FDA in the Frequency Domain

Viewing Eq.(7.2) in the frequency domain, the ideal differentiator transfer-function is , which can be viewed as the Laplace transform of the operator (left-hand side of Eq.(7.2)). Moving to the right-hand side, the z transform of the first-order difference operator is . Thus, in the frequency domain, the finite-difference approximation may be performed by making the substitution

in any continuous-time transfer function (Laplace transform of an integro-differential operator) to obtain a discrete-time transfer function (z transform of a finite-difference operator).

The inverse of substitution Eq.(7.3) is

As discussed in §8.3.1, the FDA is a special case of the matched transformation applied to the point .

Note that the FDA does not alias, since the conformal mapping is one to one. However, it does warp the poles and zeros in a way which may not be desirable, as discussed further on p. below.

---

Previous: Finite Difference Approximation
Next: Delay Operator Notation

Order a Hardcopy of Physical Audio Signal Processing

---

About the Author: Julius Orion Smith III
Julius Smith's background is in electrical engineering (BS Rice 1975, PhD Stanford 1983). He is presently Professor of Music and Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), teaching courses and pursuing research related to signal processing applied to music and audio systems. See http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/ for details.