Auditory CD

Ordering information:

Orders must be prepaid by check or money order in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank or by Mastercard, Visa, or American Express credit cards. Send orders to Acoustical Society of America, Publications, P.O. Box 1020, Sewickley, PA 15143-9998; Tel: 412-741-1979; Fax: 412-741-0609; Email (for inquiries): asapubs@abdintl.com

Postage and handling charges are:
U.S. orders - $6.00 for first title; $2.00 for each additional title; Non-U.S. orders - $10.00 for first title; $4.00 for each additional title

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Auditory Demonstrations on Compact Disc

A useful teaching adjunct for lectures or a course on hearing and auditory effects, and provides signals for teaching laboratories. Contains 39 sections demonstrating various characteristics of hearing. A text booklet is provided containing introductions and narrations of each topic and bibliographies for providing more detailed information. Issued in 1989.

Introduction

The following demonstrations are included:


Section I.  Frequency Analysis and Critical Bands  				20. Virtual Pitch                     
	1.  Cancelled Harmonics						21. Shift of Virtual Pitch
	2.  Critical Bands by Masking					22. Masking Spectral and Virtual Pitch
	3.  Critical Bands by Loudness Comparison				23. Virtual Pitch with Random Harmonics
Section II.  Sound Pressure, Power, Loudness					24. Strike Note of a Chime
	4.  The Decibel Scale						25. Analytic vs Synthetic Pitch
	5.  Filtered Noise				                   	C. Repetition Pitch
	6.  Frequency Response of the Ear					26. Scales with Repetition Pitch
	7.  Loudness Scaling					D. Pitch Paradox
	8.  Temporal Integration						27. Circularity in Pitch Judgment
Section III.  Masking						Section V. Timbre
	9.  Asymmetry of Masking by Pulsed Tones				28. Effect of Spectrum on Timbre
	10. Backward and Forward Masking					29. Effect of Tone Envelope on Timbre
	11. Pulsation Threshold						30. Change in Timbre with Transpostion
Section IV.  Pitch							31. Tones and Tuning with Stretched Partials
  A.  Pitch of Pure Tones					Section VI. Beats, Combination Tones, Distortion, Echoes
	12. Dependence of Pitch on Intensity				32. Primary and Secondary Beats
	13. Pitch Salience and Tone Duration				33. Distortion
	14. Influence of Masking Noise on Pitch				34. Aural Combination Tones
	15. Octave matching						35. Effects of Echoes
	16. Stretched and Compressed Scales			Section VII. Binaural Effects				
	17. Difference Limen or JND					36. Binaural Beats
	18. Linear and Logarithmic Tone Scales				37. Binaural Lateralization
	19. Pitch Streaming						38. Masking Level Differences
  B.  Pitch of Complex Tones						39. An Auditory Illusion

Price: ASA members $23; Nonmembers $31

INTRODUCTION

In 1978, a set of auditory demonstration tapes was released by the Laboratory of Psychophysics of Harvard University. These demonstrations had been prepared by a team led by Prof. David M. Green and were sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The tape set, which contained 20 recorded demonstrations on psychoacoustics plus an explanatory booklet, became so popular that all copies were quickly distributed and tape sets were no longer available.

In 1984, the Acoustical Society of America's Committee on Education in Acoustics requested T.D. Rossing and W.D. Ward to look into the feasibility of re-issuing the "Harvard tapes". A decision was made to update the demonstration material and to issue it on a high-quality sound reproduction medium. The Institute for Perception Research (IPO) in Eindhoven was engaged to produce the audio material. Both the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Philips Company, the joint sponsors of IPO, made manpower available for the project. Philips Polygram and Philips & Dupont Optical Co. (PDO) agreed to handle the digital tape mastering and the production of a Cornpact Disc. Northern Illinois University supported the project through a grant for improvement of undergraduate education. The Acoustical Society of Amerca agreed to provide further financial backing for the project.

Many people in the United States and Europe have contributed to the realization of this project. A preliminary scenario by T.D. Rossing was developed through frequent discussions with A.J.M. Houtsma and W.M. Wagenaars, who composed and synthesized the audio material with l6-bit digital techniques. Th. de Jong of IPO provided invaluable technical assistance. The narration by Prof. Ira J. Hirsh was recorded at the Central Institute for the Deaf in Saint Louis. Speech samples in Demonstrations 4 and 35 were provided by, respectively, J. 't Hart and Dr. Sanford Fidell. The instrumental scales of Demonstration 30 were played by bassoonist B. van den Brink of the Brabant' Orchestra. The text booklet ('libretto) was written by T.D. Rossing and A.J.M. Houtsma. A trial version of the demonstrations was field-tested and critically reviewed by D.E. Hall, W.M. Hartmann and W.D. Ward, which led to substantial improvements.

Special thanks go to the IPO director H. Bouma, to G. van Hoeyen of Philips Polygram, and to A. Rehnberg and G. J. A. Vogelaar of PDO for their enthusiastic administrative and technical support.

The 39 demonstrations on this compact disc have been put on separate tracks. Each demonstration can easily be found by cueing the CD player to the desired number. Demonstrations in Sections I through VI have been designed for typical classroom use. The demonstrations of Section VII must heard through headphones to obtain the desired effects.

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