Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

Human Hearing
How do the human ears work and how to characterisJcs for a
recording studio or venue.

Figure 2.1

The Ears
There are three main parts to the human ear;
Outer ear
Middle ear
Inner ear

The outer ear consists of the Pinna, Ear Canal and the Eardrum.
The Middle ear is made up of the Eardrum and Ossicles[1], the
three smallest bones in the human body called the Malleus, Incus
and Stapes[2]. Lastly, the Inner ear is made up of The auditory
nerve to the brain[1]. Sound waves enter the ear canal causing
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Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

the eardrum to pulsate. Because the eardrum is moving, this

causes a chain reacJon to move the three bones known as the
ossicles. The malleus is moved by the eardrum, the incus is
moved by the malleus and the stapes moved by the incus. The
stapes hits the membrane of the cochlea causing
the uid inside to move [1]. The cochlea consists
of three chambers. The stapes causes pressure
waves to travel through the cochlea. Inside the
cochlea there are an esJmated 20 to 30
thousand bres. As vibraJons travel down this
chamber, they meet with bres that have the
correct resonant frequency and energy is
released[2]. When these bres resonate they
Figure 2.3

cause the hair cells located next to them to

move which sends electrical impulses to the
cochlea nerve and up into the brain. The pitch of a sound wave
can cause the bres to resonate in specic locaJons and the
louder the sound then more hairs will move. Our brain will sort
through all this informaJon allowing us to hear[2]. Sound is 22
Jmes greater when the sound reaches the brain than when it rst
entered the ear[1].

Psychoacoustics
PsychoacousJcs is the scienJc study of sound percepJon[3].
Subjects that are associated with psychoacousJcs include;
Sound LocalisaJon
Cocktail Party Eect
Pitch PercepJon
Auditory Maskins
The Doppler eect

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Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

Sound engineers use psychoacousJcs to help them create

more realisJc sound space experiences for music, movies, and
concerts[9].

Sound Localisation
Sound localisaJon is to do with guring out where sounds
originate form. This could be in front of you, behind you, to the
Figure 2.2

side of you and in any other direcJon possible, even right

above you. Humans are able to locate noise almost precisely to
where it is coming from[7]. The brain is able to do this as it can
interpret informaJon coming from both ears. Imagine that there
is a ring around your head just like the planet Saturn and there is
a speaker closer to your le\ ear than your right that is playing
music. Your brain is able to pick up that the sound is ge^ng to
your le\ ear quicker than it is ge^ng to your right ear[7]. The
brain is then able to compare the dierences in Jme to work out
where exactly the sound is coming from[7].
There are two cues that the brain looks for to help determine the
sounds locaJon. The rst is amplitude. The dierence in
amplitude between the two ears can help determine which side
the sound is closer to and Jme dierence.
The Jme taken for the sound to reach one ear
compared with the other is another way the
brain can detect where the sound is coming
from.

The Cocktail Party Effect

Figure 2.4

The cocktail party eect is a phenomenon or

occurrence where in a noisy room, at a party or
at a sporJng event with lots of people, you are able to focus on
one parJcular voice and ignore all the others and these blend into
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Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

background noise [10]. The human brain can only completely

focus on one thing at a Jme so it gives its a`enJon to one person
and dismisses all other voices[10]. In other words, we can tune
in and tune out of dierent conversaJons. This phenomena
works be`er as a binaural eect, meaning it works be`er with
both ears funcJoning and is related to sound localisaJon. People
with only one funcJoning ear have found it dicult to stay tuned
in to one voice [4].

Auditory Masking
Auditory masking is when one signal is
masked or covered by another which
has a greater amplitude, is louder, or has
a greater frequency range. There are two
types of auditory masking;
Temporal Masking

Figure 2.5

Simultaneous masking

Temporal masking is when there are two sounds but they are not
occurring at the exact same Jme. It is best to demonstrate this by
using an example. A bass drum is hit, and then there is a clap
straight a\er. The clap may be masked because the bass drum
has a larger amplitude or is louder than a clap. This example is
called forward masking as the sound that is being masked by the
louder amplitude happens around 200 milliseconds a\er the
sound with the louder amplitude is being played. Backwards
masking is when the sound with the smaller amplitude happens
20 milliseconds before the sound with the higher amplitude is
played, in other words, the clap happens 20 milliseconds before
the drum is hit [5][6].
Simultaneous masking is when two sounds occur at exactly the
same Jme but the masking signal covers the original signal by
increasing in amplitude. An example would be talking to someone
in a room where there is music playing in the background and
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Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

then someone decides to turn the volume up. Your voice, the
original signal, is being masked by the masking signal, the music.
Sound engineers can be aected by this as certain sound can be
masked or hidden by others which can aect the overall mix[5].

