Sat, 02 Sep 2006
Acoustics and Psychacoustics
D.M. Howard, J. Angus Acoustics and Psychoacoustics 3rd Edition,
with CD, Focal Press
Focal Press have quite a number of educational books related to audio
and video and quite a few of those are used for teaching courses. That
is the case with this one also and so the general layout of the thing is
to have text followed by a list of further reading, but not section questions.
The book starts with an introduction to the nature of sound and how
it behaves in space, and goes on to look at the nature of human hearing,
notes and harmony, acoustic models for musical instruments, timbres and
environmental considerations, and finally, digital signal processing.
There is also a reasonable scattering of equations through the
book, which is entirely apt considering the subject matter, and which
shouldn't put casual readers off as they are a further explanation of the
story rather than being the story itself.
It is an interesting and accessible treatment altogether although
the further reading lists will need to be consulted if you want to
explore some of the more advanced topics. For example, the authors
state that human hearing is generally confined to 20-20kHz. There's
nothing odd about that except that some people (like Rupert Neve)
believe in a much extended bandwidth. If the ears do only handle
the limited bandwidth, there might be questions about where the
extra is absorbed. In any case, that particular topic is still one
that is being debated.
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here