UIUC Physics 406
Acoustical Physics of Music
Lecture Notes and Other Hand-Outs:

• List of Experimental/Lab Setups and Lab Equipment

P406POM Lecture Notes:

• Lecture I: Introduction: What is Sound? What is Music?
• Lecture II: Simple Vibrating Systems
• Lecture III: Waves and Wave Propagation
• Lecture III - Part 2: Doppler Effect, Wave Interference, Diffraction, Beats; Energy, Power, Intensity
• Separate Handout on Acoustic Interference Phenomena - Uses Complex Notation
• Separate Handout on Beats Phenomenon

• Waves I
• MS Excel Spread-Sheet for Traveling Waves, Standing Waves
• Mathematical Musical Physics of the Wave Equation
• The Physics of a Longitudinally Vibrating "Singing" Rod
• Mathematical Musical Physics of the Wave Equation - Part 2
• Sound Waves in the Early Universe! - Results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Experiment
• Waves II

• Fourier Analysis I
• Fourier Analysis II
• Fourier Analysis III
• Fourier Analysis IV
• Basic Musical Waveforms and their (Fourier) Harmonic Content


• MS Excel Spread-Sheet for Fourier Analysis Studies of Bipolar, 50% Duty-Cycle Square Wave
• MS Excel Spread-Sheet for Fourier Analysis Studies of Bipolar Delta-Function Waveform
• MS Excel Spread-Sheet for Fourier Analysis Studies of Bipolar Symmetrical Triangle Wave
• MS Excel Spread-Sheet for Fourier Analysis Studies of Bipolar Sawtooth (Asymmetric Triangle) Wave
• MS Excel Spread-Sheet for Fourier Analysis Studies of Highly Asymmetrical Bipolar Sawtooth Wave

• Lecture IV: Complex Vibrations and Resonance
• Lecture IV - Part 2: Vibrations of 2- and 3-Dimensional Systems
• Matthew Fisher's NCUR Paper on C4 Handbell Vibration Modes

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• Lecture V: The Human Ear - Hearing and Loudness Levels
• Spectral Response Measurements of a Simulated Human Ear Canal
• Lecture VI: Tone Quality - Timbre
• Lecture VII: Pitch vs. Frequency
• Lecture VIII: Consonance and Dissonance, Musical Scales...
• Ted Argo (NSF UIUC Summer REU Student) "On the Concord of Sweet Sounds", NSF Summer REU Final Report, August, 2002.
• Examples of Consonance - 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, ... etc.
• Examples of Consonance - Part 2 - 1:1, 9:8, 8:7, 7:6, 6:5, ... etc.
• Tables of Consonance - Dissonance of Harmonic Amplitudes for Two-Note Tone Combinations
• Consonance - Dissonance of Harmonic Amplitudes associated with e.g. a Sawtooth Wave

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• Acoustics of Palaeolithic Caves
• Lecture IX: Auditorium and Room Acoustics
• Derivation of the Sabine Equation, Determination of Room Reverberation Time(s)
• EASE (Electro-Acoustic Simulator for Engineers) Acoustic Design Examples
• Lecture X: Electronic Sound Reinforcement of Rooms/Auditoriums
• Lecture X - Part 2: The Acoustics of Small Rooms, Home Listening/Home Theater Rooms and Recording Studios

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• Lecture XI: Complex Sound Fields
• Lecture XI - Part 2: Euler's Equation for Inviscid Fluid Flow, Complex Particle Velocity Potential, Complex Acoustic Immittances.
• Time Domain vs. Frequency Domain Sound Field Quantities
• Lecture XII: Examples of Complex Sound Fields - Simple Traveling Monochromatic Plane Wave, Two Counter-Propagating Monochromatic Plane Waves.
• Lecture XII - Part 2: Examples of Complex Sound Fields (Cont) - Acoustic Monopole, Acoustic Dipole, Higher-Order Acoustics Moments, 2-D Planar Duct.
• Lecture XIII: Measurement of Complex Sound Fields, Various Types of Pressure and Particle Velocity Microphones.
• Lecture XIII - Part 2: The Use of Lock-In Amplifiers for Phase Sensitive Measurements of Complex Sound Fields, Spectral Analysis Approach to Measurements of Complex Sound Fields.
• Manual for Stanford Research SR-830 Lock-In Amplifier.

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• Lecture XIV: The Physics of Loudspeakers.
• Lecture XV: The Fractal Nature of Human Music.

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• Lecture XVI: Sustainability and Musical Instruments.
• Lecture XVII: The Universality of Music, and Diversity in Music.
• Lecture XVIII: Acoustic Noise Levels in the Earth's Oceans.

• Theory of Distortion I
• Theory of Distortion II
• MS Excel Spread-Sheet for Non-Linear Response Studies
• Harmonic and Intermodulation in Vacuum Tubes (n.b. use your web browser to rotate to read)

• The History of the Development of Electric Stringed Musical Instruments
• Electronic Transducers for Musical Instruments

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