The Doppler effect

This occurrence does not actually happen inside of the brain but
is linked to sound localisaJon. This is to do with moving sounds.
As sounds get closer to us, their amplitude increases, so it gets
louder, and if the sound moves
further away, the amplitude
decreases, gets quieter[7]. As
the sound moves closer the
wavelength decreases and the
frequency decreases, and as
the sound moves away the
frequency decreases and the
wavelength increases[8]. An
example would be a police car
driving past you with its sirens
on. When it is far away from

Figure 2.6

you, the siren is quite quiet but

as it gets closer and drives right past you, its amplitude increases.
Due to sound localisaJon, we are able to tell where this siren is
coming from and move out of the way allowing the car to drive
past, but the amplitude of the siren increasing and decreasing
happens outside of the brain unlike the cocktail party eect
where the brain focuses on one thing at a Jme and blocks
everything else out[7].

BTEC Music Technology

Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

DESIGNING A
RECORDING STUDIO
Standing Waves
A standing wave is when there is a wave that is travelling in one
direcJon and bounces o of something such as a wall and then
travels back to its source[13]. Standing waves are associated with
boundary condiJons [15]. Standing waves within a room are also
called room modes [19]. There are parts of this wave that are not
moving and these are called nodes. There are the parts of the
wave where the wave going forward and the wave coming
backwards meet. There is also something called anJ-node, which
is where the peak or trough moves up and down[13].
Standing waves can be separated into two categories;
Ridged boundaries
Open boundary condiJons or free boundary condiJons

Ridged boundary condiJons are associated with, for example,

Figure 2.7

stringed instruments where the medium, the string, is

constrained so that it cannot move and nothing can aect it other
than in-between the boundaries. Open boundary condiJons
refers to standing waves that are not pinned down and so are free
to move about, for example in a recording studio or music venue
such as the O2 arena [14].
Standing waves will occur for all frequencies whose wave lengths
are mulJples of the room dimensions [16]. These can occur
between the two parallel walls and with the oor and ceiling. We
can calculate which frequencies would create standing waves
within a room with a simple formula [16];
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Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

1130 divided by 2L
What this means is that 1130 feet relates to the speed of sound in
that it travels 1130 feet per second, and the 2L is the room
dimensions Jmes by 2. For example, if the distance between two
parallel walls is 13 feet, the frequency wavelength is double this
number, 26\.
1130 divided by 13 X 2 = 173.846154.
This is approximately 174 Hz. If we then double this number,
348Hz, the second harmonic, this frequency will also create a
standing wave, including the third harmonic, 522Hz and the
fourth, 696Hz and so on [17]. Standing waves are much worse
when the dimensions of the room are mulJples of each other like
8 X 12 X 16. Also the worse shape to have a recording studio or a
venue would be a cube as this is perfect for standing waves to
occur [17].
When two or more waves meet and are in phase with each other
at a specic frequency, you will have a peak in response. When
they meet and are out of phase with each other, they cancel and
you end up with a dip or null in response [19]. Standing waves
can make the sound being generated weaker or stronger as these
waves are able to cancel each other out and double up [19].

Recording Studio
There are golden raJos that can help you to create a room that
will minimise the eects of standing waves. When building a
recording studio from scratch, standing waves have to be taken
into account before building starts. Any way you can edit the
room to avoid the creaJon of standing waves is helpful. As
Figure 2.8

standing waves occur between parallel walls, when the

dimensions are mulJples of each other and when the room is
cube shaped, it might be an idea to have one of the walls at a
slight angle so that there is less chance for the standing waves to
occur. Also, once the studio is built, you could add in some curved
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Daisy Grace Wakefield

Length = 16 Feet
Width = 18 Feet
Height = 11 Feet

14 April 2015

wooden panels on the walls as this will change the dimensions of

certain parts of the room and help to get rid of standing waves
[20].

Figure 2.9

When building the room, you need an outer wall and a inner wall.
The outer wall would be, if we looked at a house, the side that is
outside or exposed to the elements where as the inner wall is the
one facing inside the house. But in-between the outer and inner
wall there will be an array of dierent materials used to
soundproof the room [20].

Having one wall at

an angle can help
to get rid of
standing waves
and this will aect
the dimensions and
therefore which
frequencies will
occur in the space.

Materials can include;

Dry wall
Wooden frame/studs
Pockets of air
Sealant

Figure 2.10

Fibre glass
Other foam insulaJon

Once the outer walls are built, with the following dimensions for
example; height at 11 feet, width at
18 feet and length at 16 feet, you can
start to add in the insulaJon. Firstly
dry wall[18] is added the outside wall
then another layer is added but with a
small air gap between the two for
more sound proong. A\er, a wooden
frame or stud is placed upon the walls
and bre glass or other foam
insulaJon is placed in-between the
wooden pockets. Next you a`ach
sound clips, metal clips, to the
wooden frame and add hat channels,
long rectangular sheets of metal to

Figure 2.11

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Daisy Grace Wakefield

14 April 2015

the clips then another layer of dry wall is added. Adding

another wooden frame with more breglass and another layer
of drywall will help lock in the dierent frequencies.

Figure 2.12

Figure 2.13

This process can also be repeated on the ceilings and the oor but
with ooring, adding an extra layer of dry wall will help insulaJon.
Adding a carpet and then a hard wooden oor is be`er for sound
insulaJon. With ceilings,
adding another layer of dry
wall is preferable but having
a gap of air will help with
soundproong [21][22][23].
Inside the completed studio,
materials such as fabric
curtains and chairs can be
added to help absorb sound
[12].
Figure 2.14

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