1ELE0054 Sound and Psychoacoustics

Exam revision questions

Note: The exam lasts for TWO HOURS and consists of 5 questions, of which you choose 3 to answer. Since this tutorial sheet has 55 parts of questions it is roughly equivalent to 11 exam questions. Thus, not all material covered here can possibly appear in any one exam. Each question typically consists of 3 or 4 related sub-parts. The questions below are examples of subparts of questions. As such, each section will be worth only a fraction of the mark of the question and hence typically no more than 10% of the whole paper Therefore, in the exam you should aim to spend NO MORE THAN 10-15 minutes on each question sub-part Examples of parts of exam questions (in an exam the wording would typically be more formal, but would convey the same sense): 1.What is the maximum and minimum sound frequencies that humans can hear? 2. If the speed of sound (V) in air is 344m/s, calculate the wavelength (!) in air of a sound whose frequency is:(i) 1KHz (ii) 100Hz (iii) 12KHz (Formula: ! = V/f) 3. Describe how sound waves travel through air, - for example, how the air molecules move as the sound waves pass and how that movement gives rise to pressure changes. 4. Explain how any complex sound wave can be built up by combining pure tones. What is the relationship between the frequencies of these pure tones? How might their relative phases affect both the wave shape and how it sounds? 5.What is the approximate maximum sound pressure level (SPL), (in Pascals) that the average human can hear as sound rather than pain, and how many dB does this equate to on the acoustic scale? 6. What approximate sound pressure level (SPL), (in Pascals) is taken to be the maximum everyday loudest level? 7. Humans can usually distinguish between sounds produced by different musical instruments even when they are playing a single sustained note of the same pitch. Explain how this happens. Note: this refers to sustained notes, not attack and decay effects. 8. What is the basilar membrane and in which part of the ear is it located? 9. Outline how the basilar membrane splits up complex sounds into their constituent pure tones (use sketches as well as text description) 10. The Bark scale divides the basilar membrane up into sections, each of 1.3 mm length, each length responding to a specific small range of frequencies. Answer the following questions about this scale, giving brief explanations : (ii) (iii) (iii) How many sections or frequency bands are there in this scale? Does each section cover an equal range of frequencies? What is its importance in digital audio file compression?

11 Sketch of the overall structure of the human ear and auditory system., showing the positions of: the Pinna, auditory canal, eardrum, middle ear, cochlea 12. What is the function of each of the following parts of the ear with regard to particular frequencies (eg resonance), amplitudes, detection of sound direction etc. the Pinna, auditory canal, bones in the middle ear

13. What is the structure contained within the cochlea that enables us to convert sound vibrations into nerve impulses? Using a sketch describe how this structure functions in order to make this conversion. 14. 0dB on the acoustical scale is defined as the minimum sound intensity that humans can hear. What approximate sound pressure level (SPL), measured in Pascals, does 0dB equate to? 15. What is the maximum signal level normally associated with Line inputs and outputs, in (i) dB and (ii) in Volts? 16. Sketch a frequency spectrum diagram for the following, showing each frequency as a separate block, with a vertical scale labelled in dB and a linear horizontal scale labelled in Hz: (i) 250Hz, -6dB; (ii) 750Hz, -15dB; (iii) 1250Hz, -12dB; (iv) 1750Hz, -20dB (heres an example but remember that typically most marks are for putting in the axes and labels!)

17. What would the above frequency spectrum look like if generated by a real software analysis programme like Adobe Audition? 18. Sketch a graph of how the threshold of human hearing varies with frequency over the range 30Hz to 20KHz. 19. Sketch a typical set of at least four curves which describe the perception of loudness with frequency. (ie the Fletcher Munsen curves) 20. Everyday sounds have frequencies and amplitudes which lie between the extremes drawn as threshold of hearing and threshold of pain in the Fletcher Munsen curves. These can be shown as a closed area on the Fletcher Munsen curves. Sketch an area which shows the range of speech and one which shows the range of typical music. 21. One type of microphone is called a dynamic microphone. What are two other types of microphone and how do they each work? 22. (i) (ii) (iii) Is Dolby Prologic an analogue, or a digital audio surround system? How many surround channels does Prologic have? How many loudspeakers are generally required to play Prologic surround sound?

