Instructional Plans: Grades 9–12

Instructional plans consist of planning necessities, standard alignment, alignment to philosophies approached in earlier chapters, as well as instructional procedures and assessments. Adaptations for other grade-level bands as well as potential extensions are available for each plan. This chapter includes the following instructional plans: Audio Engineering: Ratios in Recording, Designing a Chromatic PVC Instrument, Controlled Voltage: Composing, Performing, and Improvising with Subtractive Electronic Synthesis, and Sound Pollution and Its Effects on Local Bird Ecology. In Audio Engineering: Ratios in Recording, students will use a method of measuring and experimentation to maximize the sound quality of a given recording environment. In Designing a Chromatic PVC Instrument, students will design a one octave chromatic instrument using mathematical calculations and representations to create initial expressive statements and explain the relationships among the frequency, wavelength, and speed of waves traveling in the PVC pipes. In Controlled Voltage: Composing, Performing, and Improvising with Subtractive Electronic Synthesis, students will interface with the subtractive architecture of electronic instruments, the concept of controlled voltage, and the function of an electronic sequencer. In Sound Pollution and Its Effects on Local Bird Ecology, students will learn about modern sound pollution and the effect it has on many different forms of ecology. Students will determine at the end of their own study whether or not there were any observed correlations between these datas captured, and if other data could be used to claim causation.

A History of the Spectrum

This chapter traces the history of spectral audio, from Ancient Greece to the 20th century. Looking first at the first studies of ratios and pitch and the establishment of the early musical scale systems, then through the development of musical instruments, the chapter discusses the most important achievements in musical acoustics that led to the modern concept of the spectrum. It discusses the ideas put forward by Classical Physics, which culminated in the work of Fourier. The seminal discoveries and ideas proposed by Helmholtz are covered in some detail and the chapter closes with an overview of acoustics and audio engineering in the 20th century, and the development of electronic and computer music.

Study of the Optimal Waveforms for Non-Destructive Spectral Analysis of Aqueous Solutions by Means of Audible Sound and Optimization Algorithms

Acoustic analysis of materials is a common non-destructive technique, but most efforts are focused on the ultrasonic range. In the audible range, such studies are generally devoted to audio engineering applications. Ultrasonic sound has evident advantages, but also severe limitations, like penetration depth and the use of coupling gels. We propose a biomimetic approach in the audible range to overcome some of these limitations. A total of 364 samples of water and fructose solutions with 28 concentrations between 0 g/L and 9 g/L have been analyzed inside an anechoic chamber using audible sound configurations. The spectral information from the scattered sound is used to identify and discriminate the concentration with the help of an improved grouping genetic algorithm that extracts a set of frequencies as a classifier. The fitness function of the optimization algorithm implements an extreme learning machine. The classifier obtained with this new technique is composed only by nine frequencies in the (3–15) kHz range. The results have been obtained over 20,000 independent random iterations, achieving an average classification accuracy of 98.65% for concentrations with a difference of ±0.01 g/L.

Generalization of auditory expertise in audio engineers and instrumental musicians

From auditory perception to general cognition, the ability to play a musical instrument has been associated with skills both related and unrelated to music. However, it is unclear if these effects are bound to the specific characteristics of musical instrument training, as little attention has been paid to other populations whose auditory expertise could match or surpass that of musicians in specific auditory tasks or more naturalistic acoustic scenarios. We explored this possibility by comparing conservatory-trained instrumentalists to students of audio engineering (along with naive controls) on measures of auditory discrimination, auditory scene analysis, and speech in noise perception. We found that both musicians and audio engineers had generally lower psychophysical thresholds than controls, with pitch perception showing the largest effect size. Musicians performed best in a sustained selective attention task with two competing streams of tones, while audio engineers could better memorise and recall auditory scenes composed of non-musical sounds, when compared to controls. Additionally, in a diotic speech-in-babble task, musicians showed lower signal-to-noise-ratio thresholds than both controls and engineers. We also observed differences in personality that might account for group-based self-selection biases. Overall, we showed that investigating a wider range of forms of auditory expertise can help us corroborate (or challenge) the specificity of the advantages previously associated with musical instrument training.

Family videography is a highly demanded genre of modern popular culture

The subject of this research is a new form of creativity emerging in the social environment – family videography. This is one of the first articles dedicating to this developing genre of popular culture. The author touches upon the general changes that take place in modern creative environment, the role and relevance of the new forms of culture. The modern period is characterized by transition of many exclusive creative knowledge into popular culture. The knowledge in the field of cinematography is of particular demand. Youth is fascinated with the art of cinematography, audio engineering, and film directing. There are new technologies that allow learning and working from any corner of the planet. What used to be just a dream becomes the reality of a new world. The article outlines the current trends in youth culture – seeking new forms and personal fulfillment in a new sphere. The new forms of culture emerge from the depths of professional creativity and affect the formation of moral, aesthetic, and social values of people. The question is raised whether these forms of culture can be considered art. The authors reflect on the topic art through the prism of new direction – family videography. The aesthetics of family cinematography has not become the subject of systemic research. The authors provide a scientific definition to family videography. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) the modern period is characterized by the transition of many professional creative knowledge into the sphere of popular culture; 2) multiple training events and schools of art are created on the online platforms; 3) new genres, among which is family videography, are created by amateurs in art environment. The scientific novelty lies in analysis of establishment of this new genre, and reflection on whether it can be attributed as art.

Gamelan Melayu Sound Preservation and Archiving through Recording Methods and Production Techniques

Sound or audio engineering is a branch of the field of engineering, which involves the process of recording sound and reproducing it by various means, as well as storing in order to be reproduced later. Known as sound or audio engineers, these trained professionals work in a variety of sound production fields and expert in recording methods. They can be instrumental to implement the affordable technologies and technical process to distribute the audio data hence, making it accessible for future generations. The current role of these engineers not only to perform or limited to recording session but they create metadata for archiving and preservation for future needs. Currently, product sleeves of ethnographic recordings represent no technical elements of how traditional music recordings are produced. The product details focus only to some extent on historical elements and musical notation. To an audio archivist, declaring what devices are in a recording is not linked with preservation data. Apart from the format, the sleeved design, technical specification is essential to other social scientists such as audio engineer and field recordist of the future. The aim of the present research is to capture optimum dynamic range of the sound and applying a signal processing that would not alter the tonality, timbre and harmonic of the sound. Further applying a suitable information storage for the metadata to be preserve or archived for future accessing and reproduction.