Topics and Notes Summary (last update 11/15/2014):

DATE Comment

Nov. 14 (Fri)

 Electrical systems and grounding considerations.

Handout
 

Nov. 12 (Wed)

Mid-term exam 2 in class this day.  Open book and notes:  bring a pencil and a calculator.

 

Nov. 10 (Mon)

 Exam review;  Complete description of loudspeaker essentials.

Nov. 7 (Fri)

 Transducers, cont.  Audio signals and electrical systems; principles of low-noise grounding and shielding

Note:  your one paragraph topic summary is due before 5PM via email to the instructor.
 

Nov. 5 (Wed)

Transducers:  microphones and loudspeakers

Basic microphone types; basics of loudspeakers and enclosures.

Transducer notes.

 

Nov. 3 (Mon)

 Finish architectural acoustics, then start acoustic transducers

Mid-term exam 2:  will be held in class on Wednesday Nov. 12

Assignment:  Quiz 5 is posted on D2L.  Covers environmental acoustics and architectural acoustics.  Due by class time on Monday, Nov. 10.

Oct. 31 (Fri)

 Architectural acoustics (cont.)
Absorption, reflection, diffusion.
Acoustical measurements and characterization.
Video about the Willson Auditorium project: "Now Hear This!"

Assigned:  course term paper project
Email one paragraph topic summary due 11/7/2014 by 5PM MST.
Final paper turned in via D2L upload on Wednesday, 12/3/2014 by 5PM MST.

For undergrad students in EELE 417:  assignment sheet
For grad students in EELE 517:  assignment sheet

Notes on "authoritative references"
 

Oct. 29 (Wed)

Architectural acoustics -- basic Sabine equation and rationale (Chapter 12).

Sabine reverberation time summary sheet.

Our Willson Auditorium tour has been RESCHEDULED for 4:00PM on Thursday, Ocober 30.  Meet at the Babcock side of Willson School, W. Babcock @ S. 4th Ave.  Wear CLOSED-TOE shoes and clothing suitable for a construction area.

 

Oct. 27 (Mon)

Environmental acoustics and sound isolation.

STC (sound transmission class) handout and structure examples.

Example figures from homework computer assignment.

 

Oct. 24 (Fri)

 Environmental acoustics (cont.) and overview of Architectural Acoustics

Special tour: POSTPONED  Willson Auditorium renovation, 3:00PM.  Meet at the Babcock side of the building (construction entrance, (W. Babcock Street at @ S. 4th). You MUST wear closed-toe shoes suitable for a construction area.  Please RSVP to rmaher@ece.montana.edu so I know how many to expect, and how many hardhats we need.
 

Oct. 22 (Wed)

Audio examples of loudness, masking, and frequency/amplitude nonlinearity.  Begin consieration of environmental Acoustics.

Assignment:  Read Chapter 12, architectural acoustics.

Oct. 20 (Mon)

 Hearing system:  ear physiology and psychology (cont.)

NOTE: that there will be a tour of the Willson Auditorium renovation project on Friday, October 24, at 3:00PM.

Assignment:  Read Chapter 13, primarily 359-365, 375-388.

Oct. 17 (Fri)

Meet in ECE Computer Lab:  625 Cobleigh

Work on computer assignment.  Due at the start of class on 10/22.

Note:  I have been receiving questions about how to determine the off-axis angle of the 1 cm driver as a function of the observation angle, theta.

One way is to think of it as a two vector problem.  Vector #1 is the axis of the 1 cm driver and remains fixed, while Vector #2 is the "r1" vector from the 1 cm driver down to the observation arc 2 meters from the lower driver.

Choose the origin (0,0,0) to be at the center of the 1 cm driver.  Then the axis vector Vector #1 can be represented as (2,0,0), and the Vector #2 is the poistion on the observation arc, represented by  ( 2*cos(theta), 2*sin(theta), -0.2 )  .

So you have two vectors as a function of theta, and need to find the angle between those vectors, which is the off-axis angle for the 1 cm driver. Recall that the vector cross product relates the vectors and the angle between them, gamma.   | V1  x  V2 | = |V1| |V2| sin(gamma)  .   See if you can use this viewpoint and the Cartesian cross product calculation to find the angle information you need.

