Psychoacoustics

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 the individual experience of sound. Psychoacoustic principles are introduced with a focus on their practical application in audio engineering, sound design and production.
Sensory, perceptual, and cognitive realms of the auditory experience are explored though studies on pitch processing, loudness, timbre, timing and spatial location, stream segregation and fusion. 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: Presentation	20%
Assignment 2: Audio Project	20%
Assignment 3: Research	20%
Quizzes and Tests	10%
Lab Assignments	10%
Mid-term Exam	10%
Final Exam	10%
TOTAL	100%

Learning Outcomes

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

Trace the signal path from an acoustic sound source to an auditory experience;
Differentiate physical from psycho-physical phenomena;
Describe the auditory nervous system;
Distinguish sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes;
Relate psychoacoustic theories of pitch perception, timbre, loudness and sonic space to the creation and mixing of audio assets;
Explain the way that the human auditory system organizes sound into meaningful elements (stream segregation);
Identify and mitigate causes and consequences of noise-induced hearing loss;
Identify and distinguish acoustic and psychoacoustic features of audio signals;
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 and 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 Published MIT Press

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

Requisites

Prerequisites

MUSC 1273

Or MUSC 1282

Equivalent

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

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.

May 2024 (Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution	Transfer Details for MUSC 3173
Acsenda School of Management (ASM)	ASM GEN 3XX (3)
Camosun College (CAMO)	CAMO MUSC 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

Summer 2024

CRN

24501

Fri Tue

May 6

- June 23

May 6

June 23

Instructor Last Name

Fairbairn

Instructor First Name

Hazel

Course Status

Open