Ahmed Al-Safadi

206844

AUDIO 202 - ACOUSTICS AND THEORY

Sound Measurements and Observations Report:

CONTENTS:
Introduction

Page 3

Methodology

Page 4

Acoustic Space 1 (Quiet space)

Page 5

Acoustic Space 2 (Busy Road)

Page 6

Acoustic Space 3 (Constant Source)

Page 7

Discussion and Findings

Page 8

References

Page 9

INTRODUCTION:
Acoustic space in the world of audio engineering is the area that is surrounded by a
soundscape, which can be a real environment or a room that has speakers and a
recording which is called Virtual Sound. It can be either a sound source that brings
with it information about where the sound occurred from, in other words
Environmental sound, or is thought to occur (Synthesized sound). Sound is
measured in units of decibals (dB SPL), where SPL stands for Sound Pressure
Level.
SPL Meters are used to measure the SPL Levels of an environment. The dB
measurement reading on the meter is fairly accurate, but it is always best to
calibrate the device to a very close calibration using a sound you know is the exact
dB measurement. It is important to record the audio over a 5 minute time period
because there are many factors that can influence the sound in many environments,
and we try to achieve the average time over a fairly lengthy 5 minute period.
The goal of this project is to assess the recordings of 3 different spaces, to
understand a rough idea of the readings on the sound levels of the different spaces
and to differentiate between them. With quiet acoustic spaces, there is probably
going to be thick walls that have little reflections, or there might be minimal sound
surrounding the place because the environment is not as active as other busy ones.
The Busy environment will consist of loud and inconsistent sound level, an
example would be a person shouting to someone outside of a car, or a loud sudden
engine noise.

METHDOLOGY:
The measuring device I have chosen is my phone app called SoundMeter on the
android playstore.
Firstly and foremost I have calibrated my phone using an app that does the
following: "trimming": a phone-model-specific constant is added or subtracted
from the measured value, e.g. 78dB (measured) -3 = 75dB (displayed); or 55
(measured) + 6 = 61 (displayed). The App has a record button that displays the
average SPL over a time period, and it shows me the minimum and maximum
readings.
ACOUSTIC SPACE 1 (QUIET SPACE):

Location: Quiet Room

Measurements Recorded (dB):

Quiet
Room

Min
24 dB

Max
31dB

Average
25dB

Sources of Sound: Clock tick, Breathing, Background conversation, outside traffic,

outside wind.
Discussion: The C-weighting was the scale I used because it is much more accurate
in high-frequency sounds and cuts of low-end frequency sounds which is perfect
for a quiet environment. My prediction was that the maximum sound would be a

little more constant but there are sometimes very loud outside sounds that affect
even indoor areas.
ACOUSTIC SPACE 2 (BUSY ROAD):
Location: Highway

Measurements recorded (dB):

Highway

Min
51dB

Max
110dB

Average
78dB

Sources of Sound:
Car horns, pedestrian crossing sound, birds whistling, conversations, people
walking nearby, winds, loud engine noises.
Discussion:
A-Scale weighting I used because there is too many high db and low frequency
noises and it cuts off the high-end noises which is what I want to accurately
measure.

ACOUSTIC SPACE 3 (CONSTANT SOURCE):

Location: Vacuum Cleaner in a quiet room

Discussion: A-Scale and C-Scale certainly are two different measurements and
have a 3dB difference between them, they are indistinguishably notable. A constant
noise certainly can be drastically reduced in SPL levels by distance and it can have
a major impact on sound overall sound quality.
DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS
The whole reason I am doing this project is to realise that I have a duty as an audio
engineer to provice the most adequate acoustical environment possible, and that I
have to do anything and everything possible to reduce the factors involved by
anything that can cause damage to the sound quality.
REFERENCES
Sound Acoustics (2015) Acoustics http://soundacoustics.com.au/acoustics/

Acoustics101 (1991-2015) BASICS OF ACOUSTIC CONSTRUCTION

http://www.acoustics101.com/basics.asp
Tomi Engdahl September 8, 2014
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2014/09/08/sound-level-measuring-with-android-phone/