Today we dip our toes into one of my favorite topics: room acoustics! In this article I’ll show you an elegant way of understanding the influence of room dimensions and speaker placement on room modes.
One of the most important technical specifications of analog and digital audio equipment is the signal to noise ratio. But it’s also one of the most misunderstood. Here’s a closer look at some of the possible problems with the definition of the SNR and it’s close relative, dynamic range.
Let’s face it: listening isn’t objective at all. Especially when it comes to the subtle details. The influence of preconceptions and current state of mind can be huge. And if we can’t back our impressions by measurements, the last resort to get an objective view of sonic reality is blind testing. Here’s a short introduction to the basic issues and techniques.
No debate in the audio community has been fought harder than the one between analog purists and digital enthusiasts. But it might be approaching an important tipping point right now.
In the final stage of our little journey through the human auditory system, we get to a couple of fascinating implementations of neural signal processing algorithms.
After having followed the path of sound vibration through the outer ear, ear canal and middle ear in the first part of this series, it is time to go on by looking at how vibration is transformed into nerve impulses in the inner ear.
Sound travels a long way until we finally consciously perceive it. Even after arriving at our ears, it is converted, transformed and decoded multiple times. This is the first part of a series that walks us through the long journey from vibrating air to our consciousness.
The filters in analog synthesizers have always been fascinating and also subject to a lot of discussion about what makes them special. With a little experience, it’s possible to distinguish different synthesizer models mostly by the sound of their filters. But it’s often hard to put the finger on what it is exactly that makes it so distinguishable. Here’s a step by step walkthrough on what to try and what to listen for.
This week, The Science of Sound turns three months. Although that’s not exactly a biblical age, it’s nevertheless something to celebrate. In fact, most blogs don’t survive that long. So I’d like to take the time today to recap the first three months a little bit and take a look into the future.
Much of the content here on The Science of Sound is about scientific facts, gaining knowledge and understanding isolated aspects of audio. This zoomed-in perspective is often the only way to create an objective description of reality, or “truth”. But an inevitable consequence of zooming in is losing sight of the bigger picture. Today I’d like to zoom out a bit and think about this essential question: “What are we accumulating all this knowledge for?”