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Acoustics and Psychoacoustics
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject of acoustics, including the principles of human perception of sound, sometimes called psychoacoustics.
Acoustics and Psychoacoustics is ideal for students of music technology, sound recording, traditional music and acoustics, as well as engineers studying audio, multimedia and communications systems. Anyone who wants a practical understanding of how real musical sounds behave and are perceived in real spaces, will find this an accessible and interesting read.
Subjects featured
· Principles of sound
· Human hearing and psychoacoustics
· Musical timbre, pitch and loudness perception
· Sound generation in musical instruments
· Sound in different environments (architectural acoustics)
· Processing sound electronically
The book's second edition provides new material on wave motion, brass and woodwind instruments, forward and backward masking, an introduction to coding, and diffusion. Additional references and marginal notes explaining basic terms are provided to aid understanding.
Supporting
Visit the book's supporting website, designed by author David Howard, for additional
· Questions and exercises to test your knowledge
· Web links for further resources and research
· Audio clips
· Calculation facilities (eg. adding decibel values and converting between frequency ratio and cents/semitones)
The website can also be reached via www.focalpress.com
Professor David M Howard lectures on music technology at the University of York's Electronics Department. His research interests include the analysis and synthesis of music, speech and singing, human hearing modelling and the use of computer displays in voice teaching. He is an active organist, choral singer and choral conductor.
Dr James Angus was an instigator of the music technology courses at York, where he formerly lectured. He is now an independent consultant and researches in the area of acoustics, in particular diffuser design and audio signal processing.
Acoustics and Psychoacoustics is part of the Focal Press Music Technology Series.
Acoustics and Psychoacoustics is ideal for students of music technology, sound recording, traditional music and acoustics, as well as engineers studying audio, multimedia and communications systems. Anyone who wants a practical understanding of how real musical sounds behave and are perceived in real spaces, will find this an accessible and interesting read.
Subjects featured
· Principles of sound
· Human hearing and psychoacoustics
· Musical timbre, pitch and loudness perception
· Sound generation in musical instruments
· Sound in different environments (architectural acoustics)
· Processing sound electronically
The book's second edition provides new material on wave motion, brass and woodwind instruments, forward and backward masking, an introduction to coding, and diffusion. Additional references and marginal notes explaining basic terms are provided to aid understanding.
Supporting
Visit the book's supporting website, designed by author David Howard, for additional
· Questions and exercises to test your knowledge
· Web links for further resources and research
· Audio clips
· Calculation facilities (eg. adding decibel values and converting between frequency ratio and cents/semitones)
The website can also be reached via www.focalpress.com
Professor David M Howard lectures on music technology at the University of York's Electronics Department. His research interests include the analysis and synthesis of music, speech and singing, human hearing modelling and the use of computer displays in voice teaching. He is an active organist, choral singer and choral conductor.
Dr James Angus was an instigator of the music technology courses at York, where he formerly lectured. He is now an independent consultant and researches in the area of acoustics, in particular diffuser design and audio signal processing.
Acoustics and Psychoacoustics is part of the Focal Press Music Technology Series.
- GenresMusicScienceNonfiction
385 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 1996
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 21, 2009
I wouldn't recommend this book at all for a casual read. The book is written like a textbook with many mathematical examples throughout. Since I was reading this for "fun" and not really interested in practicing the principles I decided to skip over many of the examples.
The most interesting parts by far were the descriptions of our hearing system and secondly our tendencies to perceive music. For example, Bass sounds are typically registered on the left side of the head and treble sounds typically registered on the right. This contradicts how choral performers are lined up on stage with respect to the audience, but is in line with how they perceive each other. For example, altos prefer to hear bass performers on THEIR left, which is actually the audiences right.
If you would've described what I just said as "blah blah blah" then this book isn't for you :-D.
The most interesting parts by far were the descriptions of our hearing system and secondly our tendencies to perceive music. For example, Bass sounds are typically registered on the left side of the head and treble sounds typically registered on the right. This contradicts how choral performers are lined up on stage with respect to the audience, but is in line with how they perceive each other. For example, altos prefer to hear bass performers on THEIR left, which is actually the audiences right.
If you would've described what I just said as "blah blah blah" then this book isn't for you :-D.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review