Sound waves

 Understand the basic objective properties of sound waves

o Longitudinal
 Oscillation parallel to direction of propagation
 Travels through air
 Pushing a slinky
o Transverse
 Oscillation perpendicular to direction of propagation
 Displacement of liquid and solid
 Understand how a time-domain graph represents sound
o Shows how amplification changes over time
o Slower vibrations have wider oscillations – faster vibrations would have narrow
oscillations
 Understand, broadly, how the objective properties of frequency, amplitude, and
wavelength map to perceptions of pitch and loudness
o
 Have a basic understanding of concepts and terminology relevant to sound pressure and the
threshold of hearing
o Pascals – 20 pascals limit of hearing
o Herz – 20000 Hz limit of hearing
 Understand the meaning of, and be able to perform calculations with the following
formulae:
o v = f λ, and f = 1 / T--using appropriate units of measurement and rearranging
formulae as necessary

Harmonic Series
 Understand the distinction between periodic and non-periodic vibration
o Periodic waves – anything that you can recognise a pitch
o Non-periodic waves – sound that you cannot easily discern a pitch eg. Background
noise
 Understand what the harmonic series is and how it works
o a set of frequencies consisting of a fundamental and the harmonics related to it by
an exact fraction
 Understand, broadly, the principles of Fourier's Theorem
o A PERIODIC wave which is reasonably continuous may be expressed as the sum of a
series of sine waves, each of which has specific amplitude and phase coefficients.
 Be familiar with a range of periodic and non-periodic wave shapes
o Triangle, Saw-tooth, square,
 Understand how a frequency-domain graph represents sound

Spectral Representation
  Understand what is meant by the spectrum, or frequency content of a sound, and—broadly
—how this relates to the perception of timbre (i.e. know what frequency content in different
parts of the auditory spectrum sounds like)
o A spectrum shows the frequency content of a sound
 Understand, broadly, the ways in which spectral energy (a.k.a. frequency content) is
distributed in a range of different sounds
o
 Understand how a spectrograph represents sound
 Have a basic understanding of filters
 Understand, broadly, how filtering can be used to isolate specific parts of the frequency
spectrum

Basic Room Acoustics

 Understand how wave-front and wave ray diagrams represent sound
 Understand, broadly, the principal behaviours of sound waves in enclosed (or semi-
enclosed) spaces, including reflection, absorption and diffraction
 Know how to calculate estimated reverberation time
 Know approximately what kind of reverberation times are to be expected (or desirable) for a
range of listening or recording scenarios