Acoustics

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David Mellor

Acoustics

Acoustics

Its going to be a long time before anyone invents a way to transfer an electronic
or digital signal straight into the brain, bypassing the ears. Until then, at some
stage sound must always pass through the air, and this is the most difficult and
least understood part of its journey.

When sound is created, whether it is the human voice, speaking or singing, a musical instrument or plain old-fashioned noise, it travels through the air, bounces
from reflecting surfaces, bounces again and mingles with its own reflection, then
enters the microphone.

The same happens at the other end of the chain. Sound leaves the speakers, and
although part of the energy will be transmitted directly to the listener, much of it
will bounce around the room over a period of anything from half a second or less
in a domestic environment up to several seconds in a large auditorium.

Compare this with an electrical signal.

Once created, the signal travels in a cosy one-dimensional medium a cable or

circuit track. The signal cant escape until it reaches its intended destination, there
is nothing that it can bounce off (unless the cable is several kilometres long when
it will reflect from the ends unless measures are taken), and the worst that can
happen is that electrical resistance will lower the level slightly.

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Acoustics

This is a little bit of a simplification, but its fair to say that everything about the
behaviour of electrical signals is known science.

This is not the case with acoustics. Sound travels in three dimensions, not one,
and will readily reflect from almost any surface. When the reflections mingle,
constructive and destructive interference effects occur which differ at every point
in the room or auditorium. The number of reflections is, for all practical purposes,
infinite.

Even with todays sophisticated science and computer technology, it is not possible to analyse the acoustics of a room with complete precision, accounting for
every reflection. It would rarely happen that the electrical components of a sound
system of any kind would be installed (professionally of course) and then be
found not to work as expected.

It is normal however to complete the acoustic design of a room or auditorium,

and then expect to have to make adjustments when the building work is complete. Hopefully these adjustments will not cost more than the margin of error
allowed for in the budget.

Acoustics is a complex science in practice, but in theory its all very simple. The
acoustics of a room (acousticians use the term room to mean an enclosed space
of any size) are determined by just three factors: the timing of reflections, the relative strengths of reflections, and the frequency balance of reflections.

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David Mellor

Acoustics

Look around you at the various surfaces in the room. If you speak to a colleague,
the sound of your voice will travel directly to his or her ears. It will also bounce
off the nearest surface producing a reflection that arrives at the ear after a certain
number of milliseconds (sound travels just under 34 cm in a millisecond one
foot per millisecond is often used as a handy rule of thumb even though it is a
little bit on the low side). It will bounce off the next nearest surface with a slightly
longer delay, then the next. Then reflections of reflections will start to arrive. At
first they will be spaced apart in time but soon there will be so many reflections
that they turn into a general mush of reverberation.

Some surfaces will be more absorbent, so reflections are lower in level. Some surfaces will favour certain ranges of frequencies. These three factors almost completely determine the acoustics of a room.

There is a fourth factor that is worth mentioning movement. If anything moves

in the room source, listener or any reflecting surface then the Doppler effect
comes into play.

The Doppler effect is best demonstrated by the siren of a passing police car, which
appears to drop in pitch as it goes past. Sound cant travel faster than its natural
velocity in any given medium, so if the sound source moves, then velocity of the
source converts to a rising in pitch for an approaching source, a lowering of pitch
(acoustic red shift if you like) for a source that is moving away.

In most contexts where acoustics are important, neither the source nor listener

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Acoustics

will be moving significantly, nor will the reflecting surfaces.

What will be moving however is the air in the room due to convection effects and
ventilation. You can see this quite clearly if you anchor a helium balloon so that
it can float midway between floor and ceiling. Even in a living room it will move
around more than you would expert.

This effect is often modelled in digital reverberation units where it adds useful
thickening to the sound, or chorusing as some sound engineers might say.

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David Mellor

Acoustics

Standing Waves

Although acoustics is a science, the ultimate arbiter of good acoustics is human

judgment. There are certain basics that must be adhered to, derived from common
knowledge and experience, and also statistical tests using human subjects.

Firstly, a room that is designed for speech must maintain good intelligibility. Too
much reverberation obscures the words, as do reflections that are heard by the
listener more than 40 milliseconds or so after the direct sound.

Late reflections cause phonemes (the sounds that comprise speech) to overlap. Short reflections actually aid intelligibility by making unamplified speech
louder.

For both speech and music there is the requirement that the reverberation time
(normally defined as the time it takes for the reverberation to decrease in level by
60 dB the RT60) is in accordance with that commonly found in rooms of a similar
size.

A small room with a long reverberation time sounds odd, as does a big room with
a short reverberation time. We can thank the BBC, who probably own and operate
more purpose designed acoustic spaces than any other organisation in the world,
for codifying this knowledge.

