INTRODUCTION AND

THEORY OF SOUND
UNIT 1
DEFINITIONS
 What is Acoustics ?

 Acoustics is defined as the science that deals with

the production, control, transmission, reception,
and effects of sound.
 The physical principles of this science are utilsed in
architecture to attain distinct hearing conditions in
enclosed spaces.

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 The study of acoustics helps to

 To appreciate and analyse the problems involved

in the propagation of sound in these enclosures.
 To suggest ways and means of producing optimum
conditions of hearing
 To obtain both subjective and objective assessments
of the results achieved.

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DEFINITIONS
 What is resonance ?
 A driving force in tune with the natural frequency
(sometimes known as the resonant frequency) of an
oscillator can buildup larger amplitudes than the oscillator
could alone. This buildup is known as resonance or
sympathetic vibration.
 Eg) Put two tuning forks of equal frequencies side by side, but
not touching. Strike one tuning fork so that you can hear its tone,
and then suddenly silence it. You can still hear a faint tone. This
is because the second tuning fork has started vibrating
sympathetically.

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DEFINITIONS
 What is Reverberation?
 It is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the
original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is
created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space
causing a large number of echoes to build up and then
slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air.
 This is most noticeable when the sound source stops but the
reflections continue, decreasing in amplitude, until they can
no longer be heard.

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DEFINITIONS
 What is Reverberation time?
 Standard reverberation time has been defined as the time
for the sound to die away to a level 60 decibels below its
original level. The reverberation time can be modeled to
permit an approximate calculation.

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DEFINITIONS
 The reverberant sound in an auditorium dies away with time as
the sound energy is absorbed by multiple interactions with the
surfaces of the room. In a more reflective room, it will take
longer for the sound to die away and the room is said to be
'live'.
 In a very absorbent room, the sound will die away quickly and
the room will be described as acoustically 'dead'. But the time
for reverberation to completely die away will depend upon
how loud the sound was to begin with, and will also depend
upon the acuity of the hearing of the observer

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DEFINITIONS
 What is echo?
 In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo (plural
echoes) is a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some
time after the direct sound.
 Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom
of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed
room. A true echo is a single reflection of the sound
source. The time delay is the extra distance divided by
the speed of sound.

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DEFINITIONS
 What is wavelength?
 The wavelength of sound is
the distance between
analogous points of two
successive waves.

λ=c/f
where
λ = wavelength (m)
c = speed of sound (m/s)
f = frequency
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DEFINITIONS
 Sound Intensity.
 The sound intensity in a specified direction is the
amount of sound energy flowing through a unit
area normal to that direction. The sound intensity is
normally measured in watt per square metre
(W/m2).

 Intensity refers to the amplitude of a sound

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DEFINITIONS
 What is Frequency?
 One complete up-and-down movement of the
sound source is called a cycle. The number of
complete cycles that the source moves per second
(cycles per second or "cps")is called frequency .
 In recent years the expression of cps has been
assigned to a proper name, Hertz (Hz), after
Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894).

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DEFINITIONS
 Threshold of audibility
The threshold of audibility at any specified frequency is the
minimum value of sound pressure of a pure tone of that frequency
which is just audible The term is used for complex waves such as
speech and music . It is measures in dynes per sq cm
 Threshold of feeling
Sound pressure that can cause discomfort and pain. It is situated
around 120 dB above the threshold of hearing. It is measures in
dynes per sq cm and also in watts per sq cm
 Phon
A unit of apparent loudness, equal in number to the intensity in
decibels of a 1,000-hertz tone perceived to be as loud as the
sound being measured. 12
 DEFINITIONS
 Sound pressure
 Sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the local
pressure deviation from the ambient (average, or
equilibrium) atmospheric pressure caused by a sound
wave. Sound pressure can be measured using a
microphone in air and a hydrophone in water. The SI
unit for sound pressure p is the pascal
 Sound pressure level (SPL) or sound level is a
logarithmic measure of the effective sound pressure of
a sound relative to a reference value. It is measured in
decibels (dB) above a standard reference level. 13
SOUND PRESSURE

 The decibel ( dB) is used to measure sound level, but it

is also widely used in electronics, signals and
communication. The dB is a logarithmic unit used to
describe a ratio.
 The ratio may be power, sound pressure, voltage or
intensity or several other things. Later on we relate dB
to the phon and the sone (units related to loudness).

