Gregoire, Michelle

English

University of New Hampshire

University of New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository
Media Relations Administrative Offices
12-11-2007
UNH Mathematician Nominated For Grammy
Award
Michelle Gregoire
UNH Media Relations
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/news
This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Administrative Offices at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has
been accepted for inclusion in Media Relations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more
information, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu.
Recommended Citation
Gregoire, Michelle, "UNH Mathematician Nominated For Grammy Award" (2007). UNH Today. 924.
https://scholars.unh.edu/news/924
9/13/17, 11(54 AMUNH Mathematician Nominated for Grammy Award
Page 1 of 3http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2007/dec/mg11short.cfm.html
 
UNH Mathematician Nominated For Grammy Award
Contact:  Michelle Gregoire 
603-862-0126
UNH Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization
December 11, 2007
DURHAM, N.H. -- A biosketch of Kevin Short would read: Ph.D. in physics from the Imperial
College of Science and Technology in London, professor of mathematics at the University of
New Hampshire, teacher, researcher and entrepreneur, founder of UNH’s first spin-out
company, and Grammy Award nominee.
What?
Short was honored Dec. 6 in the 50th annual Grammy nominations for his role as a mastering
engineer in the restoration of a 1949 bootleg wire recording of a live Woody Guthrie concert.
It is the only known recording of Guthrie performing before an audience. Guthrie, known as
the Dust Bowl Balladeer, wrote more than 1,000 songs in the 1930s and ’40s, most as political
commentary on poverty and social injustice.
Short is renowned for his discovery of Chaotic Compression Technology, which applies a
mathematical theory known as chaos to audio, speech, video and image data. This allows the
compression of large files to a fraction of the size and, with encryption, enables transmission
in a wireless environment, such as downloading to a cell phone.
UNH filed for patents in 1998 and two years later, Short started a company, Chaoticom, the
university's first spin-out. In 2006, after returning to UNH fulltime, Short began to dabble in
music restoration.
Old analog tapes often were distorted by the mechanical effects of the recording instrument.
The sprockets and gears that rotated the spools could cause warps and warbles in the sound,
unlike the precision of modern digital recording equipment.
“I had been working on the mathematics of compression techniques and did lots of analysis of
audio to figure out what’s going on in this music,” said Short.
His papers at scientific conferences caught the attention of Jamie Howarth, founder of
Plangent Processes of Nantucket, Mass. Plangent’s patented Clarity Audio Restoration
technology uses a software algorithm to correct the speed and musical pitch distortions in
analog recordings.
Howarth is an Emmy-award winning musical producer, engineer and session musician. He has
an analytical mind and “golden ears,” said Short. “He would watch how these machines move
and he could hear what’s going on. He’s an expert in ‘de-wowing’ old music, the audio tracks
from old movies and classic rock.”
9/13/17, 11(54 AMUNH Mathematician Nominated for Grammy Award
Page 2 of 3http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2007/dec/mg11short.cfm.html
Short had worked with Howarth on the audio restoration of the Spielberg movie “Close
Encounters of the Third Kind” and restoration of a Grateful Dead classic from 1976, “Live at
the Cow Palace.” When Howarth was called for the Woody Guthrie project, he brought in
Short. “I wanted to be sure we gave these rare performances every possible opportunity, and
Kevin’s mathematical analyses gave us a better understanding of this antiquated medium,”
said Howarth.
In 2001, a heavy package had been mailed to the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City.
Received shortly after the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, this strange package
from an unknown sender, containing two spools of wire, was at first suspected to be a bomb,
according to published accounts.
As it turned out, the box had been sent by an elderly man who pulled it out of a closet in the
process of moving. Paul Braverman, as a student at Rutgers University in 1949, had brought a
wire recorder to Woody Guthrie’s concert at Fuld Hall in Newark, N.J., and captured the songs
and dialog.
Never capitalizing on his unauthorized recording, Braverman put the spools in a shoe box and
stored it in a closet, where it remained for a half-century. He donated it to the Woody Guthrie
Archives and died two years later without knowing the result of his beneficent bootlegging.
After determining the mysterious box was indeed not a bomb, Nora Guthrie, daughter of the
late performer and director of the archives, searched for a year for a wire audio recorder.
Finally, she found an audio restoration specialist who had converted a tape player to read
wire, and hired a team of sound engineers led by Howarth and by Steve Rosenthal of The
Magic Shop, a recording studio in Manhattan.
These engineers began the difficult work of transferring the sound. “The brittle wire would
snap and sproing,” said Short, and the loose ends of the hair-thin wire would tangle in knots.
“It took them a heroic 36-hour session to get the sound off the wire,” he said.
“I was not part of those efforts. I came in at the end, when everything had been digitized. The
sound engineers cut and pasted and mixed the sound to reduce the hums and crackles to get
a good signal so we could figure out was what going wrong with the recording.”
Relying on Howarth’s “golden ears” to indicate satisfactory results, Short applied the precision
of mathematics to the signal data. “It sort of broke the bounds of our assumptions,” Short
said. “It really tested everything we had.”
Howarth said, “Kevin led us to a greater understanding of how best to reclock the sound to
undo the wows and flutters caused by the original machine’s mechanical imperfections. This is
what we do routinely with film and tape, but the special challenge of the wire required a new
angle on the mathematical model we ordinarily employ, and Kevin was instrumental in that
regard.” The resulting album, “The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949,” was one
of five Grammy nominees for best historical album. Awards will be announced Feb. 10.
What’s next for Short? He has two new projects in the works: multiple channel sound
analysis, which may lead to the development of better stereo hearing aids, and the refinement
of techniques to detect trace materials used in making improvised explosive devices.
“Signal processing is one of the coolest places to test mathematical modeling and
9/13/17, 11(54 AMUNH Mathematician Nominated for Grammy Award
Page 3 of 3http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2007/dec/mg11short.cfm.html
representation theory,” said Short. “You have to scramble and come up with new mathematics
to make it work.”
Short’s love of math paved the way to a Marshall scholarship which allowed him to study
abroad, six U.S. patents, a successful company, a university professorship, an open door to
fascinating research opportunities and yes, maybe a Grammy Award—all by the age of 44.
What advice does he have for his students—and his four children—about career choices? “The
nice thing about mathematics is once you get a good model, it can be used over and over and
it’s right,” said Short. “Applying mathematics to real life can be very cool.”
A photo is available to download at: http://unh.edu/news/img/Short_CD.jpg
Dr. Kevin Short, professor of mathematics at UNH, has been nominated for a Grammy award
for his role in the restoration of a 1949 bootleg wire recording of folksinger Woody Guthrie.
Credit: Douglas Prince, UNH Photo Services


