Audio notes

Music is an art – and a science. Here are some music and sound related terms for those who are afraid to ask.

Acoustics
The science of sound including its reproduction, transmission, and effects.

Acoustics Effect
The effect of the surrounding environment on the sound.

Acoustics Treatment
The application of a material to the surface of an enclosure to modify the acoustics.

Dead Acoustics
A room where there is very little reverberation.

Cycle
One complete sequence of a variation, which occurs in a periodic manner.

Hertz
Unit of frequency; one hertz is equal to one cycle per second.

Frequency
The rate of repetition of periodic function measured in cycle per second of hertz[Hz].

Fundamental Tone
The band of frequencies [usually between 300 Hz and 800 Hz] that makes up the basic tone of the instrument.

Harmonics
The frequencies present in a sound. Other that the fundamental, are called the partials; the ones higher than the fundamental frequency are called upper partials or overtones. For most musical instruments, the frequencies of the overtones are whole number multiples of the fundamental frequency and are called harmonies. For example concert A is 440 Hz and called basic or the first harmonic, the second harmonic will be 880 Hz and 1320 Hz will be the third harmonic and so on.

Overtones
These are sympathetic frequencies above the fundamental tone of a note, which gives the instrument its particular sound characteristics. For most instruments, these overtones can be found in frequencies above 800Hz as the fundamental tones of most instruments are found in the 300Hz to 800Hz range.

Partials
Constituents of the notes of the harmonic series. Some instruments such as bells, xylophones and other percussive instrument, have partials, which are not harmonically related to the fundamental.

Octave
Interval of 8 notes containing bottom and top notes. Notes in octave have same letter name. Interval from say D to next D is a perfect octave.

Live Spectra
The 10 octaves of sound from 20Hz to 200KHz are the keyboard upon which the sounds of human life are played. Each sound is different from the other sound because of different time patterns and because of different distribution of energy through the frequency range or spectrum.

Binaural Hearing
Receiving separate information in each ear enables us to locate the direction or a source of sound.