Fundamentals of Acoustics and Recording Technologies

This set of flashcards covers key concepts, terms, and notables from lectures on acoustics, psychoacoustics, recording technologies, and modern music genres, designed to prepare for an exam.

What is the definition of Acoustics?

The physical realm and objective properties of sound, including how surroundings reflect, transmit, and absorb acoustical energy.

What does Psychoacoustics refer to?

The subjective experience or sensation of sound—what we hear.

How is Sound defined in the lecture notes?

Sound refers to both the sensation (what is perceived) and the physical stimulus (vibrations and energy) that suggests that sensation.

What is Acoustical Energy?

Physical displacement within matter resulting from mechanical action imposed on that matter, perceived as physical phenomena.

How is Wavelength defined?

The distance between the expanded and contracted areas of acoustical energy, or the distance between the wave crests.

What is the relationship between Frequency and Pitch?

Frequency (Hz) corresponds to the subjective experience of Pitch, where high frequencies relate to higher pitches.

What is Amplitude and how does it relate to Loudness?

Amplitude is a physical measure corresponding to the subjective experience of Loudness.

Define Timbre in acoustics.

Timbre corresponds to the subjective experience of Quality and helps differentiate sound-making actions based on harmonic motions.

What is Reverberation?

The duration of how long acoustical energy bounces around in an environment before dissipating.

What does the Range of Human Hearing refer to?

The fundamental concept surrounding the frequencies humans can perceive.

Explain the Equal-loudness contour.

A measure of sound pressure level across the frequency spectrum where a listener perceives constant loudness, showing that lower frequencies need higher amplitudes to be perceived as equally loud.

What is the function of the Cochlea?

It translates acoustical actions into neural impulses and transforms sound waves into electrical impulses.

What are Otoacoustic Emissions?

Sounds produced by the cilia in the organ of Corti in response to acoustical energy, actively contributing to hearing.

What are Lossy and Lossless Audio Formats, and common examples?

Lossless formats (e.g., WAV, AIFF, FLAC) retain all original audio data, offering high fidelity. Lossy formats (e.g., MP3, AAC) reduce file size by discarding some audio information, potentially affecting quality.

Define the 'Signal Chain' in recording technology.

The path audio takes through recording and processing equipment.

What is Gated Reverb?

A drum sound processing effect popular in the 1980s, created by routing a signal through a reverb unit and then through a noise gate, cutting off the reverb's natural decay abruptly.

What are High-pass and Low-pass Filters?

Types of audio filters that selectively allow frequencies to pass while attenuating others.

What is Magnetic Tape used for?

A foundational medium for audio recording.

What is a 4-track/Multitrack Tape Recording?

Recording where a magnetic tape strip is divided into multiple audio tracks running parallel, allowing new techniques in music production.

What are Tape Loops?

Sections of magnetic tape spliced end-to-end to create a continuous loop, used to repeat sound segments and create rhythmic or textural effects in music.

What is Auto-tune?

A process that digitally adjusts a waveform's frequencies to conform to specific pure tones.

Describe the concept of 'The Studio as a Compositional Tool'.

A concept where recording makes music repeatable and available outside the time dimension, allowing composers to access a wider culture.

Define Practical Logic.

Logic focused on concrete, real-world application and problem-solving within a given context.

Define Theoretical Logic.

Logic focused on abstract principles, conceptual frameworks, and the underlying theories of a system or discipline.

What is the difference between Music as Product and Music as Content?

These terms reflect the changing status of recorded music and how it is treated in the market.

What is Commodification?

The process by which goods, services, or ideas previously not considered for exchange in the market become treated as commodities that can be bought, sold, and traded.

Explain the term 'Value Gap' in the context of the music industry.

The decline in performance rights income relative to the rise in released albums and memberships since the 1960s.

What is Data Capitalism?

An economic framework where music is insignificant within the digital economy, focused on data generation and advertising revenues.

What is Dub in music terms?

A genre involving reworking recorded songs into new, bass-heavy tracks using mixing techniques.

Define Dubstep.

An electronic dance music genre characterized by its syncopated rhythm, prominent sub-bass frequencies, and often dark, atmospheric mood, emerging from UK garage and dub.

What is Post-dubstep?

Music that evolves from dubstep by incorporating influences from other genres like R&B, UK funky, and ambient, often featuring less aggressive basslines and more melodic or experimental structures.

What is Brostep?

A subgenre of dubstep characterized by aggressive, often distorted 'growl' bass lines, energetic rhythms, and influences from heavy metal and electro house, especially popular in North America.

What is Mediation in the context of technology or communication?

The process by which technology or a medium influences and shapes the way information is transmitted, received, and interpreted, often affecting perception and understanding.

Define Immediacy in a media context.

The quality of experiencing something directly and without apparent mediation, often creating a sense of presence or reality, even when technology is involved (e.g., live streaming).

What is Indeterminacy in music?

A compositional approach where certain aspects of a musical work are left to chance or to the performer's choice, resulting in unpredictable variations each time it is performed.

What does Non-subjectivity refer to in art or music?

A focus on objective processes, systems, or materials, where the artist's personal feelings or interpretations are minimized, allowing the work to speak for itself through its inherent structure or phenomena.

Define Phasing in Experimental Music.

When two or more recordings or instruments playing the same material gradually move out of sync.

What listening focus is required for Alvin Lucier's piece 'I am sitting in a room'?

Listen for the resonant frequencies of the room, how it filters and transforms the repeated speech, enhancing specific overtones, and how the interaction of the room's acoustics with the recorded voice gradually reveals its unique sonic signature.

What are Otoacoustic emissions in Maryanne Amacher's work?

Sounds created within a listener's own ears, specifically as 'difference tones' or 'distortion products' generated by the cochlea's active processes in response to specific external sounds, becoming an integral and unique part of the individual's auditory experience of her music.

What should one listen for in John Cage's '4'33''?

Listen for the ambient sounds of the environment, recognizing that absolute silence is rarely achieved and that these incidental 'noises' (such as breathing, shuffling, external sounds) become the spontaneous and unique musical content of the piece, challenging traditional notions of composition and performance.

What key elements should be identified in The Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows'?

Identify pioneering studio techniques like backward-played guitar and sitar solos, heavily compressed and filtered vocals to create a dreamlike quality ('gull-wing effect'), and continuously varying tape loops (including reversed cymbals and sped-up laughter) that create a dense, psychedelic, and often disorienting soundscape.

In Augustus Pablo’s track, what is significant about King Tubby's mixing?

Pay attention to the deep, resonant bass (low end), the distinctive echo and delay effects applied to instruments (unique timbre), and audible signs of King Tubby's live, improvisational mixing techniques, where tracks are actively processed and shaped during playback, demonstrating his pioneering role in dub music production.

What does Steve Reich's work often explore?

Steve Reich's work often explores minimalist techniques such as phasing (where two identical melodic lines gradually drift out of sync), the perception of gradual change over time, and a degree of indeterminacy in performance, resulting in a non-subjective, systematic musical structure that allows the listener to focus on the intricate sonic patterns and processes.

How did Yasunao Tone create 'Solo for Wounded CD'?

Yasunao Tone created 'Solo for Wounded CD' by intentionally altering the physical surface of a CD with tape, scratches, or holes. This action disrupts the data stream, forcing the CD player's error-correction algorithm to interpret and generate new, unpredictable sounds, transforming glitches and malfunctions into a deliberate, conceptually driven musical performance.