This thesis is a report of acoustical research on the concert harp. The harp has an established place in the symphony orchestra and is reacquiring its role as a solo chamber instrument that it had before the development of the modern piano. As far as can be determined, this is the first doctoral thesis on the concert harp and serves as an introduction to the science of the instrument, The experimental methods employed- holographic interferonietry, input admittance measurements, Chiadni glitter pattern methods, sound pressure level measurements- have all been successfully used with work on other musical instruments. Theoretical calculations are used to underpin the experimental results for several of the subjects reported. The experimental results are also compared with the results of similar tests on different musical instruments. Analyses of the violin, guitar and piano are particularly used in discussions. This work is specifically on the "Orchestra" concert harp, manufactured and sold by the Salvi Harp organisation, though reference Is made in Chapter 3 to the "Electra" concert harp, which is also a Salvi harp. The "Orchestra" harp has a similar design to many other concert harps built by different luthiers around the world. This thesis is structured as follows. The first chapter is a review of historical and contemporary research an stringed musical instruments. The next chapter is a detailed description of the Salvi "Orchestra" harps the dimensions of all the inportant features are given, the tensions and materials of the strings are reported and there is also a short description on the playing of the instrument. The next five chapters form the kernal of the research report and deal with the vibrations of the constituent part of the "Orchestra" and finally the completed, strung harp itself. In Chapter 3, the vibrations of the free soundboard are reported in some detail. Analysis is made at a number of stages of the construction of the soundboard itself. The position of the neutral axis on the soundboard is also given. There is also reference to the soundboard of the Salvi "Electra" harp. Chapter 4 deals with the air resonances in the enclosed air volume of the "Orchestra" soundbox. Both a Helmholtzian air mode and higher order air modes are discussed. Theoretical models are used for both forms of air modes, Chapter 5 is a report of the vibrational modes of the "Orchestra" soundbox using both Chladni glitter patterns and holographic interferonietry. The results of Chapter 5 are confirmed and expanded by the work in Chapter 6, where input admittance measurements are made on the soundbox.Chapter 7 investigates the vibrational modes of the soundbox, both in the isolated state and as part of a completed, strung harp. This is followed by a chapter on the directivity of the "Orchestra" harp in which the principal areas of radiation from the harp are reported. The next chapter deals with attempts to relate objective measurements with subjective opinions of six concert harps. The last chapter summarises the principal results of the various analyses reported in this thesis. Suggestions for further research on the harp are made. There are also suggestions for the improvement of the Salvi "Orchestra" harp. There are three appendices at the end of this work. The first deals with the testing of spruce samples intended for the soundboards of the harps. The effect of the veneer is also discussed. The second appendix deals with the production and physical properties of gut harp strings. The third appendix describes the changes to the resonant modes of an isolated soundbox produced by changing the shape of the straining and cover bars of the soundboard.

With the recent emergence of new release formats capable of delivering discrete multichannel surround-sound, there is a need to research unique recording methods to take advantage of the enhanced spatiality compared to conventional 2-channel stereophonic systems. This dissertation proposes a new microphone technique that incorporates head-related spatial cues through use of binaural artificial-head microphone signals sent to the surround channels. Combining this with 3 spaced directional microphones for the front channels shows promising results towards reproducing a 3-dimensional sound field. This dissertation describes a complete investigation of the proposed recording technique including an analysis of the basic concept, performance and suggested applications.

The health, safety, comfort and productivity of a room’s occupants is greatly influenced by the sound field within it. An acoustical engineer is often consulted during the design of a room to prevent or alleviate unwanted acoustical problems. Prediction models are often used to find the most cost-effective solution to a given acoustical problem. The accuracy of sound-field prediction varies with the particular model, as do the parameters predicted. Most models only predict sound-pressure levels. Many only predict energetic quantities, ignoring wave phase and, therefore, interference and modal effects in rooms. A ray-tracing model, capable of predicting sound-pressure level, reverberation time and lateral energy fraction was translated into MATLAB code and modified to increase accuracy by including phase. Modifications included phase effects due to path length travelled and phase changes imparted by surface reflections as described by complex reflection coefficients. Further modifications included predicting steady-state and transient sound-intensity levels, providing information on the direction of sound-energy flow. The modifications were validated in comparison with free-field theory and theoretical predictions of sound fields in the presence of a single surface. The complex reflection coefficients of four common building materials were measured using two methods—an impedance tube and the spherical-decoupling method. Using these coefficients, the modified program was compared with experimental data measured in configurations involving one or more surfaces made of these materials, in an anechoic chamber, a scale-model room, and a full-scale office space. Prediction accuracy in the anechoic chamber, and in the presence of a single reflecting surface, greatly improved with the inclusion of phase. Further comparison with full-scale rooms is required before the accuracy of the model in such rooms can be evaluated definitively.

Globally, the ever increasing consumer interest in multichannel audio is a major factor driving the research intent in soundfield reconstruction and compression. The popularity of the well commercialized 5.1 surround sound system and its 6-Channel audio has been strongly supported by the advent of powerful storage medium, DVD, as well as the use of efficient telecommunication techniques. However, this popularity has also revealed potential problems in the development of soundfield systems. Firstly, currently available soundfield systems have rather poor compatibility with irregular speaker arrangements. Secondly, bandwidth requirement is dramatically increased for multichannel audio representation with good temporal and spatial fidelity. This master???s thesis addresses these two major issues in soundfield systems. It introduces a new approach to analyze and sysnthesize soundfield, and compares this approach with currently popular systems. To facilitate this comparison, the behavior of soundfield has been reviewed from both physical and psychoacoustic perspectives, along with an extensive study of past and present soundfield systems and multichannel audio compression algorithms. The 1th order High Spatial Resolution (HSR) soundfield recording and reproduction has been implemented in this project, and subjectively evaluated using a series of MUSHRA tests to finalize the comparison.

Thesis (M.Eng.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 84-89.

Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert C. Maher. Appears on title page as Darrin Kiysohi Reed (sic). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-71).

Thesis (M.S. in Engineering Acoustics)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Coppens, Alan B. ; Sanders, James V. "December 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on March 31, 2010. DTIC Identifier(s): Sound Pressure, Sound Transmission, Transmission Loss, Parabolic Equation Models, Computerized Simulation, Underwater Acoustics, Acoustic Velocity, Ocean Bottom, Ocean Models, Theses. Author(s) subject terms: Image Method, Parabolic Equation Model, Wedge-shaped Ocean. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Jeff Crowson. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38). Also available online.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of North Texas, 2006. / System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Accompanied by 4 recitals, recorded Apr. 10, 1997, July 17, 1997, Mar, 3, 1998, and Nov. 14, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-41).

My interest in sound-centric filmmaking and the literary genre of magical realism fostered the development of my thesis film, The Oxide Incident. The film is the story of Simon, a recent divorcee and sound archivist, who discovers a mysterious reel-to-reel-audio tape that he believes may help him heal his damaged relationship with Hannah, his teenage daughter. This paper examines the influence of magical realism on the film, some of its thematic, theoretical, and conceptual ideas such as its exploration of interpersonal communication and its implications in regard to gender, as well as some of its formal strategies. It concludes with a reflection on the process, a historical note, and a glimpse at my future trajectory as a filmmaker.