The Science & Art of Sound

Welcome & How to Use This Site

Navigation tips, sound setup, and what to expect from this learning resource.

Communication, Frequency & Pitch

The audio communication chain, waveform frequency, sine waves, pitch perception, octaves, and the JND.

Intensity & Loudness

Sound pressure, peak values, RMS, decibels, dynamic range, and how our ears perceive loudness.

Spectra, Modulation & Phase

Harmonics, timbre, AM/FM modulation, filters, and phase relationships in complex sounds.

Sound Authoring & Casting

Choosing and creating sounds for video, games, and interactive media: music, effects, narration, and sound design.

Miking & Recording

Microphone types, placement techniques, recording environments, and signal flow.

Digitization & Editing

Sampling theory, quantization, bit depth, sample rates, and digital audio editing.

Utilities & Effects

Reverb, delay, EQ, compression, pitch shifting, and other essential audio effects.

Playback & Sound Check

Testing the audio system, monitoring, and ensuring quality playback across devices.

3D Sound & Auralization

Spatial audio, binaural rendering, HRTFs, and immersive sound environments.

Shepard Tones & the Endless Staircase

Auditory illusion of perpetual ascent: synthesize Shepard tones, explore Risset's continuous glissando, and walk an infinite stairway.

Builds on Chapter 1 · Communication, Frequency & Pitch — octaves and the log-frequency axis.

Sirens & FM

A siren is frequency modulation running slow. Drag a log–log plane to hear a wail become a bell, watch the sidebands appear, and read the modulation index straight off the axes.

Builds on Chapter 3 · Spectra, Modulation & Phase — frequency modulation.

Spherical Harmonics Explorer

The 3D generalization of the polar-pattern sandbox: dial in real spherical-harmonic coefficients (first- and higher-order Ambisonics), watch the directivity balloon take shape, and drag a source through its lobes and nulls to hear the gain.

Builds on Chapter 5 · Miking & Recording — polar patterns and directivity.

Convolution Explorer

Flip, slide, multiply, add: set each side of the convolution independently — a rectangle, a decay, a click, a room — and watch the overlap area trace the output that every filter and every reverb computes.

Builds on Chapter 7 · Utilities & Effects — filtering and convolution reverb.

Phase & Group Velocity

A crest and the packet it belongs to need not travel at the same speed. Dial in dispersion and watch crests be born at the back of a wave group, race through it, and vanish at the front.

Builds on Chapter 3 · Spectra, Modulation & Phase — phase.

Rhythm Playground

Rhythm drawn as a necklace rather than a line: rings of steps turning at their own rates, Euclidean patterns, the classic claves and bell timelines measured, and every onset heard from the angle it occupies around the listener.

Builds on Chapter 9 · 3D Sound & Auralization — spatialization around a listener.