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David Mellor

Acoustics

One of the most common problems in acoustics, that particularly affects roomsized rooms, rather than concert halls and auditoria, is standing waves.

The wavelength of audible sound ranges from around 17 mm to 17 m. Suppose

that the distance between two parallel reflecting surfaces is 4 m. Half a wavelength of a note of 42.5 Hz (coincidentally around the pitch of the lowest note of a
standard bass guitar) will fit exactly between these surfaces.

As it reflects back and forth, the pattern of high and low pressure between the
surfaces will stay static high pressure near the surfaces, low pressure halfway
between. The room will therefore resonate at this frequency and any note of this
frequency will be emphasised. The reverberation time at this frequency will also
be extended.

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David Mellor

Acoustics

This will also happen at integral multiples of the standing wave frequency. Smaller rooms sound worse because the frequencies where standing waves are strong
are well into the sensitive range of our hearing.

Standing waves dont just happen between pairs of parallel surfaces. If you imagine a ball bouncing off all four sides of a pool table and coming back to where it
started; a standing wave can easily follow this pattern in a room, or even bounce
of all four walls, ceiling and floor too.

Wherever there is a standing wave, there might also be a flutter echo. Next time
you find yourself standing between two hard parallel surfaces, clap your hands
and listen to the amazing flutter echo where all frequencies bounce repeatedly
back and forth. Its not helpful either for speech or music.

[At higher harmonics than the fundamental frequency, the pattern of high and
low pressure can be such that there is high pressure in the center between the
boundaries and low pressure elsewhere. The pressure is always high at the
boundaries.]

The solution to standing waves is firstly to choose the proportions of the room
so that the standing wave frequencies are spread out as much as possible. Square
rooms concentrate standing waves into a smaller number of frequencies. A cube
shaped room would be the worst. Non-parallel walls are good, but these damned
clever standing waves will still find a way. We need...

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David Mellor

Acoustics

Acoustic Treatment

The function of acoustic treatment is to control reverberation time and to reduce

the levels of standing waves. Ill come back to standing waves in a moment.

If surfaces can be made more absorbent then obviously reflections will be reduced in strength, hence reverberation time will be less.

Soft materials such as carpet, drapes and especially mineral wool all find applications as porous absorbers. Porous absorbers however only work well when they
are at least a quarter of a wavelength thick.

This means that they are only really practical for high and high mid frequencies.
If the only acoustic treatment used in a room is porous absorption, then the room
will sound incredibly dull and lifeless.

Another type of absorber is the panel or membrane absorber. A flexible wood

panel (around 4 mm to 18 mm thick) mounted over a sealed air space (around
100 mm to 300 mm in depth) will resonate at low frequencies, and in flexing will
absorb energy.

If damping material (typically mineral wool) is added inside, or a flexible membrane is used, then this type of absorber can be effective over a range of low frequencies. Drill some holes in the panel and the absorption becomes wide band.

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David Mellor

Acoustics

Ideal! Panel absorbers with little damping can be tuned to the frequencies of
standing waves and control them very effectively.

The other way of dealing with standing waves, and at the same time waving a
magic wand and making the room sound really great, is to use diffusion.

Irregular surfaces break up reflections creating a denser pattern of low level reflections than would occur with mirror-like flat surfaces. The irregularities however have to be comparable in size to the wavelengths you want to diffuse. Sound
is always difficult to control and there will be more to say on this subject at a later
time.

Panel absorbers: The plain panel absorber is tuned to a particular low frequency and is
useful for controlling standing waves. Add a damping layer and the maximum absorption is less, but the absorption covers a wider range of frequencies. Perforations allow
high frequencies to be absorbed by the damping layer.

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David Mellor

Acoustics

Check Questions

Why are acoustic sounds more complex than electrical signals?

Is acoustics a completely understood science?

What are the three main factors that determine the acoustics of a
room?

What is the effect of air motion on acoustics?

Why do reflections arriving later than 40 ms after the direct sound

reduce the intelligibility of speech?

What is meant by RT60?

What is a standing wave?

Comparing wavelength and room dimensions, what is the requirement for a standing wave to be created?

Is the sound pressure of a standing wave close to the boundary

high or low?

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Can standing waves occur other than between parallel surfaces?

What is a flutter echo?

What is the worst shape for a room, acoustically?

What is the function of acoustic treatment?

What is a porous absorber?

What is a panel absorber?

David Mellor

Acoustics

Acoustics
David Mellor 2001-2002

The original purchaser is licensed to make copies as reasonably required for their own personal use.

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David Mellor