Development of skills to work with digital sound in the school informatics course

The development of digital competencies of students is currently one of the main pedagogical tasks. The solution of this task is possible by paying attention to issues related to the skills of students to create their own digital content, for example, multimedia, combining various types of information (text, graphics, video and audio). The article provides a brief analysis of the content of teaching issues related to the study of digital sound processing technologies in a school informatics course. Taking into account the relevance of this issue, a thematic module "Digital Sound" is proposed, the content of which does not require binding to specific software. When studying the module, the emphasis is on mastering specific technologies for processing sound information. The module can be implemented as an optional course for students in 7–9th grades and/or as an elective course for students in 10–11th grades. At the same time, particular blocks of the module can be used at various stages of teaching informatics at school

Sound Recording As a Factor of Evolution of the Piano Performing Style in XX Century

Роль звукозаписи как источника и катализатора изменений, произошедших в фортепианном исполнительстве в XX веке, мало исследована в отечественном музыкознании. Цель автора — восполнить данный пробел, раскрыв влияние звукозаписи на развитие фортепианного искусства. В центре внимания — репертуарные предпочтения, возможности и подходы исполнителей; анализ производится в рамках предложенной периодизации звукозаписи (ранней, классической, цифровой). В эпоху ранней звукозаписи трансформация исполнительских средств связана с временны´ м аспектом. Период классической звукозаписи характеризуется стремлением к идеальному исполнению в студии звукозаписи, что обусловлено технологическими открытиями в области обработки звука, становлением типа пианиста-интерпретатора и возникновением типа исполнителя-постмодерниста. Идеалы качества эпохи цифровой записи привели к формированию высоких стандартов концертных исполнений, а развитие компьютерных технологий — к появлению новых исполнительских техник. В статье представлены основные стилевые тенденции, возникшие под влиянием звукозаписи, обозначены основные проблемы современного исполнительства. The role of the sound recording as a source and catalyst of changes that took place in the piano performance in the XX century is researched rather little in the native musicology. The aim of the author is to fill this gap by examining the influence of the sound recording on the piano performing style. In the spotlight there are performing techniques, repertoire preferences and interpretative approaches which are analyzed within the framework of the suggested periodization of the sound recording — early, classical, digital. In the days of early sound recording, transformation of performing techniques is connected with the temporal aspect. The period of classical sound recording is characterized by the desire of an ideal performance in the studio of sound recording, owing to technological discoveries in the area of sound processing, and emergence of such types of musicians as pianist-interpreter and postmodern performer. The ideals of quality of the era of digital recording led to formation of high standards in concert performance, and development of computer technologies created new performing techniques. The article presents the main stylistic trends which appeared under the influence of sound recording, and outlines the main problems of the contemporary performance.

Disrupting inferior frontal cortex activity alters affect decoding efficiency from clear but not from ambiguous affective speech

The evaluation of socio-affective sound information is accomplished by the primate neural auditory cortex in collaboration with limbic and inferior frontal brain nodes. For the latter, activity in inferior frontal cortex (IFC) is often observed during classification of voice sounds, especially if they carry affective information. Partly opposing views have been proposed, with IFC either coding cognitive processing challenges in case of sensory ambiguity or representing categorical object and affect information for clear vocalizations. Here, we presented clear and ambiguous affective speech to two groups of human participants during neuroimaging, while in one group we inhibited right IFC activity with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) prior to brain scanning. Inhibition of IFC activity led to partly faster affective decisions, more accurate choice probabilities and reduced auditory cortical activity for clear affective speech, while fronto-limbic connectivity increased for clear vocalizations. This indicates that IFC inhibition might lead to a more intuitive and efficient processing of affect information in voices. Contrarily, normal IFC activity might represent a more deliberate form of affective sound processing (i.e., enforcing cognitive analysis) that flags categorial sound decisions with precaution (i.e., representation of categorial uncertainty). This would point to an intermediate functional property of the IFC between previously assumed mechanisms.

Current Issues in the Treatment of Deep Sensoneural Hearing Loss and Deafness in Kyrgyzstan

This article presents the main issues of the relevance of the spread of severe hearing loss and deafness in Kyrgyzstan, leading to permanent disability of patients, especially children. Despite significant technological progress and constant improvement of digital sound processing for cochlear implantation and hearing aids, in Kyrgyzstan, for a number of reasons, there are significant difficulties for their widespread implementation due to the lack of necessary government programs and appropriate funding.

