Mastodawn

🌋🔊 Scientists estimate that the 1883 #Krakatoa eruption reached 310 db at its source and produced a pressure wave that circled the globe several times. The sound was so powerful that it was heard over 4,800 km away and damaged the hearing of sailors far from the #volcano.

👉 https://www.discoverwildlife.com/environment/loudest-recorded-noise

#history #science #geology #volcanoes #nature #physics #environment #research #earth #acoustics #wildlife #indonesia

It ruptured the eardrums of sailors, was heard thousands of miles away and the pressure wave circled the Earth | Discover Wildlife

What’s the loudest noise recorded in history? Well, it depends on how you measure it

Discover Wildlife

𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉2d ago

By the way, and for the avoidance of doubt/suspicion: none of the "audio etymology" sequences that I've created and am posting here involve any use of AI, LLM's, neural nets, none of that. All are made from original audio recordings of real people speaking words in their various languages, which are then subjected to good old-fashioned signal processing (speech coding and synthesis). The continua of change are made using straightforward linear interpolation over the space of cepstrograms, which are 2 dimensional matrices encoding the acoustics of the original recordings. Using scripts that I wrote, by hand.

#acoustics #phonetics #speech #synthesis #audio #maths #linear_algebra

Nicole Sharp 4d ago

Scrubbing Bubbles

Cleaning produce helps fruits and vegetables last longer and reduces the chances for foodborne illness. But it can be a difficult feat with soft, delicate foods like tomatoes, berries, or greens. Current methods often combine ultrasonic cleaning and chemicals like chlorine. Instead, researchers are looking to boost the cleaning power of bubbles themselves by giving them an acoustic pick-me-up.

Stop-and-go. A bubble slides along an inclined surface in a pronounced stop-and-go motion when vibrated near its frequency for translational resonance.

The team combined a bubble-filled bath with sound at low (sub-cavitation) frequencies. They found that driving sound waves at the right frequency could vibrate the bubbles in a way that made them slide in a stop-and-go motion along inclined surfaces. This swaying significantly boosted their cleaning power; getting surfaces 90% cleaner than non-resonating bubbles did. (Image credit: S. Hok/Cornell University; video and research credit: Y. Lin et al.; via Gizmodo)

#acoustics #bubbles #fluidDynamics #physics #resonance #science #shear #vibration

CSBJ 5d ago

🦗 Could insect ears inspire the future of acoustic technology?

🔗 Comparative Analysis of Morphological and Acoustic Correlates of Bush-Cricket Tympanic Membranes. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal (CSBJ). DOI: https://doi.org/10.34133/csbj.0035

📚 CSBJ - A Science Partner Journal: https://spj.science.org/journal/csbj

#Bioinspiration #Biomimetics #Acoustics #Bioacoustics #EvolutionaryBiology #Biosensors #Entomology #Neuroscience

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xorgol 5d ago

The psychoacoustic testing described in the report is very interesting, but the conclusions are fairly obvious: headphones provide insulation, and active noise canceling doesn't affect transient sounds very much. The real problem is that people are not just wearing headphones, they're listening to stuff, which destroys the signal to noise ratio. #acoustics

xorgol 5d ago

Last week, the Skoda ad about a bicycle bell that defeats noise canceling went viral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDaVPfpQvPI

There are a lot of weird claims in this ad, which are not in the Salford University-authored report: https://cdn.skoda-storyboard.com/2026/04/Skoda-DuoBell-Research-final_cf127752.pdf

They depict this gap in noise cancelling effectiveness, but what the report actually says is "700-800 Hz (Suggested range for penetrating ANC passive isolation)" So it's insertion loss, not ANC at all!

#acoustics

xorgol Apr 10

Yesterday my latest paper on 6dof audio was published: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/vibrationacoustics/article/148/5/051002/1232101/Six-Degree-of-Freedom-Audio-Rendering-Using

"Six-Degree-of-Freedom Audio Rendering Using Spatial Impulse Responses in an Urban Context"

A lot more work is needed on a perceptually-validated metric for 6dof interpolation, in my opinion. #acoustics #VR

Six-Degree-of-Freedom Audio Rendering Using Spatial Impulse Responses in an Urban Context

Abstract. Many acoustic studies on urban environments focus on soundscapes and subjective perception, analyzing environmental parameters such as loudness, fluctuation strength, and roughness. However, room acoustic parameters have rarely been applied in this context, even though public squares are frequently used for musical events. Considering classical concerts in historical or archeological sites in Italy, or pop music performances in public squares amplified through audio systems, a key challenge is that the acoustic characteristics of these spaces remain largely unknown. This study addresses this gap by conducting acoustic measurements in Piazzale San Francesco in Parma, a public square already used for summer musical events, and by implementing its audio rendering in a virtual reality (VR) environment. The acoustic survey was carried out following the standards for enclosed rooms, in accordance with ISO 3382, while the digital model of the space was created using photogrammetry. The piece Ti tradì quell’alma ingrata from Il Trovatore was used as the audio signal in Unreal Engine, enabling a navigation of the digital space calibrated with measured impulse responses (IRs). The resulting VR rendering allows users to be fully immersed in the virtual space, freely exploring it with six degrees of freedom (6DoF), as they would in reality, while listening to the same musical performance.

ASME Digital Collection