CHARACTERISTICS

of SOUND

BEHAVIOR OF SOUND in an ENCLOSED SPACE

1. Incident / direct sound

2. Reflected sound
3. Absorbed sound
4. Diffused sound

5. Diffracted sound
6. Transmitted sound
7. Sound dissipated
within the structure
8. Sound conducted by
the structure

SOUND REFLECTION
Sound Reflection: Sound reflected off a surface,
usually one which is hard, rigid, and/or flat
Law of REFLECTIVITY:
Angle of Incidence equals the angle of reflection

Angle I

Angle R

SOUND REFLECTION
AUDITORIUM CEILINGS

AUDITORIUM ACOUSTICS

Minneapolis Orchestra Hall

The Time magazine on November 4,
1974 in an article gave this general
description: "A capacity crowd of 2573
discovered that the new $10 million
Orchestra Hall is a winner, with truly
superior sound. The term for the way in
which a stage projects sound into an
auditorium is 'throw'. Orchestra Hall
has a throw that even Tom Seaver
might envy. ... the new hall also has
remarkable even dispersion of
sound,... admirable balance and clarity,
a striding bass and an exciting musical
presence unsurpassed perhaps by any
concert hall in the world. ..At times the
volume of the orchestra approached
the painful - clearly the result of the
conductor's understandable desire to
show off the hall's dynamic range."

SOUND REFLECTION
Law of REFLECTIVITY:
Sound waves in contact with convex and concave surfaces
will reflect off these surfaces in different directions

SOUND ABSORPTION
Sound Absorption: Sound waves absorbed into a material
upon contact; change energy into some other form
Sound Absorption Coefficient ( ):
Fraction of energy of the incident sound absorbed by the surface;
rates the efficiency of sound absorption of a material at a
specified frequency
Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC)
Arithmetic average of sound absorption coefficients at the
frequencies 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz, expressed to the
nearest multiple of 0.05
Surface Absorption:

Product of the area of a surface and its absorption coefficient

METHODS of ABSORPTION

Frictional

Flexural

Resonating

SOUND DIFFUSION
Sound Diffusion: Occurs when sound waves are
dispersed equally in a room
Uniform distribution of sound in a room creates a
Homogenous Field

There are several methods to create sound diffusion:

Providing several surface
irregularities

SOUND DIFFUSION
Providing a random application of reflective
and absorptive finishes
Providing an alternating application of
reflective and absorptive finishes

SOUND DIFFUSION
Providing diffusers (prefabricated materials
with irregular surfaces or angled and curved
fronts so that when mounted, they stop
parallel wall interference).

SOUND DIFFRACTION
Sound Diffraction: An acoustical phenomenon which causes
sound waves to be bent or scattered around such obstacles
as corners, columns, walls, and beams

Also a phenomenon
where sound passes
through an opening
resulting in a change of
propagation, as
influenced by the ratio of
the sound wavelength to
the size of the opening

SOUND DIFFRACTION

SOUND REFRACTION
Sound Refraction: Change of sound wave direction as it
moves from one material to another of different density
Sound propagation velocity / media

material

speed

Air

344 m/s

Water

1410 m/s

Wood

3300 m/s

Brick

3600 m/s

Concrete

3700 m/s

Steel

4900 m/s

Glass

5000 m/s

Aluminum

5800 m/s

SOUND TRANSMISSION
Sound Transmission: Sound which penetrates through a surface

Noise Reduction (NR): The level of attenuation provided by the

building construction between two rooms
Transmission Loss (TL): The level of sound isolation provided by a
construction, independent of the effects of wall size or room absorption
NR = TL + 10 log AR / S
SRm

RRm

TL

NR

Where
AR = absorption in
receiving room
S = surface area of
common wall

REVERBERATION
Reverberation: The prolongation of sound as a result of
successive reflections in an enclosed space after the source of
sound is turned off
Reverberation Time (RT): Time for the sound pressure in a room
to decrease 60db after the sound is stopped