Between Computer Automation, Voltage Control and Literature: A portrait of Peter Zinovieff

The life and times of Peter Zinovieff (1933–2021) have been amply commented upon and there are numerous testimonies of his role on developing electronic music as well as his strong impact on musicians throughout the 1970s. However, besides his important role in developing synthesisers, sound processing and various other devices, he is now recognised as a significant pioneer in music with computers. His collaboration with Harrison Birtwistle’s opera The Mask of Orpheus has been deemed an important contribution to contemporary music in Great Britain. Finally, his late return to composition and performance shows his lifelong attachment to innovation and experimentation in music.

Neural Processing of Spectral and Durational Changes in Speech and Non-speech Stimuli: An MMN Study With Czech Adults

Neural discrimination of auditory contrasts is usually studied via the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potentials (ERPs). In the processing of speech contrasts, the magnitude of MMN is determined by both the acoustic as well as the phonological distance between stimuli. Also, the MMN can be modulated by the order in which the stimuli are presented, thus indexing perceptual asymmetries in speech sound processing. Here we assessed the MMN elicited by two types of phonological contrasts, namely vowel quality and vowel length, assuming that both will elicit a comparably strong MMN as both are phonemic in the listeners’ native language (Czech) and perceptually salient. Furthermore, we tested whether these phonemic contrasts are processed asymmetrically, and whether the asymmetries are acoustically or linguistically conditioned. The MMN elicited by the spectral change between /a/ and /ε/ was comparable to the MMN elicited by the durational change between /ε/ and /ε:/, suggesting that both types of contrasts are perceptually important for Czech listeners. The spectral change in vowels yielded an asymmetrical pattern manifested by a larger MMN response to the change from /ε/ to /a/ than from /a/ to /ε/. The lack of such an asymmetry in the MMN to the same spectral change in comparable non-speech stimuli spoke against an acoustically-based explanation, indicating that it may instead have been the phonological properties of the vowels that triggered the asymmetry. The potential phonological origins of the asymmetry are discussed within the featurally underspecified lexicon (FUL) framework, and conclusions are drawn about the perceptual relevance of the place and height features for the Czech /ε/-/a/ contrast.

Creating Clarity in Noisy Environments by Using Deep Learning in Hearing Aids

Hearing aids continue to acquire increasingly sophisticated sound-processing features beyond basic amplification. On the one hand, these have the potential to add user benefit and allow for personalization. On the other hand, if such features are to benefit according to their potential, they require clinicians to be acquainted with both the underlying technologies and the specific fitting handles made available by the individual hearing aid manufacturers. Ensuring benefit from hearing aids in typical daily listening environments requires that the hearing aids handle sounds that interfere with communication, generically referred to as “noise.” With this aim, considerable efforts from both academia and industry have led to increasingly advanced algorithms that handle noise, typically using the principles of directional processing and postfiltering. This article provides an overview of the techniques used for noise reduction in modern hearing aids. First, classical techniques are covered as they are used in modern hearing aids. The discussion then shifts to how deep learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence, provides a radically different way of solving the noise problem. Finally, the results of several experiments are used to showcase the benefits of recent algorithmic advances in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, speech intelligibility, selective attention, and listening effort.

Rhythm, reading, and sound processing in the brain in preschool children

A child’s success in school relies on their ability to quickly grasp language and reading skills, the foundations of which are acquired even before entering a formal classroom setting. Previous studies in preschoolers have begun to establish relationships linking beat synchronization, preliteracy skills, and auditory processing. Beat synchronization involves the integration of sensorimotor systems with auditory and cognitive circuits and, therefore calls on many of the same neural networks as language. Using a drumming task, we analyzed the relationship between children’s ability to maintain an isochronous beat with preliteracy skills and frequency following responses (FFRs) in over 150 preschoolers. We show that preschoolers who performed well on the beat synchronization task outscored their peers on all preliteracy measures and had more robust FFRs. Furthermore, the good synchronizers experienced less degradation of certain FFR measures when listening in noise. Together, our results are consistent with the view that rhythm, preliteracy, and auditory processing are interconnected during early childhood.