Acoustics write up

The Physics of sound

What is sound?
Sound is an energy waveform that cannot be seen be the naked eye. Sound is an
Omnidirectional energy, Omnidirectional means that sound energy spreads in every
direction. Sound can be made by almost anything, whether the source is a musical
instrument, or whether it is a tree falling in jungle, everything makes a sound depending
on whether there is air around the source, for example, you cannot create sound in
space, this is because there is no air around the source, you cannot make sound unless
there is the air to create and pass the sound.

Soundwaves & Waveform

When you drop something in water, you get a
ripple effect in the water which travels in every
direction, this is the same as sound, when you see
the ripples in the water they are the same as
soundwave however the difference is that you
cannot see the soundwaves, whenever you make a
sound you are compressing air molecules to create
the sound. Air is made up from oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide all mixed by
molecules, when the molecules are interrupted by a sound source, this causes the
molecules to collide making vibrations. Compression is where there more molecules
colliding in the air when you make a noise so that means that the frequency of the noise
is high, Rarefaction means that there are less air molecules colliding together, this
means that there is a lower frequency than the others. Soundwave is the visual
representation of sound, you can see the waveform on Logic, for example, if you have an
audio track after using a microphone and recording, it shows you the waveform of the
recording.

Frequency, amplitude, Envelope

Frequency & Doppler effect- A frequency is a completed cycle of

Compressions and Rarefactions within one second. Frequency can
be measured in hertz, our frequency spectrum is 20Hz to
20,000Hz (20KHz). Good human hearing can hear between 20 Hz

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20 KHz, each note on an instrument has a set frequency, whatever the frequency of the
note is, if you go an octave higher the Frequency doubles, if you go an octave below then
the frequency is halved. Adults and Children have different frequency spectrum, for
example Children can hear higher frequency to adults. Adults hearing has been used a
lot longer than younger people, this leads to some sort of hearing damage so that the
inner ear cannot register frequency above roughly 17.5 KHz.
The Doppler effect is a change of a soundwave
for an observer moving relative to its source,
for example, when a police car is driven
towards you with the sirens on, the sirens
pitch increases as the car gets closer to you,
and when it drives past you the sirens pitch
begins to decrease until you cannot hear the
sirens, this is the Doppler effect.
Amplitude- the amplitude of sound is the maximum frequency range of the Waveform,
you can measure amplitude by looking at a waveform on a graph and looking at the
complete height of the middle of one of the waves.
Envelope- ADSR, this means Attack,
Decay, Sustain and Release. The attack
of the frequency is how long it takes to
reach its maximum peak, the Decay is
how long it takes to drop back down to
the played note, the sustain is how long
the frequency is played for, and the
release is how long until the frequency
has completely faded away.

Speed of sound

The speed of sound can change

depending on what type of media the
sound is travelling through, for
example...Air 344 m/s

Petrolium - 1290 m/s

Average speed through the body 1530 m/s
Iron 5850 m/s
Aluminium 6260 m/s

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Phase
Phase is where there are two of the same
wavelengths, for example, when there are
two wavelengths that are the same, they
join together to double the wavelength
creating a bigger frequency range, in the
diagram it shows you two wavelengths that
are identical joining together to make one
big wavelength, however if one
Wavelength is mirrored by the second wavelength, this means that the two wavelengths
will even each other out to become a neutral Frequency.

Harmonics
There are two types of harmonics, there is the even harmonics and the odd harmonics.
Even harmonics sound pleasant and pleasing to hear, odd harmonics sound unpleasant
our hearing, for instance, when there are two instruments playing the same harmony,
the harmonics sound pleasant together and work well together, however if you have
two instruments playing two different harmonies, then the harmonics of the
instruments wouldnt match and make the sound not pleasing for the listener.

Decibels
Decibels were first used to measure the
intensity of energy of power along telephone
lines. The Bel scale would interpret an
intensity level of 1000 to be 3 Bels, and
1,000,000 was 6 Bels you can easily
calculate this by just counting the zeros. But
this meant there would be only 12 numbers of
loudness. So it was decided 120 levels would
be appropriate, by multiplying Bels by 10, to
give us deci-Bels. dB SPL is a specific type of
decibel. SPL means sound pressure level and
is about the actual intensity caused by sound

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in air. All decibels are referenced, and in this case it's to the quietist audible sound,
which could be a mosquito 3 metres away or a person sighing 10 metres away.

EQ (Equalization)
Equalization is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components
within an electronic signal. The most basic type of equalization familiar to most people
is the treble/bass control on home audio equipment. The treble control adjusts high
frequencies, the bass control adjusts low frequencies. This is adequate for very
rudimentary adjustments it only provides two controls for the entire frequency
spectrum, so each control adjusts a fairly wide range of frequencies.
Shelving EQ
In shelving equalization, all frequencies above and below a specific point are boosted or
weaker or the same amount. This creates a "shelf" in the frequency spectrum.
Bell EQ
Bell equalization boosts or weakens a range of frequencies centred around a certain
point. The specified point is affected the most, frequencies further from the point are
affected less.