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)

overtone series (also called harmonic or partial series): simultaneously sounding off a particular fundamental frequency (the pitch we hear) plus divisions of it in ratios

when a cello string is plucked, the whole instrument vibrates; we're getting many different frequencies that our ear is processing collectively as the cello

spectrum of the voice -- can identify which frequencies are most prominent (stronger partials)

2/1, 3/1, etc. ratios in the overtone series; all are vibrating at once in a cello to create its timbre (even though we don't hear them individually)

can have quick aesthetic responses based on our experience of timbre

synthesizing sound is building up timbre through addition of different frequencies

sheet music as representation of music, but also a set of instructions for the body, a set of kineaesthetic instructions

music and evolution

• has promoted group cohesion
• socio-emotional bonding
• promotes sexual selection

music in emotional and cognitive development

• 2 mo old -- prefer consonant to dissonant
• 2 year old -- recognize happy sounds
• by age 5 can detect pitch
• by age 6, can detect both key and harmony
• tonality fully developed by age 9-12

infants are able to detect mother's timbre even in a crowd

white noise quiets an infant; possibly because of white noise heard in womb (blood rushing, etc.)

auditory roughness -- high ratio partials, highly unstable, pitch instability; concept introduced by Helmholtz (1885)

example of roughness: opening guitar of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze"

how do different cultures develop different preferences for auditory roughness?

Sonic Visualiser, sonicvisualiser.org

digital sound vs. acoustic sound -- how does digital sound "make us think and hear in a different way"?

Eric Clarke -- ecological approach to the perception of musical meaning

Barry Schrader -- linear timbral transformations

R. Murray Schafer -- soundscape composition

Barry Truax -- acoustic ecology

Joji Yuasa -- systems of compositional thinking

transportable sound'; Toru Takemitsu says Western music is more 'transportable' than Japanese music; we analyze music as relationship between pitches rather than timbre

musique concrete

object sonore (Pierre Schaeffer) -- acousmatic listening; we don't see the original sound source in digital composition

schizophonia -- pull the music away from cultural contexts and original acoustic environment (R. Murray Schaeffer)

Barry Schrader -- timbres are time-variant structures; constant state of flux in shaping of timbres; "linear timbral transformations" or "timbral morphs"

spectral composition -- evolution of timbral morphs

music teleology, organized from intra- to extra-musical meanings

autonomous listening spaces -- sitting in quiet, contemplative spaces made for experiencing that sound (e.g. concert hall); Kant's notion of "disinterested contemplation," allowing sounds to wash over us in heightened aesthetic experience

expression or experience of emotion

how much motion is embedded in our experience of music? (beats, wave, gesture)

tone painting or sound painting; imitating natural phenomenon

imagery and narrative, painting a story with sound

metaphor of a life experience, creating a social identity

musical affect

ecological approach to musical perception; borrowing from James J. Gibson, philosopher

Clarke, Ways of Listening (OUP, 2005)

• can't just analyze musical content to understand perception; have to embed the listening in an environment
• affordances in musical perception; each sound affords certin meaning possibilities
• musical sounds not fundamentally different than sounds in the natural word
• listening history of perceiver shapes perception
• structure of musical environment gives information; perception is collecting that information

Joji Yuasa, associated with Takemitsu and Akiyama movements; interested in musique concrete, computer music, multimedia forms

• entire system of thinking understanding histories of sound practices

assumptions about electroacoustic music

• most of us tend to listen teleologically
• inextricably joined with experience of space

ecological approach as a way of understanding all the different factors related to sound perception

timbral perception as culturally determined; digital sound design / electroacoustic music focuses on timbre over pitch for this reason -- gets at a philosophy of sound

linear --> nonlinear relationships to sound perception; meaning doesn't unfold over time but in space

should technologically produced art be interpreted outside traditional frameworks?

soundscape composition and acoustic ecology; asking:

• how do our attitudes toward listening and sound-making shape our concepts of music, noise and silence?
• what are the physical and emotional effects of noise?
• R. Murray Shafer, Barry Truax, Hildegard Westerkamp, Pauline Oliveros, Luc Ferrari

The Tuning of the World; moving the idea of sound design into a concept of health; what are healthy relationships to sound?

acoustic ecology -- integrated field linked to anthropology and environmental sciences; "composing through sound"

soundscape composition emerged out of acoustic ecology; primary elements:

• keynote sound; "outline the character of the people living there"
• sound signals, foreground sounds
• soundmark, like a landmark -- sound unique to an area