Is the scope of this site too narrow?

Question

We've had a few questions about audio processing that have felt perhaps slightly tangential to Audio Recording and Production to me, such as the topics about how to recognize notes, keys, tempo etc. On one hand these techniques are important tools in audio production, but knowing how these algorithms work or even how to implement feels a lot closer to Stack Overflow or other Q&A sites to me.

I started writing a comment to this question about perhaps not fitting quite in: How do song recognition services (like Shazam) work? -- but then I started thinking about the scope of Audio Recording & Production. As a software engineer I am certainly biased, but I think questions and answers about digital signal processing might be interesting too to the (potential) audience of this site?

How would Audio Recording, Production and Processing sound?

I realize I might be way too late to bring this up, and that the rest of the participants on meta have already hashed out the direction of this site. That's fine with me, I'm not on a mission to change and uproot and revolutionize. But I would like to see our number of members and the rate of questions grow much quicker than they have so far and maybe this would be a gentle way to increase the scope slightly without alienating the original intended audience.

So anyway, vote away! I wonder if there is a badge for achieving -10 on meta? :-)

Answer 1

My thoughts are along the same lines as Kim's. A few things to add:

• I think most Recording/Production experts are not Signal Processing experts, and most SP experts are not R/P experts.
• I think most R/P experts would find SP questions interesting, even if they weren't SP experts, and would not be turned off by SP questions appearing here.
• I think it will be easier to attract SP experts because a lot of them are already aware of and active in the StackExchange network.
• I think if SP activity starts to overshadow R/P activity we will turn away some new R/P visitors.

I wish we could focus on growing the site by attracting more R/P experts rather than expanding the scope, but I think adding SP can work if we keep the above points in mind. You have my upvote!

Answer 2

Sounds good to me -- it seems related.

The general guideline we use is that experts using the site would not be turned off or turned away by the presence of this particular topic appearing on the site.

Answer 3

I have to admit that the idea that signal processing could be off topic hadn't entered my mind. It's an integral part of recording and production.

I'm even slightly skeptical about splitting up recording and musicianship in general. An audio engineer will probably need to know how to tune drums, for example.

Answer 4

Those who frequent the KvR forums will know that there is a thriving DSP and Plugin Development sub-forum, so yes, I don't see why developers who are into audio recording and production might not want to ask some questions here. In fact, it would be a much better resource for the kind of common questions people ask (filter design, FFT implementations, etc) than a forum where the really good answers get lost in the forum history.