This book is a collection of contributions to the Special Issue “Historical Acoustics: Relationships between People and Sound over Time”. The research presented here aims to explore the origins of acoustics and examine the relationships that have evolved over the centuries between people and auditory phenomena. Sounds have indeed accompanied human civilizations since the beginning of time, helping them to make sense of the world and to shape their cultures. Several key topics emerged, such as the acoustics of historical worship buildings, the acoustics of sites of archaeological interest, the acoustics of historical opera houses, and the topic of soundscapes as cultural intangible heritage. The book, as a whole, reflects the vibrant research activity around the “acoustics of the past”, which will hopefully be serve as a foundation for inspiring the future path of this discipline.

Architectural Acoustics, Second Edition presents a thorough technical overview of the discipline, from basic concepts to specific design advice. Beginning with a brief history, it reviews the fundamentals of acoustics, human perception and reaction to sound, acoustic noise measurements, noise metrics, and environmental noise characterization. In-depth treatment is given to the theoretical principles and practical applications of wave acoustics, sound transmission, vibration and vibration isolation, and noise transmission in floors and mechanical systems. Chapters on specific design problems demonstrate how to apply the theory, including treatment of multifamily dwellings, office buildings, rooms for speech, rooms for music, multipurpose rooms, auditoriums, sanctuaries, studios, listening rooms, and the design of sound reinforcement systems. Detailed figures illustrate the practical applications of acoustic principles, showing how to implement design ideas in actual structures. This compendium of theoretical and practical design information brings the relevant concepts, equations, techniques, and specific design problems together in one place, including both fundamentals and more advanced material. Practicing engineers will find it an invaluable reference for their daily work, while advanced students will appreciate its rigorous treatment of the basic building blocks of acoustical theory. - Considered the most complete resource in the field – includes basic fundamental relations, derived from first principles, and examples needed to solve real engineering problems. - Provides a well-organized text for students first approaching the subject as well as a reliable reference for experienced practitioners looking to refresh their technical knowledge base. - New content for developing professionals includes case studies and coverage of specific focus areas such as audio visual design, theaters, and concert halls.

This book describes, using first-person accounts, the history of the development in the Soviet Union and, later, in Russia of an extremely important technical field and how that history was influenced by WWI, WWII, and the Cold War, by government bureaucracy, in both positive and negative ways, by the economic collapse of the Soviet Union, and most importantly, by the dedicated efforts of vast numbers of individuals, including some of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century. It will make fascinating reading for engineers and scientists who were engaged in similar work in the West, for historians of the Cold War and of the Soviet Union, and for present day researchers who need to learn about Russian scientific contributions.Because of its importance to national security, much of the research and development effort in underwater acoustics was classified during the Cold War, both in the Soviet Union and the United States. This book presents the first declassified accounts of the development of numerous hydroacoustic systems by individuals having first-hand knowledge of the development efforts.

A vibrant history of acoustical technology and aural culture in early-twentieth-century America. In this history of aural culture in early-twentieth-century America, Emily Thompson charts dramatic transformations in what people heard and how they listened. What they heard was a new kind of sound that was the product of modern technology. They listened as newly critical consumers of aural commodities. By examining the technologies that produced this sound, as well as the culture that enthusiastically consumed it, Thompson recovers a lost dimension of the Machine Age and deepens our understanding of the experience of change that characterized the era. Reverberation equations, sound meters, microphones, and acoustical tiles were deployed in places as varied as Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's office skyscrapers, and the soundstages of Hollywood. The control provided by these technologies, however, was applied in ways that denied the particularity of place, and the diverse spaces of modern America began to sound alike as a universal new sound predominated. Although this sound—clear, direct, efficient, and nonreverberant—had little to say about the physical spaces in which it was produced, it speaks volumes about the culture that created it. By listening to it, Thompson constructs a compelling new account of the experience of modernity in America.

Archaeoacoustics, the study of sound in the past, is increasingly attracting attention. Although some work, particularly in musical archaeology, had been conducted previously, the field received a significant boost when the term itself was coined by Scarre and Lawson in their 2006 volume of that name, which brought together two major distinct strands: archaeomusicology and the acoustics of archaeological spaces. Since 2006, the number of publications has steadily been growing, yet the field remains in its infancy. This is partly due to the complexity inherent in the analysis of sound, which requires multidisciplinary collaboration across various disciplines. This complexity is reflected in the approaches followed and the contributors from diverse academic fields, including not only archaeology but also anthropology, architecture, classics, history, art history, and sound engineering. The aim is to provide an overview of a selection of the different topics covered by the field of archaeoacoustics. Contributors aspire to advancing the field through innovative approaches, including those stemming from psychology, a field not commonly associated with archaeology. Additionally, the book seeks to expand the field by developing a number of new ideas based on novel case studies. It presents some of the results derived from major research projects, such as the ERC funded Artsoundscapes and the Soundspace projects led by Díaz-Andreu and Knighton, respectively. The book will cover a wide range of topics, including a synthetic history of research provided in the introduction, theories about the origins of music in early humans, experimental archaeomusicology, approaches from the fields of neuroacoustics and psychoacoustics, experimental studies of portable and fixed lithophones and other musical instruments, explorations of soundscapes, representations of sound in early medieval frescoes, late medieval urbanscapes, and post-medieval proxemics. Case studies are located in America, Asia, and Europe.

European archives hold historical voice recordings that were produced by linguists, ethnologists and musicologists during colonial rule in African countries. While these recordings reverberate with the polyphonic echoes of colonial knowledge production, to date, acoustic collections have rarely been consulted as sources of colonial history. In this book Anette Hoffmann engages with a Southern African audio-visual collection, which is located in five different institutions across Vienna, Austria. Several recordings collected by the anthropologist Rudolf Pch in August 1908 have been retranslated for this book. These translations provide new insights into Pchs collecting expedition to the Kalahari. Pchs narrative of his heroic journey is called into question by the Naro speakers comments, which address colonial violence and criticise the research practices of the anthropologist. By attending to the spoken texts on the recordings and reconnecting them to photographs, ethnographic objects, archival documentation and Pchs travelogue, Hoffmann offers a different reading of this research trip into a war zone.triesries.

Modelling and simulation in acoustics is currently gaining importance. In fact, with the development and improvement of innovative computational techniques and with the growing need for predictive models, an impressive boost has been observed in several research and application areas, such as noise control, indoor acoustics, and industrial applications. This led us to the proposal of a special issue about “Modelling, Simulation and Data Analysis in Acoustical Problems”, as we believe in the importance of these topics in modern acoustics’ studies. In total, 81 papers were submitted and 33 of them were published, with an acceptance rate of 37.5%. According to the number of papers submitted, it can be affirmed that this is a trending topic in the scientific and academic community and this special issue will try to provide a future reference for the research that will be developed in coming years.