ALL ABOUT NOISE

ALTERNATING CURRENT (AC)

Any type of electrical transmission where the current repeatedly changes direction, and the voltage varies
between maxima and minima. Therefore, any electrical AUDIO signal may be called an AC signal.
Whereas the voltage range of an audio signal is less than a few volts, that of electrical current is
standardized in the 110-120 volt or 220 volt range with a frequency of 60 or 50 Hz (see map).

When electrical equipment is improperly grounded, a HUM is heard at one of those PITCHes, or a
multiple thereof. Alternating current was introduced in the 1890's, and is now used almost universally to 1
distribute electricity on a large scale.
 Noise Generator
When energy occurs at all frequencies, this is known as a distributed spectrum or
noise. More specifically, when energy is distributed uniformly over frequency this is
known as white noise. Pink noise, which sounds subjectively less tinny than white
noise, exhibits a 3 dB / octave reduction in high frequency energy.

Below is a time domain graph of a noise signal. Notice the random nature of the
signal, which is very different from a sine or square wave.

1.2 Amplitude v
0.8 Time Graph of
0.4 a Noise Signal
Amplitude

-0.4

-0.8

-1.2
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Time (s)

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 NOISE Danger

The red bar below shows how long it takes before a particular sound
level becomes dangerous to the human ear.

For example, a chain saw has a sound intensity of about 110 dB. Without
proper hearing protection, running a chain saw for only 2 minutes can
become dangerous to the human ear!
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 NOISE DEFINED Truax.1

NOISE Acoustics /
NoiseEtymologically the word can be traced back
to Old French (noyse) and to 11th century
Provenal (noysa, nosa, nausa), but its origin is
uncertain.

It has a variety of meanings and shadings of

meaning, the most important of which are the
following:1. Unwanted sound:
The Oxford English Dictionary contains
references to noise as unwanted SOUND dating
back as far as 1225.
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 Fourier analysis
Based on the theory that any complex signal may be
reduced to a series of sine waves of varying
amplitude, frequency and phase.

also known as a fast Fourier transform.

FFT Fourier analysis may be generally described as the representation of a sound's

frequency components as a sum of pure sinusoidal waves (Truax, Handbook for
Acoustic Ecology: 51). An analysis of a sound's frequency components is taken at a
steady state to give an approximation of that sounds spectrum. As most natural sounds
are spectrally dynamic, one single Fourier analysis could not possibly represent a
sound in sine waves. By 'windowing', a Fast Fourier Transform takes several of these
approximations and strings them together to better predict a sound's spectrum over
time.
http://www.sfu.ca/sca/Manuals/ZAAPf/f/fourier_anal.html

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 Subtractive Synthesis
CREATIVE USES OF NOISE
Subtractive synthesis is technique which creates musical timbres by
filtering complex waveforms generated by oscillators. Subtractive
synthesis is usually (but not exclusively) associated with analogue
voltage controlled synthesizers such as the moog or the minimoog.It
can produce very natural changes in a sound, owing to the intuitive
way in which it works.

Typically a lowpass filter is applied to the initial tone, because natural

musical sounds generally include less of the harsh high frequencies
found in square or sawtooth waves. Often the user has a choice of
steeper and shallower filters. The cut-off frequency and resonance of
the filter may be modulated by an envelope to create a more dynamic
sound.
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 NOISE DEFINED Truax.2

2. Unmusical sound: The 19th century physicist

Hermann von Helmholtz employed the term
'noise' to describe sound composed of non-
PERIODIC vibrations (e.g. the rustling of leaves),
by comparison with musical sounds, which
consist of periodic vibrations.

Noise is still used in this sense in expressions such as

BROAD BAND NOISE, GAUSSIAN NOISE, NARROW
BAND NOISE, RANDOM NOISE, RUSTLE NOISE or
WHITE NOISE.

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 NOISE DEFINED Truax.3 &4
3. Any loud sound: In general usage today, noise often
refers to particularly loud sounds. In this sense a noise
abatement by-law prohibits certain loud sounds or
establishes their permissible limits in DECIBELs.
See: JET PAUSE, LOUDNESS, NOISE POLLUTION,
SOUND INTRUSION, SOUND POLLUTION.

4. Disturbance in any COMMUNICATION system: In

electronics and engineering, noise refers to any
disturbances which do not represent part of the SIGNAL,
such as static on a telephone or 'snow' on a television
screen.
See: BACKGROUND NOISE, SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO.
Compare: REDUNDANCY.
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 NOISE DEFINED Truax.5
The most satisfactory definition of noise for general use is
still 'unwanted sound'.

This makes noise a subjective term: one person's music

may be another's noise.

But it also provides the opportunity for a society to come

to a general agreement as to which sounds constitute
unwanted intrusions.
It should be noted that each language preserves unique
nuances of meaning for words representing noise. Thus in
French one speaks of the bruit of a jet, but also the bruit
of the birds or the bruit of the waves..
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NOISE DEFINED.1

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 NOISE DEFINED. (2)
Subjectively speaking
noise is unwanted sound.

It is the sound that appeared in the mix that

we didn't want to be there.

It is often the result of distortion of the signal

due to clipping or improper connections or
the result of the operating noise of the
electronic circuitry of the equipment being
used.
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 NOISE DEFINED. (3)
random activity of electrons - i.e. all
audio systems have a noise floor or
basic level of such activity

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 NOISE Two kinds of noise
Two kinds of noise are intentionally
generated and used for a variety of
purposes such as
sound sources for electroacoustic
composition
and sound reinforcement setup and
calibration.