UNH Mathematician Nominated For Grammy Award

UNH Scholars' Repository

University of New HampshireUniversity of New Hampshire Scholars' RepositoryMedia Relations Administrative Offices12-11-2007UNH Mathematician Nominated For GrammyAwardMichelle GregoireUNH Media RelationsFollow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/newsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Administrative Offices at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It hasbeen accepted for inclusion in Media Relations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For moreinformation, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu.Recommended CitationGregoire, Michelle, "UNH Mathematician Nominated For Grammy Award" (2007). UNH Today. 924.https://scholars.unh.edu/news/9249/13/17, 11(54 AMUNH Mathematician Nominated for Grammy AwardPage 1 of 3http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2007/dec/mg11short.cfm.html UNH Mathematician Nominated For Grammy AwardContact:  Michelle Gregoire 603-862-0126UNH Office for Research Partnerships and CommercializationDecember 11, 2007DURHAM, N.H. -- A biosketch of Kevin Short would read: Ph.D. in physics from the ImperialCollege of Science and Technology in London, professor of mathematics at the University ofNew Hampshire, teacher, researcher and entrepreneur, founder of UNH’s first spin-outcompany, and Grammy Award nominee.What?Short was honored Dec. 6 in the 50th annual Grammy nominations for his role as a masteringengineer in the restoration of a 1949 bootleg wire recording of a live Woody Guthrie concert.It is the only known recording of Guthrie performing before an audience. Guthrie, known asthe Dust Bowl Balladeer, wrote more than 1,000 songs in the 1930s and ’40s, most as politicalcommentary on poverty and social injustice.Short is renowned for his discovery of Chaotic Compression Technology, which applies amathematical theory known as chaos to audio, speech, video and image data. This allows thecompression of large files to a fraction of the size and, with encryption, enables transmissionin a wireless environment, such as downloading to a cell phone.UNH filed for patents in 1998 and two years later, Short started a company, Chaoticom, theuniversity's first spin-out. In 2006, after returning to UNH fulltime, Short began to dabble inmusic restoration.Old analog tapes often were distorted by the mechanical effects of the recording instrument.The sprockets and gears that rotated the spools could cause warps and warbles in the sound,unlike the precision of modern digital recording equipment.“I had been working on the mathematics of compression techniques and did lots of analysis ofaudio to figure out what’s going on in this music,” said Short.His papers at scientific conferences caught the attention of Jamie Howarth, founder ofPlangent Processes of Nantucket, Mass. Plangent’s patented Clarity Audio Restorationtechnology uses a software algorithm to correct the speed and musical pitch distortions inanalog recordings.Howarth is an Emmy-award winning musical producer, engineer and session musician. He hasan analytical mind and “golden ears,” said Short. “He would watch how these machines moveand he could hear what’s going on. He’s an expert in ‘de-wowing’ old music, the audio tracksfrom old movies and classic rock.”9/13/17, 11(54 AMUNH Mathematician Nominated for Grammy AwardPage 2 of 3http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2007/dec/mg11short.cfm.htmlShort had worked with Howarth on the audio restoration of the Spielberg movie “CloseEncounters of the Third Kind” and restoration of a Grateful Dead classic from 1976, “Live atthe Cow Palace.” When Howarth was called for the Woody Guthrie project, he brought inShort. “I wanted to be sure we gave these rare performances every possible opportunity, andKevin’s mathematical analyses gave us a better understanding of this antiquated medium,”said Howarth.In 2001, a heavy package had been mailed to the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City.Received