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Author Topic: About Dick Heyser;  (Read 2863 times)

Tom Danley

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About Dick Heyser;
« on: July 06, 2015, 02:14:15 PM »

Hi
Here is friend and co-worker Doug Jones presenting on the late Dick Heyser  who’s writing was key to my interest in time as it relates to loudspeakers and the first to develop a method and approach to measure this loudspeaker “time distortion”.   He is I think one of the forgotten giants in audio .
Best,
Tom Danley
Enjoy;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RAwarfrUyGE
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Frank Koenig

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2015, 12:09:14 AM »

Dick Heyser played a big role in my interest in audio and signal processing. When I was a freshmen (1974) I discovered the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) in the open stacks (those were the days) of the engineering library. That, in itself, was like being magically dropped into a wonderful new world I didn't know existed. Plowing through back issues I encountered an article "The Delay Plane, Objective Analysis of Subjective Properties: Part I" by Richard C. Heyser, which I could make no sense of whatsoever, but I felt it was something special and really cool. I spent the next few years studying linear systems.

In 1982 I went off to grad school to continue to study "signals and systems" and now and then got to the AES Los Angeles Section meetings. By then I had read, and even somewhat understood, most of Heyser's stuff, and had the great pleasure and honor of meeting him on several occasions. I recall him giving a presentation at one meeting where he described convolution in terms of spreading butter on toast and then scraping up the crumbs -- I'm not making this up.

We lost him far too early and he sure shouldn't be forgotten. Thanks for bringing him to our attention.

--Frank
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Frank Koenig

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2015, 05:05:56 PM »

Remarkably, there does not appear to be a biographical entry in Wikipedia for Richard C. Heyser. He is mentioned, in the context of TDS, in an article about Hellmuth Kolbe, a recording engineer. If Doug Jones is looking for a project, he could get something started.  8)

Best,

--Frank
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Tom Danley

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2015, 07:01:19 PM »

Remarkably, there does not appear to be a biographical entry in Wikipedia for Richard C. Heyser. He is mentioned, in the context of TDS, in an article about Hellmuth Kolbe, a recording engineer. If Doug Jones is looking for a project, he could get something started.  8)

Best,

--Frank

Hi Frank
Thanks for the suggestion I will pass that on to Doug.
You are lucky to have met the man, I only did once at a dinner at AES with Don and Carolyn Davis but I only said about 5 words that night and just sat listened to the guys talk.   
Looking through the archive room at Columbia and more so reading some of what Doug has of Dicks writing, I am left feeling pretty small like I did that night long ago.     
There are so many questions I would ask now if it were possible and I know that’s true for Doug who was his friend. We have spent many hours talking about “what did Dick mean on page such and such”.   
Back at Intersonics, my boss (to my great surprise and joy) agreed to get an early TEF 10 and if I could say any tool changed my life, it would be that and the ones that followed.
Hey, that looks like an oscilloscope on your shoulder, don’t say it’s a boom box or I will be crushed haha.
Best
Tom Danley
Danley Sound Labs
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2015, 08:07:52 PM »

You got more time and words with him than we did. You were lucky.

I recall him being written up in an Audio magazine article back in the day, which IIRC was a little unusual for Audio Magazine, but Heyser was a real pioneer and deserved the acclaim.

JR

PS: Wiki is notoriously incomplete and inaccurate regarding several audio topics, but that is the nature of DIY encyclopedias. 
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Frank Koenig

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2015, 10:56:35 PM »

I only said about 5 words that night and just sat listened to the guys talk.

Well, it's not like I had any long conversations or could think of any good questions. I was a shy kid of about 26 going to my first AES section meetings and, in Los Angeles at that time, that meant being surrounded by a bunch of big-shots, including Dick Heyser. I mostly listened, too.

What now strikes me as odd is that Heyser's work on system representation appears never to have been accepted in the mainstream. Only audio people know about him. I have a fairly modern book (1998) on time-frequency analysis, "Practical Time-Frequency Analysis" Rene Carmona, et al. (Academic Press), and in about 300 references there is not a single mention of Heyser or TDS. For that matter, I don't think I have seen any general engineering book that mentions him.

As for the boombox, I mean oscilloscope, it's one of those new-fangled digital ones but, thankfully, I don't think it contains a speaker.
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Barry Singleton

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2015, 10:58:04 PM »

  Hi Tom!

  I am glad to see Doug, even if only on video.

  Having never met the man seeing the video was a treat. Like many others when studying Richards Anthology much of it is over my head but I learn more every time through. It is a valuable resource to me.

  TEF changed my audio life no doubt. Most times using it I feel like I have only scratched the surface of it's capabilities. There is a lot to learn for a knuckle head like me.

  Hope to see you two soon!

  Thanks again,
                        Barry.
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2015, 12:10:42 AM »

Well, it's not like I had any long conversations or could think of any good questions. I was a shy kid of about 26 going to my first AES section meetings and, in Los Angeles at that time, that meant being surrounded by a bunch of big-shots, including Dick Heyser. I mostly listened, too.

What now strikes me as odd is that Heyser's work on system representation appears never to have been accepted in the mainstream. Only audio people know about him. I have a fairly modern book (1998) on time-frequency analysis, "Practical Time-Frequency Analysis" Rene Carmona, et al. (Academic Press), and in about 300 references there is not a single mention of Heyser or TDS. For that matter, I don't think I have seen any general engineering book that mentions him.

As for the boombox, I mean oscilloscope, it's one of those new-fangled digital ones but, thankfully, I don't think it contains a speaker.
His day job was being a rocket scientist at JPL so audio was kind of a side gig for him.

JR
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Kevin Graf

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2015, 05:44:59 PM »

Did any of his many Audio magazine articles make it to the web?
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Speedskater

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Re: About Dick Heyser;
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2015, 05:44:59 PM »


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