Name: Trầ n Hồ ng Anh

Student ID: HS180742

Class: MC1813

Quiz L01 : Sound Production – Principles

1. Defining the following:

● The Sound Wave
Sound Wave is a reaction when an object vibrates and sets into motion molecules in the
air closest to it. Sound waves are much like the waves that result when a stone is
dropped into a pool.
● Frequency and Pitch
When a vibration passes through one complete up-and-down motion, from compression
through rarefaction, it has completed one cycle. The number of cycles that a vibration
completes in one second is expressed as its frequency.
The pitch of a sound is essentially a description of the frequency of the sound. Different
pitches correspond to different frequencies.
Frequency and LoudnessEvery vibration has a frequency, and humans with excellent
hearing may be capable of hearing frequencies from 20 to 20,000 Hz.
Frequencies just below the low end of this range, called infrasonic, and those just above
the high end of this range, called ultrasonic, are sensed more than heard, if they are
perceived at all.
These limits change with natural ageing, particularly in the higher frequencies.

● Amplitude and Loudness

Amplitude is the number of molecules in motion, and therefore the size of a sound wave
Our subjective impression of amplitude is a sound’s loudness or softness. Amplitude is
measured in decibels (dB).

The number of molecules displaced by a vibration creates the amplitude, or loudness, of

a sound. Because the number of molecules in the sound wave in (b) is greater than the
number in the sound wave in (a), the amplitude of the sound wave in (b) is greater.

● Acoustical Phase
Acoustical phase refers to the time relationship between two or more sound waves at a
given point in their cycles. Because sound waves are repetitive, they can be divided into
regularly recurring intervals. These intervals are measured in degrees.
 ● Timbre
Timbre is the difference between sounds - their tonal quality or tonal color, since each
sound has a unique tonal mix of fundamental and harmonic frequencies that
distinguishes it from all other sounds, even if the sounds have the same pitch, loudness,
and duration.

● Sound Envelope
Sound envelope is the sound's shape, which refers to changes in loudness over time. A
sound envelope has four stages: attack, initial decay, sustain, and release (ADSR)

2. Describing The Healthy Ear

The anatomy of the ear
The ear is made up of three different parts:
- the outer ear – this is the part you can see. Its shape helps to collect sound waves.
The lining of the ear canal is coated with wax, a type of lubrication that stops the
tissue from drying out, as well as helping to fight infection and clearing dead skin
from the ear
- the middle ear – is made up of the eardrum and three small bones. Thes amplify
and carry the sound waves to the inner ear
- the inner ear – sound waves are changed into electrical impulses and sent to the
brain. The organs of balance are located here too.
How ears hear
Sound waves are vibrations through the air. When we hear a sound (such as somebody’s
voice), sound travels along the ear canal and causes the eardrum to vibrate. The
vibration of the eardrum causes movement of the three bones in the middle ear. These
bones move against the cochlea (the hearing organ) and pass the vibrations to
thousands of special hair cells inside it.

The hair cells then send the sound as an electrical signal along the nerve to the brain,
where we perceive the sound (our brain interprets the signal as sound).

3. Four factors influence how sound behaves in an acoustic environment: sound

isolation, room dimensions, room shape, and room acoustics.
Sound's behavior is influenced by 4 factors:
- Sound Isolation (Sự cá ch â m): Sound isolation in a room is measured in
two ways: by determining the loudest outside sound level against the
minimum acceptable NC level inside the room, and by determining the
loudest sound level inside the studio against a maximum acceptable noise
floor outside the room.
 - Room Dimensions (Kích thướ c phò ng): The Dimensions of a sound room—
height, width, and length—should not equal or be exact multiples of one
another. Room dimensions create additive resonances, reinforcing certain
frequencies and not others and thereby coloring the sound. Resonance
results when a vibrating body with the same natural frequencies as
another body causes that body to vibrate sympathetically, thereby
increasing the amplitude of both at those frequencies if the variables are
in an acoustical phase.
- Room Shape (Hình dạ ng phò ng): The shape of a studio is significant for
good noise reduction and sound dispersion.
- Room Acoustics (Â m họ c trong phò ng): When sound hits a surface, one
reaction—or a combination of five reactions—happens, depending on the
surface’s material, mass, and design. Sound is absorbed, reflected,
partially absorbed and reflected, diffracted, or diffused.

4. Defining the following:

● Direct, Early, and Reverberant Sound
- Direct sound reaches the listener first, before it interacts with any other
surface.
- The same sound reaching the listener a short time later, after it reflects
from various surfaces, is indirect sound. Indirect sound is divided into
early reflections (early sound) and reverberant sound (reverb).
- Early reflections reach the listener within about 30 ms of when the direct
sound is produced and are heard as part of the direct sound.
- Reverberant sound (reverberation) is the result of the early reflections’
becoming smaller and the time between them decreasing until they
combine, making the reflections indistinguishable.
● Reverberation time
Reverberation time, or decay time, is the time it takes a sound to decrease 60 dB-SPL
after its steady-state sound level has stopped. If sound is delayed by 35 ms or more, the
listener perceives echo, a distinct repeat of the direct sound.
● Noise Criteria
Noise is any unwanted sound (except distortion) in the audio system, the studio, or the
environment. Audio equipment also generates system noise. The noise criteria (NC)
system rates the level of background noise.
● The difference between Absorption and Reflection
- Reflection of sound:
When sound travels in a provided medium it hits the surface of another medium and
returns back in some various ways. This event is called a reflection of sound waves.
There are things like walls, windows which prevent sound from moving across them
and these things reflect the sound. This is known as sound reflection.
- Absorption of Sound:
It is defined as the tendency of material to absorb light.
When the sound strikes the surface some amount of sound energy is reflected back.
There are things like sofa cover, curtains which can absorb sound and this is known as
sound absorption.