Course

Psychoacoustics

Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Department
Music
Course Code
MUSC 3173
Credits
3.00
Semester Length
15 Weeks
Max Class Size
30
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Lab
Course Designation
None
Industry Designation
None
Typically Offered
To be determined

Overview

Course Description
This course explores a range of musical and acoustic systems, traces human auditory processing from the ear to the auditory cortex, and acknowledges the individual experience of sound. Psychoacoustic principles are introduced with a focus on their practical application in audio engineering, sound design and production.
Sensory, perceptual, and cognitive realms of the auditory experience are explored though studies on pitch processing, loudness, timbre, timing and spatial location, stream segregation and fusion. Lab work focuses on the practical application of psychoacoustic principles in mixing and sound design.
Course Content

1. The physics of sound

  • Simple harmonic motion
  • Wave parameters
  • The harmonic series
  • Simple and complex waveforms
  • Fourier analysis

2. Architectural systems

  • Modal response
  • Reflection
  • Absorption
  • Reverberation

3. Musical instrument systems

  • Vibrating strings
  • Air columns
  • Membranes
  • Resonators

4. The Human Hearing System

  • Physiology of the ear and hearing mechanism
  • The auditory brain
  • The musical brain
  • Physical vs psycho-physical
  • Noise-induced hearing damage and loss

5. Pitch Perception

  • Different ranges of the frequency spectrum and pitch perception
  • Virtual pitch
  • Tonal topicity, critical bands, masking and roughness
  • Tuning systems
  • Consonance and dissonance
  • Creating auditory illusions: pitch circularity

6. Hearing in Time and Space

  • Interaural level, phase and time differences
  • Binaural hearing and spatial localization
  • Head-related transfer function
  • Perceptual fusion
  • Perspective
  • Analyzing audio plugins: stereo wideners, binaural processing

7. Auditory Scene Analysis

  • Perception
  • Cognition
  • Gestalt theories
  • The Cocktail Party effect
  • Perspective
  • Stream segregation

8. Loudness and Masking

  • Logarithmic hearing
  • Listening fatigue
  • The loudness wars
  • Why louder sounds 'better' and the importance of gain staging

9. Temporal Processing

  • Temporal masking and voice leading
  • Adaptation, enhancement and musical arrangement
  • Auditory memory
  • Pulse extraction

10. Timbre

  • Spectral power
  • Temporal envelope
  • Timbral cues
  • Spectrograms

11. The Human Voice

  • Vocal mechanisms
  • Speech
  • Language vs musical models

12. Psychoacoustics and audio quality

  • Evaluating psychoacoustic claims and tools 
  • Psychoacoustic principles in music creation
  • Psychoacoustic principles in mixing
Learning Activities

Students engage in a variety of learning activites including lecture, critical listening activities, research and lab assignments which explore auditory illusion and the practical application of psychoacoustics principles in mixing and creating audio assets.

Means of Assessment

Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. 

An example evaluation scheme is included below.  

Assignment 1: Presentation

20%

Assignment 2: Audio Project

20%

Assignment 3: Research

20%

Quizzes and Tests

10%

Lab Assignments

10%

Mid-term Exam

10%

Final Exam

10%

 TOTAL

100%

 

 

 

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  • Trace the signal path from an acoustic sound source to an auditory experience;
  • Differentiate physical from psycho-physical phenomena;
  • Describe the auditory nervous system;
  • Distinguish sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes;
  • Relate psychoacoustic theories of pitch perception, timbre, loudness and sonic space to the creation and mixing of audio assets;
  • Explain the way that the human auditory system organizes sound into meaningful elements (stream segregation);
  • Identify and mitigate causes and consequences of noise-induced hearing loss;
  • Identify and distinguish acoustic and psychoacoustic features of audio signals;
  • Critically assess audio mixing strategies and tools from a psychoacoustic perspective.
Textbook Materials

Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students.  A list of required and textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester. Example texts may include: 

Music, Cognition and Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics ed. Perry Cooke Published MIT Press

Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance by Siu-Lan Tan, Peter Pfordresher and Rom Harré Routledge

Requisites

Prerequisites

MUSC 1273

Or MUSC 1282

Or

Equivalent

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer Details for MUSC 3173
Acsenda School of Management (ASM) ASM GEN 3XX (3)
Athabasca University (AU) AU MUSI 2XX (3)
Camosun College (CAMO) CAMO MUSC 2XX (3)
Capilano University (CAPU) CAPU MUS 2XX (3)
Coast Mountain College (CMTN) No credit
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) No credit
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU MUSC 3XXX (3)
Trinity Western University (TWU) TWU MUSI 300 (3)
Vancouver Community College (VCC) VCC MUSC 3XXX (3)
Vancouver Island University (VIU) Individual Assessment

Course Offerings

Winter 2025