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 SOUND PRESSURE

Level Db
Typical everyday example Times louder than 10dB

10dB Rustling or falling leaves. 1

20dB Watch ticking. 10
30dB Birds flying by. 100
40dB Quiet conversation. 1,000
50dB Louder conversation. 10,000
60dB Quiet traffic noise. 100,000
70dB+ Louder traffic 1,000,000
80dB+ Loud highway noise at close range 10,000,000
85dB Hearing damage after approximately 8 hours.
100dB Jackhammer (pneumatic drill) at close range 1,000,000,000
100dB Hearing damage after about 15 minutes.
110dB+ Jet engine at about 100m 10,000,000,000
120dB Threshold of pain. Hearing damage after very brief exposure.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH
 Any audible sound has three important characteristics
1. Frequency(Pitch)
2. Loudness
3. Tonal quality

Any voice/Instrument various frequencies.

 Lowest frequency =Fundamental Frequency
 High Frequency =Overtones or Harmonics

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CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH
OVERTONES:
 Distribution and intensity of overtones Quality of
sound Identify one sound from another .

 Scientist Presence of overtones (Tonal Quality)

Musicians Presence of overtones (Timbre)

 In speech overtones are necessary for proper

intelligibility while the fundamental frequencies are not.
They are responsible for naturalness of voice.

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EFFECT OF REVEBRATION ON
HEARING
 The hang over effect of one syllable on the next
distorts the speech by blending the end of the first with
the beginning of the second so as to mask the second
syllable completely.
 The reverberation characteristics may give an effect
of frequency distortion because of reverberation time
being different for various frequencies. The effect of
both will depend upon position of the observer

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CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH
Frequency(Pitch)
 It is independent of intensity of loudness of sound.
 Pitch is a psychological phenomenon determined
by frequency of a sound wave whereas
frequency is a physical quantity and can be
measured .
 Sound is called a pure tone when it consists a
single frequency and when two or more
frequencies are present it is called a complex
tone.
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FREQUENCY SENSITIVITY CURVES

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CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH
Loudness:
 Loudness is a physiological effect of sensation
produced through the ear and depends on the intensity
of sound or amount of energy present in sound waves
while entering it.

 In oat , Loudness falls down as distance increases

“Loudness is inversely proportional the the square of
the distance from source “(Not applicable for semi
closed enclosures)

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FREQUENCY SENSITIVITY CURVES

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ENERGY OF SPEECH FREQUENCIES

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ENERGY OF SPEECH FREQUENCIES

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ENERGY OF SPEECH FREQUENCIES

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ENERGY OF SPEECH FREQUENCIES

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ENERGY OF SPEECH FREQUENCIES

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Behavior of sound in enclosed
places

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Behavior of sound in enclosed
places
1. Sound is absorbed in 5. Sound is emitted by the
the air also resonance of the wall
appreciable to in both directions.
reflected sound. 6. Sound is inter-reflected
2. Sound in reflected at between bounding
the wall surface. surface setting at
3. Sound is absorbed from reverberation.
the wall surface or its 7. Resonance of the
surface finished. enclosed volume of air
4. Sound is conducted by by direct cross
the wall to other part reflection.
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of the surface.
HEARING MECHANISM

