EE417: Acoustics and Audio Engineering

Dec. 12 (Fri)

Oversampling (cont.)

Review for final exam.

Final is scheduled for 8AM on Tuesday in the regular classroom.  Open book and notes--bring a calculator and a pencil.  I will bring donuts and bagels.

Good luck with all of your other final exams and projects!

Dec. 10 (Wed)

Compact disc data storage (cont.); modern digital processing principles such as dither, oversampling and noise shaping.

Course/instructor evaluations completed in class.

Dec. 8 (Mon)

Compact disc data storage.

Dec. 5 (Fri)

Term papers due at the start of class.

Guest lecture presentation by Dr. Bernie Krause on soundscapes and natural sound recording.

Dec. 3 (Wed)

Digital audio principles.

REMINDER:  Course term papers due at the start of class on Friday 5 December.

Dec. 1 (Mon)

Audio effects (cont.)

Examples from commercial audio recordings.

Nov. 28 (Fri)

Thanksgiving holiday (no class this day)

Nov. 27 (Thur)

Thanksgiving holiday
The Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States comes from the harvest festival tradition of 16th century agrarian Europe.

The traditional "first Thanksgiving" was held in 17th century America by the Pilgrims (1621).

George Washington instituted a national day of Thanksgiving in 1789, but the event did not gain widespread official acceptance until Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation on October 3, 1863, setting aside the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving.

Incidentally, this proclamation was issued just a few weeks before Lincoln gave his famous address at Gettysburg (November 19, 1863). 

Every president after Lincoln continued the Thanksgiving Day tradition, and Congress adopted the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday in 1941.

The fourth Thursday can be as early as Nov. 22 (like 2007), and as late as Nov. 28. Look ahead formula: to determine the date of Thanksgiving next year: subtract one from the day of the month this year; then if next year is a leap year, subtract 1 more. If that result is less than 22, add 7.  Example:  in 2008 the date is 27, so in 2009 (not a leap year) Thanksgiving will be on the 26th.

Nov. 26 (Wed)

Musical acoustics (cont.)

Begin discussion of audio effects and signal processing.

Nov. 24 (Mon)

A brief introduction to musical acoustics

Nov. 21 (Fri)

Loudspeakers (cont.)

Microphone coloration (listening)

Nov. 19 (Wed)

Microphone and loudspeaker principles (cont.)

Nov. 17 (Mon)

Midterm #2 exams returned.  Class average: 42/50 (good work).

Begin presentation of microphone and loudspeaker principles.

Microphone pattern handout.

Nov. 14 (Fri)

Studio electronics discussion:  electrical levels, basic signal behavior, unbalanced vs. balanced connections.

Reminder:  Montana Audio and Acoustics Society tour of the Procrastinator Theater (MSU SUB) will be at 5PM on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

Nov. 12 (Wed)

Midterm Exam #2 during class time.  The exam will be open book and notes.  Also bring a calculator and a pencil.  Coverage will be primarily Chapters 7, 12 and 13.

Nov. 10 (Mon)

Discuss/review for exam

Continue audio engineering topics:  signal levels and interconnection descriptions.

Nov. 7 (Fri)

Architectural acoustics (cont.)

Room modes and noise mitigation.

Begin course section on audio engineering topics.

Nov. 5 (Wed)

Absorption, reflection, diffusion.

Nov. 3 (Mon)

Architectural acoustics: effects of reverberation; in-class demonstration of reverb and critical distance measurements.

NOTE:  Midterm Exam #2 is scheduled for Wednesday 12 November during class time.  The exam will be open book and notes.  Coverage will be up through the material on architectural acoustics..

Assigned:  HW#3, due at the start of class on Monday 10 November.

Assigned:  Course term paper project.  Topic summary due on Friday 7 November, final paper due on Friday 5 December.

Oct. 31 (Fri)

Conclude material on environmental acoustics; start architectural acoustics.

Reading assignment:  Material from K&F Chapter 12, primarily pp. 333-343.

Oct. 29 (Wed)

Environmental acoustics (cont.)

Noise and hearing loss.  OSHA rules.  Design and characterization of panels and partitions to limit sound transmission.