shortly after the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, this strange packagefrom an unknown sender, containing two spools of wire, was at first suspected to be a bomb,according to published accounts.As it turned out, the box had been sent by an elderly man who pulled it out of a closet in theprocess of moving. Paul Braverman, as a student at Rutgers University in 1949, had brought awire recorder to Woody Guthrie’s concert at Fuld Hall in Newark, N.J., and captured the songsand dialog.Never capitalizing on his unauthorized recording, Braverman put the spools in a shoe box andstored it in a closet, where it remained for a half-century. He donated it to the Woody GuthrieArchives and died two years later without knowing the result of his beneficent bootlegging.After determining the mysterious box was indeed not a bomb, Nora Guthrie, daughter of thelate performer and director of the archives, searched for a year for a wire audio recorder.Finally, she found an audio restoration specialist who had converted a tape player to readwire, and hired a team of sound engineers led by Howarth and by Steve Rosenthal of TheMagic Shop, a recording studio in Manhattan.These engineers began the difficult work of transferring the sound. “The brittle wire wouldsnap and sproing,” said Short, and the loose ends of the hair-thin wire would tangle in knots.“It took them a heroic 36-hour session to get the sound off the wire,” he said.“I was not part of those efforts. I came in at the end, when everything had been digitized. Thesound engineers cut and pasted and mixed the sound to reduce the hums and crackles to geta good signal so we could figure out was what going wrong with the recording.”Relying on Howarth’s “golden ears” to indicate satisfactory results, Short applied the precisionof mathematics to the signal data. “It sort of broke the bounds of our assumptions,” Shortsaid. “It really tested everything we had.”Howarth said, “Kevin led us to a greater understanding of how best to reclock the sound toundo the wows and flutters caused by the original machine’s mechanical imperfections. This iswhat we do routinely with film and tape, but the special challenge of the wire required a newangle on the mathematical model we ordinarily employ, and Kevin was instrumental in thatregard.” The resulting album, “The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949,” was oneof five Grammy nominees for best historical album. Awards will be announced Feb. 10.What’s next for Short? He has two new projects in the works: multiple channel soundanalysis, which may lead to the development of better stereo hearing aids, and the refinementof techniques to detect trace materials used in making improvised explosive devices.“Signal processing is one of the coolest places to test mathematical modeling and9/13/17, 11(54 AMUNH Mathematician Nominated for Grammy AwardPage 3 of 3http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2007/dec/mg11short.cfm.htmlrepresentation theory,” said Short. “You have to scramble and come up with new mathematicsto make it work.”Short’s love of math paved the way to a Marshall scholarship which allowed him to studyabroad, six U.S. patents, a successful company, a university professorship, an open door tofascinating research opportunities and yes, maybe a Grammy Award—all by the age of 44.What advice does he have for his students—and his four children—about career choices? “Thenice thing about mathematics is once you get a good model, it can be used over and over andit’s right,” said Short. “Applying mathematics to real life can be very cool.”A photo is available to download at: http://unh.edu/news/img/Short_CD.jpgDr. Kevin Short, professor of mathematics at UNH, has been nominated for a Grammy awardfor his role in the restoration of a 1949 bootleg wire recording of folksinger Woody Guthrie.Credit: Douglas Prince, UNH Photo Services

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UNH Mathematician Nominated For Grammy Award

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