These are white noise and pink noise.

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 NOISE: White & Pink Noise
Asound or signal consisting of all audible frequencies with equal
intensity.
The term is used analogously to the term 'white light' in optics which
denotes the simultaneous presence of colours of all frequencies.

BANDs of FILTERed white noise are sometimes referred to as

coloured noise, but the analogy to colour has not been applied
systematically to sound.

The term pink noise refers to a kind of NOISE where each OCTAVE
band has the same intensity, and therefore does not sound as bright
as white noise since the intensity of the SPECTRUM does not
increase with higher frequencies.

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 NOISE: White & Pink Noise
This is a frequency domain graph of both white and pink noise signals. Notice that the
white noise signal has a flat frequency response whilst the pink noise signal has a high
frequency drop-off of 3 dB per octave (doubling of frequency).

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10
0
Level v Frequency Graph
Level (dB)

-10
-20 of Pink and White Noise
-30
-40 Signals
-50
10 100 1000 10000
Frequency (Hz)

White Pink

Due to the distribution of energy over all frequencies, noise is not

particularly musical as it does not have a discernible pitch. In
musical synthesis, noise is useful in creating percussive sounds and
adding breath noise to instrument sounds.
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 NOISE: White Noise.1
Random noise or audio rate voltage which has equal
energy per Hertz in the 20 - 20,000 Hertz range.

Rain, a shower, a waterfall, etc. are natural examples

which resemble white noise. WHite noise tends to have a
distinct high frequency colour to humans as half the
energy is in the highest octave which we can perceive:
10,000-20,000 Hertz.

In white noise, half of its energy will be in the 10,000 -

20,000 Hz band while pink noise will have roughly 1/10th
of its energy there.

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 NOISE: White Noise.2
This is the same noise heard in electronic devices and is the result of random
movements of electrons in the components of those devices as a result of heat.

One of the characteristics of white noise is the perception that it is louder in the high
frequency regions.

This is because white noise has equal amounts of energy per hertz.

This is a result of the fact that with each octave increase in frequency there is a
corresponding doubling of frequency.

This also results in a doubling in the range of frequencies available between octaves.

Consider the range of frequencies in the octave described by 100 to 200 hertz
compared to that of the octave described by 5000 to 10000 hertz.

Clearly the second octave has a much greater range of frequencies. Consequently
white noise, because it has equal energy at all frequencies, exhibits a 3 db per octave
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rise in level over its range of frequencies
 NOISE: Pink Noise.1
A type of noise with equal energy in each octave
vs white noise which has its energy distributed
throughout the frequency range of audio.
Pink noise more closely approximates the
frequency/energy distribution of conventional
music. pink noise

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 NOISE: Pink Noise.2
Pink noise is the result of a white noise signal
being rolled off by a 3 db per octave low pass
filter with a start point at a sub-audio frequency.
This results is a noise which has equal energy
per octave. Because pink noise is more
balanced in its levels over a wide frequency
range it is useful in testing and calibrating audio
equipment which must perform equally well over
the range of audible frequencies

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 NOISE: for simple calibration.1
For home theater use, aside from increased accuracy, there is an important
benefit of using full range pink noise to calibrate your speakers.

That is the fact that with this signal, TIMBRE changes are VERY audible
from speaker to speaker.

By ear, you can readily hear any changes in tone caused by room
influences or non-identical speaker systems as the signal is switched from
speaker to speaker.

The pink noise should sound identical in every speaker (except for the
sub).

You can make tweeter level adjustment, or speaker position adjustments

by ear and get very uniform results, and better imaging as a result

.As a calibration signal source, you can take advantage of the greater
accuracy of full bandwidth pink noise.

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 NOISE: for simple calibration.2
on your SPL meter, set the "weighting" to "A", rather than the more
common "C". This "A" weighting makes the meter more sensitive to the
mid range frequencies and less so to the bass and treble, but nowhere
near as extreme as the bandwidth limited test tone built into receivers,
pre/pros, and on test DVDs. After you get all the main and surround
speakers to the same level, swtich to "C" weighting and note any
differences: this will be mainly due to the greater sensitivity in the bass
region of the meter. If the needle is still relatively easy to read, you might
want to do any final touch-ups in the level of any speakers that give largely
different readings from the "A" weighting reading. . Some by-ear level
setting will probably need to be done in conjunction with the readings from
the meter.

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 NOISE: step by step calibration
Things required : dB Meter, Pink Noise
Source

First you must choose what the actual

reference level is going to be. This is
usually anywhere from about 79dB to
85dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level). Now
turn on or generate in-band pink noise

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 Distortion
Distortion is usually thought of as an undesirable
change in the waveform as it passes through
electronic equipment or any kind of transducer,
although, like noise, this is a highly subjective and
context dependent judgement. Some sound
synthesis techniques such as non-linear
waveshaping use distortion to achieve their
ends. The familiar sound of the rock guitar is largely
dependent on distortion techniques. Any technique
which changes the signal can be considered a form
of distortion, so even a simple equalizer may be
thought to distort the signal.

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 Distortion: Types
Clipping
Frequency
Harmonic
Phase
Transient

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Distortion: Types: Clipping

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Distortion: Types: Frequency

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Distortion: Types: Harmonic

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Distortion: Types: Phase

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Distortion: Types; Transient

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