Course

Psychoacoustics

Faculty
Language, Literature and Performing Arts
Department
Music
Course code
MUSC 3173
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 Weeks
Max class size
30
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Lab
Course designation
None
Industry designation
None
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course explores a range of musical and acoustic systems, traces human auditory processing from the ear to the auditory cortex, and acknowledges both the individual and the culturally-bound experience of sound. Psychoacoustic principles are introduced with a focus on their practical application in audio engineering, sound design and production.
Lab work focuses on the practical application of psychoacoustic principles in mixing and sound design.
Course content

1. The Physics of Sound

  • Simple harmonic motion
  • Wave parameters
  • The harmonic series
  • Simple and complex waveforms
  • Fourier analysis

2. Architectural Systems

  • Modal response
  • Reflection
  • Absorption
  • Reverberation

3. Musical Instrument Systems

  • Vibrating strings
  • Air columns
  • Membranes
  • Resonators

4. The Human Hearing System

  • Physiology of the ear and hearing mechanism
  • The auditory brain
  • The musical brain
  • Physical vs psycho-physical
  • Noise-induced hearing damage and loss

5. Pitch Perception

  • Different ranges of the frequency spectrum and pitch perception
  • Virtual pitch
  • Tonal topicity, critical bands, masking and roughness
  • Tuning systems
  • Consonance and dissonance
  • Creating auditory illusions: pitch circularity

6. Hearing in Time and Space

  • Interaural level, phase and time differences
  • Binaural hearing and spatial localization
  • Head-related transfer function
  • Perceptual fusion
  • Perspective
  • Analyzing audio plugins: stereo wideners, binaural processing

7. Auditory Scene Analysis

  • Perception
  • Cognition
  • Gestalt theories
  • The Cocktail Party effect
  • Perspective
  • Stream segregation

8. Loudness and Masking

  • Logarithmic hearing
  • Listening fatigue
  • The loudness wars
  • Why louder sounds "better" and the importance of gain staging

9. Temporal Processing

  • Temporal masking and voice leading
  • Adaptation, enhancement and musical arrangement
  • Auditory memory
  • Pulse extraction

10. Timbre

  • Spectral power
  • Temporal envelope
  • Timbral cues
  • Spectrograms

11. The Human Voice

  • Vocal mechanisms
  • Speech
  • Language vs musical models

12. Psychoacoustics and Audio Quality

  • Evaluating psychoacoustic claims and tools 
  • Psychoacoustic principles in music creation
  • Psychoacoustic principles in mixing
Learning activities

Students engage in a variety of learning activites including lecture, critical listening activities, research and lab assignments which explore auditory illusion and the practical application of psychoacoustics principles in mixing and creating audio assets.

Means of assessment

Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. 

An example evaluation scheme is included below.  

Assignment 1: Group Presentation

15%

Assignment 2: Research Project 

25%

Quizzes and Tests (minimum of two)

30%

Lab Assignments (minimum of two)

30%

 TOTAL

100%

 

Students' record of attendance and/or level of active participation in the course form part of the student's graded performance. When this is the case, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.

 

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Trace the signal path from an acoustic sound source to an auditory experience;
  2. Differentiate physical from psycho-physical phenomena, identifying acoustic and psychoacoustic features of audio signals;
  3. Distinguish sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes, acknowledging culturally significant sounds and the arbritrary nature of embedded meaning;
  4. Relate psychoacoustic theories of pitch perception, timbre, loudness and sonic space to the creation and mixing of audio assets;
  5. Compare and contrast the perceptual impact of human performance with computer-corrected and machine-generated sound;
  6. Identify and mitigate causes and consequences of noise-induced hearing loss;
  7. Critically assess audio mixing strategies and tools from a psychoacoustic perspective.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students.  A list of required textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester. Example texts may include: 

Music, Cognition and Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics ed. Perry Cooke, MIT Press.

Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance by Siu-Lan Tan, Peter Pfordresher and Rom Harré, Routledge.

Requisites

Prerequisites

MUSC 1171

Or Equivalent

Corequisites

None

 

Equivalencies

None

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution Transfer details for MUSC 3173
Acsenda School of Management (ASM) ASM GEN 3XX (3)
Athabasca University (AU) AU MUSI 2XX (3)
Camosun College (CAMO) CAMO MUSC 2XX (3)
Capilano University (CAPU) CAPU MUS 2XX (3)
Coast Mountain College (CMTN) No credit
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) No credit
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU MUSC 3XXX (3)
Trinity Western University (TWU) TWU MUSI 300 (3)
Vancouver Community College (VCC) VCC MUSC 3XXX (3)
Vancouver Island University (VIU) Individual Assessment

Course Offerings

Fall 2026

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
26
Currently enrolled
0
Remaining seats:
26
On waitlist
0
Building
New Westminster - North Bldg.
Room
N4215
Times:
Start Time
17:30
-
End Time
20:20