Introduction to Digital Sound Design (Coursera, February 2013)

Introduction to Digital Sound Design

Coursera, https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalsounddesign

Taught by Steve Everett (Emory University)

Week 1: The Nature of Sound

in the ear, physical phenomenon is being translated to electrical pulses, which are then interpreted by our brain

attributes of sound perception:

1) pitch -- frequency of how often air is being compressed; we can perceive ~16-20k vibrations per second

2) loudness (amplitude); height of the compression determines amplitude; not how fast they're going (which is pitch) but their intensity

3) timbre (color or quality of sound; multiple vibrations of different amplitudes, interpreted as color of sound); when you hear a singing tone, you're hearing multiple different pitches that the brain interprets as one

4) duration (length); not fixed, but something we perceive; our sense of "slowness" vs "fastness" tends to be relative to our heartbeat

5) articulation or "envelope" of a sound; first few milliseconds of a sound, it's attack, changes with ifferent instruments

6) diffusion, or sound spatialization; our brain is able to interpret where sound is coming from; different channels (e.g. 10.2 surround sound)