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HEARING MECHANISM
 The human ear has three main sections, which consist of
the out ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.
 Sound waves enter your outer ear and travel through
your ear canal to the middle ear.
 The ear canal channels the waves to your eardrum, a
thin, sensitive membrane stretched tightly over the
entrance to your middle ear. The waves cause your
eardrum to vibrate.
 It passes these vibrations on to the hammer, one of
three tiny bones in your ear. The hammer vibrating
causes the anvil, the small bone touching the
hammer, to vibrate. 31
HEARING MECHANISM
 The anvil passes these vibrations to the stirrup, another
small bone which touches the anvil. From the stirrup,
the vibrations pass into the inner ear.
 The stirrup touches a liquid filled sack and the
vibrations travel into the cochlea, which is shaped
like a shell.
 Inside the cochlea, there are hundreds of special
cells attached to nerve fibers, which can transmit
information to the brain.
 The brain processes the information from the ear and
lets us distinguish between different types of sounds. 32
INTELLIGIBILITY OF SPEECH
 The intelligibility of speech refers to the accuracy with which a
normal listener can understand a spoken word or phrase
 Gestures are not possible in large Auditoria
 A product of this research was a quantitative measure for
intelligibility based on articulation testing. This procedure (as
described by Lochner and Burger) normally consists of an
announcer reading out lists of syllables, words or sentences to
one or more listeners within the test enclosure. The percentage
of these correctly recorded by the listeners is called the
articulation score and is then taken as an 'in-situ' measure of
the speech intelligibility of that enclosure.

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INTELLIGIBILITY OF SPEECH
 As stated before, normal connected speech can be understood
even if some of the syllables are unintelligible. This is due to the
fact that the listener can deduce the meaning from the context
of the sentence.
 However, even under perfect conditions, the maximum word
score normally attainable is about 95% due to unavoidable
errors. A word score of 80% enables the audience to
understand every sentence without due effort. In a room where
the word score is closer to 70%, the listener has to concentrate
to understand what is said whilst below 60% the intelligibility is
quite poor.

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HIGH FIDELITY REPRODUCTION
OF MUSIC
 Technician viewpoint
 Artist
 Listener
 Tolerance of the public ear, has been the main reason why little
progress has been made in regard to the faithfulness of
broadcast reproduction.
 Even a costly receiver, is not able to convey all the benefits of
improvements made in studio, ques. Perhaps in this respect our
musicians also have not proved good judge of the quality of
reproduction. They give precedence to the composition and
technique of performance over the quality of individual
instruments.
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HIGH FIDELITY REPRODUCTION
OF MUSIC
 Hawkins has remarked that 90 percent of the listeners are
‘incidental’ ones and Only 10 per cent are ‘cidental’ ones .
 Hawkins and Olson have done experiments on fidelity
reproduction of music
 A good system in the year 1947 was considered to have the
following criteria:
 (a) Zero gain from microphone to loudspeaker. i.e. the original
sound is reproduced at the same level;
 (b) the transient and steady state frequency response is within
5 db of each other and neither departs more than 10 db of
the 1000 cps value in the range of 80 to 8000 cps; (
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HIGH FIDELITY REPRODUCTION
OF MUSIC
 c) the overall reverberation time is not to vary by a factor
larger than 3 over this range;
 (d) the backs round noise is to be 50 db below the maximum
programme level
 (e) the noises, in the presence of programme, is to be 30 db
below the programme level on loud passages;
 (f) the inter modulation distortion at the maximum level in the
range of 60-100 cps may reach even 30 percent provided the
fifth harmonic distortion in the range of 400 to 2000 cps does
not exceed 0.3 per cent;
 (g) at other output levels of lower than 10 db below the
maximum, the distortion is to be les than 10 percent and fifth
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harmonic distortion is to be below ` per cent.
HIGH FIDELITY REPRODUCTION
OF MUSIC
The present position may be summarized by saying that
 The technician wants to have an exact replica of the
sound produced in the studio or stage,
 The musician is more concerned with the composition
and presentation of the music,
 While the listener is too much absorbed in other
activities to worry about the quality of reproduction
and all that he wants is a synthesis giving a
satisfactory resolution of various instruments.

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Thank You

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