REMINDER:  tour of Basecamp studio, 7PM (see Montana Audio and Acoustics Society web site)

Oct. 27 (Mon)

Environmental acoustics.

Reading assignment:  Material from K&F Chapter 13, primarily pp. 359-365, 375-388.

Oct. 24 (Fri)

No class meeting this day (instructor out of town)

Oct. 22 (Wed)

Auditory examples.  Pitch and frequency relationships; psychoacoustics.

Oct. 20 (Mon)

HW#2 due at the start of class.

Physiology and psychology of human hearing system.

Reading assignment:  Material from K&F Chapter 11 starting at page 312-329.

Oct. 17 (Fri)

Radiation mass and impedance.

Start physiology and psychology of human hearing system.

Oct. 15 (Wed)

Plane circular piston:  near field and far field characteristics.

Oct. 13 (Mon)

Plane circular piston:  near field and far field characteristics.

Assignment:HW#2, two problems from the K&F text: and a computer problem. Due at the start of class on Monday, October 20, 2008.

Oct. 10 (Fri)

Simple sources; plane circular piston radiator model.

Oct. 8 (Wed)

Midterm Exam #1 returned in class (hi score: 30/30; low score: 12/30; average score 25/30).

Spherical simple source and source strength concepts.

Oct. 6 (Mon)

No EE417 class meeting this day (instructor out of town).

Oct. 3 (Fri)

MEET AT THE MUSIC BUILDING (Howard Hall) during class time for music technology tour with Prof. Kristi McGarity.  Meet at Music Building room 129 at 10AM, NOT at regular classroom.

Oct.. 1 (Wed)

Midterm Exam #1 during class time.  The exam will be open book and notes.  Also bring a calculator and a pencil.  Coverage will be Chapters 1 and 5.

Sept. 29 (Mon)

Review for mid term exam.

Begin chapter 7:  pulsating spherical source.

Sept. 26 (Fri)

Supplementary problems (optional) due at the start of class.

More on dB; complete chapter 5 material; begin chapter 7.

Sept. 24 (Wed)

Pressure, particle speed, and displacement example.

Decibel scales, sound intensity level and sound pressure level.

Assignment: Read Chapter 7 of Kinsler and Frey.

Sept. 22 (Mon)

Lecture:  Chapter 5 (cont.):  spherical wave propagation and complex specific acoustic impedance. 

Sept. 19 (Fri)

HW#1 handed back.  For students who did poorly on HW#1 or did not submit a paper, you may do a pair of Supplementary Problems and submit your solutions at the start of class on Friday 26 September.

NOTE:  Midterm Exam #1 is scheduled for Wednesday 1 October during class time.  The exam will be open book and notes.  Coverage will be Chapters 1 and 5.

Lecture:  Chapter 5 (cont.):  the linear acoustic wave equation. 

Sept. 17 (Wed)

Chapter 5 (cont.):  the linear acoustic wave equation.  Plane wave propagation, particle speed, and specific acoustic impedance.

Sept. 15 (Mon)

HW#1 due at the start of class.

Chapter 5:  the linear acoustic wave equation.

Assignment:  remember that you are required to go to four formal recitals or concerts during the semester, and turn in a program with your name on it.  Music department events are listed on this schedule.

Sept. 12 (Fri)

Finish review material from Chapter 1, start Chapter 5.

Assignment: Read Chapter 5 of Kinsler and Frey.

Sept. 10 (Wed)

Review of damped oscillators and analytical solutions.

Speed of sound measurement using microphones and laptop computer.

Sept. 8 (Mon)

Continue basic units and acoustical quantities.  Review of simple oscillators.

Assignment: HW#1, three problems from the K&F text:  1.3.2, 1.3.3C, 1.6.1 .  Due at the start of class on Monday, Sept. 15, 2008.

Sept. 5 (Fri)

Basic units and acoustical quantities.  Review of simple oscillators.

Assignment: Read Chapter 1 of Kinsler and Frey.

Sept. 3 (Wed)

First class meeting at 10:00AM in Roberts Hall 301.

Course introduction and some listening experiments.  Go over the syllabus and course expectations/goals/policies.