Hi!

I am Anisha Lakshmanan from Pune University, India. This lesson is for

week 1 of Introduction To Music Production at Coursera.org. I will be
teaching the Basics of Propagation and Amplitude in the form of this paper.

PROPAGATION

Sound takes place when bodies strike the air, . . . by its being moved in a
corresponding manner; the air being contracted and expanded and overtaken,
and again struck by the impulses of the breath and the strings, for when air falls
upon and strikes the air which is next to it, the air is carried forward with an
impetus, and that which is contiguous to the first is carried onward; so that the
same voice spreads every way as far as the motion of the air takes place.
Aristotle (384322 BCE), Treatise on Sound and Hearing


More than two thousand years ago, Aristotle correctly declared that sound
consists of the propagation of air pressure variations.
Sound is a sequence of waves of pressure, which propagates through media such
as air, metal or water. During their propagation, waves can be reflected,
refracted, or attenuated by the medium. In each medium, sound travels at a
different speed.

Detecting from which side of you any sound is coming from is a result of you
determining the delay at which the sound reaches your ears. If the sound reaches
your left ear first, you understand that the sound is from your left side.


Even in a medium, the speed of the sound is affected by various factors like
temperature and elevation etc, but by a very small amount. The approximate
speed of sound is 340m/s.

Ones sense of space is based on propagation as different surfaces reflect and
bounce of sound. Echoes in a canyon and in an empty room are because there are
fewer surfaces to bounce off.

AMPLITUDE

Amplitude is the objective measurement of the degree of change (positive or
negative) in atmospheric pressure (the compression and rarefaction of air
molecules) caused by sound waves.

Sounds with greater amplitude will produce greater changes in atmospheric
pressure from high pressure to low pressure. Amplitude is almost always a
comparative measurement, since at the lowest-amplitude end (silence), some air
molecules are always in motion and at the highest end, the amount of
compression and rarefaction though finite, is extreme.

In electronic circuits, expanding the degree of change in an oscillating electrical

current may increase amplitude. A woodwind player may increase the amplitude
of their sound by providing greater force in the air column i.e. blowing harder.

Amplitude is measured in deciBels.

The Bel is a unit of measure named after Alexander Graham Bell. Its too big for
our purposes so we divide it by ten and get a deciBel.
It's a measure of RATIO, meaning that it is ALWAYS used to compare the
measured value against something else. We append different suffixes depending
on what we're using as the basis for comparison.

When used to measure POWER such as wattage or total acoustic power, a
change of +3dB represents a doubling. The difference in power between a 100W
amp and a 200W amp is 3dB. Also between a 25W light bulb and a 50W light
bulb. (Doubling the power of your entire sound system only gives you 3dB more
power, for the same reason.)

When used to measure VOLTAGE (the majority of audio signals) or pressure
(such as a sound wave in air), a change of +6dB represents a doubling. So
Increasing circuit voltage from 1V to 2V is a 6dB change. The faders on your
console are measuring signal voltage, which is why they're commonly labeled in
6dB gradations instead of 5 or 10.

dBFS (Full Scale) is a measure used in digital contexts to represent the
maximum signal level before clipping is produced. This might be 22 volts
for one device and 26 volts for another, but 0dBFS would be an accurate
measure for each. dB is always relative!

dBV is referenced to 1 Volt. So 0dBV is 1V, 6dBV is 2 volts, -6dBV is .5V. (The
scale is not linear, but logarythmic. It doesn't go 1,2,3,4,5, but 1,2,4,8,16. This is
in part because it more accurately represents how the human ear responds to
sound, and also because it lets us compress large ranges into smaller numbers.
80dB is a range of about 10,000 : 1.)

dBu is similar but it is referenced to .775V. This originates from the days of old
600 Ohm telephone transmissions. It is becoming less common but still pretty
pervasive. The difference between 0dBu and 0dBV is 2.21dB. ( 1 Volt is 0dBV or
2.21dBu)

dBSPL (sound pressure level) is referenced to the quietest sound humans
can hear, or the threshold of human hearing.

I had VERY educative and interesting time collecting the information that helped
me understand the measurement of Amplitude. I hope it is easy to understand
and not too technical. Didnt want to make it too long as the reader could lose
interest.

I did a lot of research on this and would love to know your feedback. My idea was
to skim through the basic introductions of the two topics. Hope I have done it
justice! J Thank you for your time!