using a computer.

Over fifty years later, while I am still interested in astronomy, I have developed a keen interest in music composition and production. We now have computer software called a digital audio workstation (DAW), where we record audio or MIDI tracks on our PC or laptop for each vocal or instrument involved in the creation of a piece of music. We display these tracks as horizontal bands on a timeline and can also display the frequency spectra of the sound of each track at any point on that timeline. By manipulating these spectra, using a technique called equalisation (EQ), we can help separate the sounds of these vocals and instruments, so that they sit comfortable in the mix. Indeed, EQ is considered to be one of the most important factors in mixing a piece of recorded music.

As a music producer in my early eighties, I often get asked how an old guy like me manages to handle modern techniques like EQ. I find it quite a difficult question to answer without giving the history of my early life. Like many older people, I sometimes struggle with modern innovations like QR codes and robotic answer machines. Fortunately, for me and my passion for music production, EQ is not one of them.