23. Sketch the shape of the microphone polar diagram that is associated with the following names, showing the approximate maximum and minimum sensitivities (in dB) at appropriate places on the diagrams: (i) Omni-directional (ii) Cardiod (iii) Figure of eight

24. What sensitivity would an ideal microphone have, expressed in (i) Volts per Pascal? (ii) dB relative to 1V? 25. Dolby Prologic can be readily distributed and stored using existing stereo audio installations. How does the encoding system used for Prologic make this possible? 26.What are the fundamental differences between Dolby Prologic surround audio, Dolby Prologic II surround audio and Dolby 5.1 surround audio? 27 Why is Dolby 5.1 named in this way, rather than the more obvious Dolby 6? 28 What do the initials LFE stand for in the context of surround sound, and why is it called LFE? 29 How many loudspeakers do Dolby Prologic, Dolby Prologic II and Dolby 5.1 Have? 30 How many channels do Dolby Prologic, Dolby Prologic II and Dolby 5.1 Have? 31 Explain what is meant by masking in the context of audio and hearing. 32. Sketch the vibration pattern of the basilar membrane, and use this to outline the process by which high amplitude tones cause masking of low amplitude tones of similar frequency. 33. Why is sound masking useful in perceptual encoding such as mp3? 34. Draw a graph of how the masking effect of a loud tone varies with time when that tone is suddenly switched on and then switched off. 35. What is meant by the term dynamic range in the context of human hearing? 36. The dynamic range of audio equipment is often limited by noise. Sketch what noise would look like on an Adobe Audition screen when superimposed on a pure tone sine wave. 37. Explain briefly how system (eg amplifier, recorder etc.) noise limits the dynamic range of an audio signal when heard from that system 38. What is the fundamental difference between an analogue audio signal and an uncompressed raw digitised signal? 39. Name two advantages of converting analogue signals into digital audio signals 40. In connection with digital audio, what is meant by the terms sampling rate and bit depth and how does each alter the quality of the sound when it is reproduced? 41 What is the approximate maximum dynamic range for (i) an 8 bit digital audio signal (ii) a 16 bit digital analogue signal? 42 What is the approximate dynamic range of each of the traditional audio technologies? (Vinyl, cassette tape, microphone and amplifier etc)? 43 What is the maximum signal frequency that can be preserved by digitally sampling at 44.1KHz? 44. What is the approximate threshold of hearing, threshold of pain and hence dynamic range, in dB, of human hearing at the following frequencies: 1KHz, 50Hz, 3KHz

45. What are the two main effects which enable us to distinguish the location of sounds which originate from the front? What does each mean? 46. How does the shape and size of the human head give rise to both ITD and IAD? Over what approximate range of frequencies does ITD and IAD operate? Why does ITD operate only at low frequency? Why does IAD operate only at high frequency? 47 Explain why real everyday sounds produce a mixture of ITDs and IADs, and how this helps us when distinguishing the direction of real sounds. 48. What aspect of sound direction location does the Head related transfer function (HRTF) help us with (eg left/right, up/down front/back). Explain why it helps. 49. Describe how a typical loudspeaker works (use sketches as well as text) 50. Give three reasons why large diameter, long movement loudspeakers are required to adequately generate low frequency sounds. Explain each. 51. What does a crossover network do? (usually built into multiple element loudspeaker enclosures)? 52. What is an active loudspeaker, and why are most subwoofers designed as active systems? 53. Explain how a bass reflex enclosure improves the low frequency response of a loudspeaker system. (use sketches including a frequency response sketch) 54 What type of loudspeaker enclosure is referred to as an infinite baffle enclosure, and why does it help low frequency response? 55 What are relative advantages and disadvantages of bass reflex and infinite baffle loudspeaker enclosures?