Science Of Sound

"A lucid and passionate case for a more mindful way of listening to and engaging with musical, natural, and manmade sounds." —New York Times In this tour of the world’s most unexpected sounds, Trevor Cox—the “David Attenborough of the acoustic realm” (Observer)—discovers the world’s longest echo in a hidden oil cavern in Scotland, unlocks the secret of singing sand dunes in California, and alerts us to the aural gems that exist everywhere in between. Using the world’s most amazing acoustic phenomena to reveal how sound works in everyday life, The Sound Book inspires us to become better listeners in a world dominated by the visual and to open our ears to the glorious cacophony all around us.

"The Fundamentals of Sound Science teaches the principles of the physics of sound, as well as basic principles of physics, by linking them to music and musical instruments. The book begins by asking students to question the meaning of sound itself. What is sound? How far and how fast does it travel? By asking students to think about sound in this way, the material is able to connect our daily experience of sound to principles of physics such as distance, velocity, scalars, and vectors. Through the next six chapters students learn about harmonic motion, waves, the sources and physical properties of sound, and measurements of loudness. The second half of the book uses music as the vehicle for a deeper exploration of sound. Students study some basic musicianship, including articulation, intervals, and harmonic series. These concepts become the springboard for an examination of the Fourier Analysis of Simplest Sound Spectra, which encompasses steady tones, periodic waves of arbitrary form, square, triangular, and sawtooth waves, and modulated tones. Different families of instruments are discussed in depth: percussion, strings, flutes and recorders, woodwinds, and finally the human voice. The book concludes with a chapter on room acoustics, which covers the precedence effect and reverberations. Each chapter is filled with detailed explanations, and numerous examples are used to enhance student understanding. Study questions are included to encourage critical thinking, and prepare students for tests. Chapter summaries aid retention by reviewing terms and relations. By finding the common ground between physics and music, The Fundamentals of Sound Science strengthens understanding of both, revealing that many principles of the physical world are a part of our common, taken for granted, daily experience. All we have to do is listen. The Fundamentals of Sound Science can be used for introductory courses in physics, including those at the high school level. The accessibility of the material makes the book appropriate for non-majors at the university level, and students can achieve mastery of the content without a background in mathematics, making the book ideal for general education courses. Elena Borovitskaya earned her Ph.D. in physics and mathematics at the Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Science in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia. Her area of expertise is the physics of low-dimensional systems such as quantum wells, quantum wires, and quantum dots. Dr. Borovitskaya also studied at a music school in Nizhni Novgorod. Her joint areas of interest and expertise have enabled her to connect the language of physics and the language of music. Currently she is a faculty member at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she enjoys teaching a variety of courses, musical acoustics being her favorite. "

The Science of Sound Recording will provide you with more than just an introduction to sound and recording, it will allow you to dive right into some of the technical areas that often appear overwhelming to anyone without an electrical engineering or physics background. The Science of Sound Recording helps you build a basic foundation of scientific principles, explaining how recording really works. Packed with valuable must know information, illustrations and examples of 'worked through' equations this book introduces the theory behind sound recording practices in a logical and practical way while placing an emphasis on the concepts of measurement as they relate to sound recording, physical principles of mechanics and acoustics, biophysics of hearing, introduction to electronics, analog and digital recording theory and how science determines mixing techniques.

Provides a variety of simple experiments investigating the science behind sound.

(Technical Reference). More than simply the book of the award-winning DVD set, Art & Science of Sound Recording, the Book takes legendary engineer, producer, and artist Alan Parsons' approaches to sound recording to the next level. In book form, Parsons has the space to include more technical background information, more detailed diagrams, plus a complete set of course notes on each of the 24 topics, from "The Brief History of Recording" to the now-classic "Dealing with Disasters." Written with the DVD's coproducer, musician, and author Julian Colbeck, ASSR, the Book offers readers a classic "big picture" view of modern recording technology in conjunction with an almost encyclopedic list of specific techniques, processes, and equipment. For all its heft and authority authored by a man trained at London's famed Abbey Road studios in the 1970s ASSR, the Book is also written in plain English and is packed with priceless anecdotes from Alan Parsons' own career working with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and countless others. Not just informative, but also highly entertaining and inspirational, ASSR, the Book is the perfect platform on which to build expertise in the art and science of sound recording.

A comprehensive, kid-friendly examination of how sound works. How does sound happen? How do we hear it? What makes some sounds loud and some soft? Some high pitched and some low pitched? How do humans and animals use sound to communicate? Which sounds happen naturally, and which are created for a specific purpose? This charming picture book explores all of these questions in easy-to-understand and child-friendly language, offering a gentle introduction to how sound works. Kids are experts at making noise. Now they’ll want to stop and listen, too!

An integrated overview of hearing and the interplay of physical, biological, and psychological processes underlying it. Every time we listen—to speech, to music, to footsteps approaching or retreating—our auditory perception is the result of a long chain of diverse and intricate processes that unfold within the source of the sound itself, in the air, in our ears, and, most of all, in our brains. Hearing is an "everyday miracle" that, despite its staggering complexity, seems effortless. This book offers an integrated account of hearing in terms of the neural processes that take place in different parts of the auditory system. Because hearing results from the interplay of so many physical, biological, and psychological processes, the book pulls together the different aspects of hearing—including acoustics, the mathematics of signal processing, the physiology of the ear and central auditory pathways, psychoacoustics, speech, and music—into a coherent whole.

Comprehensive and accessible, this foundational text surveys general principles of sound, musical scales, characteristics of instruments, mechanical and electronic recording devices, and many other topics. More than 300 illustrations plus questions, problems, and projects.

Percussion instruments may be our oldest musical instruments, but only recently have they become the subject of extensive scientific study. This book focuses on how percussion instruments vibrate and produce sound and how these sounds are perceived by listeners.

What does it mean to hear scientifically? What does it mean to see musically? This volume uncovers a new side to the long nineteenth century in London, a hidden history in which virtuosic musical entertainment and scientific discovery intersected in remarkable ways. Sound Knowledge examines how scientific truth was accrued by means of visual and aural experience, and, in turn, how musical knowledge was located in relation to empirical scientific practice. James Q. Davies and Ellen Lockhart gather work by leading scholars to explore a crucial sixty-year period, beginning with Charles Burney’s ambitious General History of Music, a four-volume study of music around the globe, and extending to the Great Exhibition of 1851, where musical instruments were assembled alongside the technologies of science and industry in the immense glass-encased collections of the Crystal Palace. Importantly, as the contributions show, both the power of science and the power of music relied on performance, spectacle, and experiment. Ultimately, this volume sets the stage for a new picture of modern disciplinarity, shining light on an era before the division of aural and visual knowledge.