Hear The Music

My home stereo system has 6 speakers – I counted them!  Yet, this set up is called a 5.1 sound system.  What’s going on? My first thought was that the guy who installed it couldn’t count.  My next thought was that the manufacturer really wanted to call it 6.1 or at least 6.0, but certainly not something that sounded less

Bass reflex loud speakers design have an uncertain past.  Most authorities would agree that the bass reflex loudspeaker was conceived of in the late 1940s, but there is some data from old audiology textbooks that this idea was used in hearing aids long before it appeared in loudspeaker design. The bass reflex loudspeaker has a simple design; it is a

Ed Villchur had many credits to his name.  He actually lived in Woodstock, New York, and for years after the famed concert, had people stopping by his house asking for directions to the Yasgar farm (which wasn’t in Woodstock). When I met Ed, he indeed had long hair much like those who attended the Woodstock concert 15 years earlier.  (I’d had

I love my morning coffee. And my afternoon coffee. Also, my evening coffee.  I am not sure how much I drink every day because I usually buy a cup of coffee, take several sips, and then get busy. I may come back to a half full cup of cold coffee several hours later, or not. Although I am not a

After trying to contact Dr. Wallace Clement Sabine’s spirit for several nights, we were able to re-establish communication with him by way of a séance.  Our discussion about reverberation time (RT) continues from part 1 of this blog series… MC:  Hello Dr. Sabine.  May I call you Wallace? WS:  No. MC:  May I call you Wally? WS:  No. MC:  Well, like last time, I

The Tragically Hip recently gave their last performance (ever) on Saturday August 20, 2016 in their home town of Kingston, Ontario, just a few hours drive east of Toronto.  The  event was broadcasted through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the concert was viewed by a third of all Canadians; many had bed sheets strung up in their backyards with

Sound, noise, and music analysis can be a confusing thing. It is true that there are now Smartphone apps that can provide a wide range of data concerning the sound level expressed in dB, dBA, and even Leq. There are even apps that can provide frequency analysis replete with Fourier or FFT spectral capabilities. One of the elements of all

Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are really neat mammals. They are evidence that our common ancestor exited the primordial sea; some became land dwelling mammals, but a few returned to the sea and re-adapted to their water-based environment. One can think of this as evolution going backwards, or maybe, evolution doesn’t have a direction and we should just be thinking in

In part 1 of this blog series, we looked at why a clarinet sounded different than a soprano saxophone. Both are “closed” at the mouth piece end and “open” at the end of the bore. Both are identical lengths, yet one functions as a quarter wavelength resonator and has odd numbered multiples of its resonances (clarinet) and the other functions

Why does the clarinet sound different than the soprano saxophone?  This is an interesting comparison and has implications for hearing, speech acoustics and, oh yes, musical instruments. It is also one of the most misunderstood comparisons in acoustics. Both the soprano saxophone and the clarinet have identical lengths; both are “closed” at the mouth piece end, and “open” at the