The science of sound

What Hacker News says

1. iainctduncanJun 2024
   It's called Physical Modelling, and it's a big sub-branch of audio synthesis. A very good intro is Perry Cook's "Real Sound Synthesis" book.

   To understand the physics behind the software, the field you need to read is called Acoustics. A great intro (and the textbook we used in grad school) is "The Science of Sound" by Rossing et. al.

   (And +1 to Julius Smith book recommendations).

   thread
2. s-phi-nlDec 2014
   I have experience of performers, when not accompanied by a piano, choose to perform intervals closer to 1.50000 than 1.50001, so it seems they prefer them.

   However, the answer is more complicated than that. Quoting directly from my acoustics textbook:

   "Research on the intervals played or sung by skilled musicians shows substantial variability in the intonation from performance to performance. These variations are frequently larger than the differences between the various tunings. Studies of large numbers of performances have shown that deviations from equal temperament are usually in the direction of Pythagorean intervals (Ward 1970).

   "Several investigators have found that performers tend to stretch their intervals (including octaves), even when unaccompanied by a piano. Many choral conductors prefer the third in a chord slightly raised, especially in sustained chords or cadences, to avoid any suggestion of 'flatting' the chord, a particular nemesis of choirs. How much of the apparent preference for sharpened intervals is due to constant exposure to pianos with stretched turning is difficult to determine."

   The Science of Sound, Third Edition, by Rossing, Moore, and Wheeler, p. 187.

   (Ward 1970) is "Musical Perception" by W.D. Ward, in Foundations of Modern Auditory Theory, Ed. J. Tobias.

   Show morethread