Musical signal analysis with chaos

Certain characteristics of musical signals are not fully accounted for by the classical methods of time-frequency analysis. In the signals produced by acoustic instruments, for instance, the nonlinear dynamics of the exciter often causes turbulence during the evolution of the sound, or it may produce nonperiodic noises (such as multiphonics). This chapter investigates the possibility of using analysis methods based on chaos theory to study the relevant properties both of the signal and of its production mechanisms. For a long time science purposely disregarded nonlinear phenomena or restricted their study to the most superficial and intuitive facets. The main cause of this attitude was a lack of analysis methods; as a matter of fact, nonlinear systems generally do not possess closed-form analytic solutions; consequently any study performed with classical techniques turns out to be impossible. Only of late have firm bases have been laid for the foundation of a new experimental science that studies and analyzes deterministic nonlinear systems, which was given the name of chaos theory. Beneath such an exotic name are profound