RT = 0.16V / A
V = volume of the room
A = total absorption in Sabins
Optimum RT: The most favorable reverberation time for a
particular space and volume

OptRT = 0.30 log / 10 for rooms for speech

REVERBERATION

Optimum
RT for
various
spaces

ACOUSTICAL DEFECTS

ACOUSTICAL DEFECTS

1. ECHO

3. SOUND SHADOW

2. LONG DELAYED REFLECTION

4. CONCENTRATION

ECHO and SOUND DELAY

Echo: Sound waves which have been reflected to a listener
with sufficient magnitude and time delay so as to be perceived
separately from those communicated directly from source to
listener

Time Delay for Speech: 1/25th of a second

Time Delay for Music: 1/10th of a second

Long Delayed Reflection: Similar to echo except that the time

delay between direct and reflected sound is somewhat less

FLUTTER ECHO

Flutter Echo: A rapid succession of

noticeable small echoes observed
when a short burst of sound is
produced between parallel sound
reflective surfaces

GYPSUM BOARDS

EFFECTIVE HEIGHT= 2.7 M

VINYL TILES ON
CONCRETE FLOOR

SOUND CONCENTRATION
Sound Concentration: Also referred to as Sound Foci.
Sound reflections from concave surfaces concentrating
on a single area
Areas of cound concentration are referred to as Hot Spots
The intensity of sound at hot spots are always at the expense
of Dead Spots

COUPLED SPACES
Coupled Spaces: Two rooms adjacent to each other by
openings, with at least one space being highly reverberant

cr

lobby

fire exit

auditorium

storage
cr

fire exit

DISTORTION and ROOM RESONANCE

Distortion: An undesirable change in the quality of musical

sound due to the uneven and excessive sound absorption
of the boundary surfaces at different frequencies

Room Resonance: also called Coloration. Occurs when

certain sounds within a narrow band of frequencies tend to
sound louder than other frequencies

SOUND SHADOW
Sound Shadow: Occurs when an area does not receive an
adequate amount of direct sound
noticeable under a balcony.

Balcony depth should never be

more than twice the height

also noticeable in seating areas

outside the maximum 140 deg
area from the sound source

Seating to the side of the stage

should be avoided

WHISPERING GALLERY
Whispering Gallery: Also referred to as Creep.
High frequency sounds creeping along large
concave surfaces such as a hemispherical dome

MASKING
You know I can't hear you when the water is running!
This statement carries the essentials of the conventional wisdom
about sound masking

Low-frequency, broad banded sounds (like water running) will

mask higher frequency sounds which are softer at the listener's
ear (a conversational tone from across the room)
For a single frequency masking tone, masking curves can be
determined experimentally.

LOUDNESS

SOUND PROPOGATION

INVERSE SQUARE LAW, SOUND

The sound intensity from a point source of sound will obey the
inverse square law if there are no reflections or reverberation.
A plot of this intensity drop shows that it drops off rapidly.

PITCH
Pitch = frequency of sound

For example, middle C in equal temperament = 261.6 Hz

Sounds may be generally characterized by pitch, loudness, and
quality.
The perceived pitch of a sound is just the ear's response to
frequency, i.e., for most practical purposes the pitch is just the
frequency.
The pitch perception of the human ear is understood to operate
basically by the place theory, with some sharpening mechanism
necessary to explain the remarkably high resolution of human
pitch perception
The place theory and its refinements provide plausible models
for the perception of the relative pitch of two tones, but do not
explain the phenomenon of perfect pitch.
The just noticeable difference in pitch is conveniently expressed
in cents, and the standard figure for the human ear is 5 cents.

INVERSE SQUARE LAW, SOUND

The sound intensity from a point source of sound will obey the
inverse square law if there are no reflections or reverberation.
A plot of this intensity drop shows that it drops off rapidly.

Perceived
Sound
Dominant
frequencies
affect sound
perception