Oct. 15 (Wed)

Physiology of the ear
Remember:  Quiz 4 is due by 8AM this day. 

Oct. 13 (Mon)

Plane circular piston:  radiation impedance

Hearing system:  frequency response of the ear

Oct. 10 (Fri)

No class this day -- instructor out of town.

Remember:  Quiz 4 is due by 8AM Wednesday 10/15. 

Oct. 8 (Wed)

Finish plane piston model; start physiology and psychology of human hearing (ch. 11). 

Oct. 6 (Mon)

Plane circular piston:  near field and far field (cont.)

Assignment:  Quiz 4 D2L, due by class time on Wednesday, Oct. 15.

Oct. 3 (Fri)

Plane circular piston model for a loudspeaker driver:  far field off-axis, and near field on-axis.

Assignment: Read chapter 11.  Prepare for quiz 4 (posted to D2L soon).

Oct. 1 (Wed)

Exam #1 in class.  Coverage through spherical waves and simple sources. Open book and notes.  Bring a pencil and a calculator.

Sept. 29 (Mon)

Exam review, and start plane circular piston analysis.

Example Exam (for study purposes)

NOTE:  D2L quiz 3 is due by class time today.

Sept. 26 (Fri)

No class this day -- instructor out of town.

Remember:  Quiz 3 is due by 8AM Monday 9/29, and Exam #1 will be held in class on Wednesday 10/1.  Exam #1 will cover material through the lecture on 9/24.  Exam is open book and open notes, and will require numerical calculations.  Bring a pencil and a CALCULATOR.

Sept. 24 (Wed)

Review and perform some basic acoustical calculations (test is coming up!)

"Simple source" model for sources with ka <<1.  Start consideration of plane circular piston model for loudspeaker driver.

Sept. 22 (Mon)

Spherical sound sources and acoustics of a small pulsating sphere model

Assignment: Complete quiz 3 (two attempts) before class time on Monday, Sept. 29 (8AM)

Sept. 19 (Fri)

Decibel and weighting functions;  Begin Chapter 7: radiation and reception of acoustic waves

Notes about decibel usage.

Solution outline for quiz 1 and quiz 2.

Note:  Exam #1 is planned for Wednesday, Oct. 1, in class.  More info to follow soon.

Assignment: practice problems 5.12.3, 5.12.12, and 5.13.2, from Kinsler and Frey.

Sept. 17 (Wed)

Waves, cont.  Sound Pressure Level (dB) and Intensity Level

NOTE: quiz 2 (D2L) is due before class time this day.

Sept. 15 (Mon)

Spherical waves, complex specific acoustic impedance

 

Sept. 12 (Fri)

Ch. 5 (cont.):  spherical waves

Quiz #2 (D2L) is posted.

Assignment: Complete quiz (two attempts) before class time on Wednesday, Sept. 17 (8AM)

Sept. 10 (Wed)

Ch. 5 (cont.): linear acoustic wave equation, plane waves, particle speed, and specific acoustic impedance.

Assignment: Practice problems 1.13.3 (note that a “t” is missing in the cos argument), 1.15.7, 5.2.4, and5.6.2 .

Sept. 8 (Mon)

The linear acoustic wave equation:  symbols and fundamentals

 

Sept. 5 (Fri)

Driven oscillators, resonance, electrical analogies.

Quiz #1 (D2L) must be submitted prior to the start of class (8AM)

Assignment: Read Chapter 5 of Kinsler and Frey.

Sept. 3 (Wed)

Damped oscillators.

Assignment: Read Chapter 1 of Kinsler and Frey.

Sept. 1 (Mon)

Labor Day (no class)

University Holiday.

Aug. 29 (Fri)

Continue basic units and acoustical quantities.  Review of simple oscillators.

Assignment: HW#1, three problems from the K&F text:  1.3.2, 1.3.3C, 1.6.1 .

Read and understand Chapter 1 of the K&F textbook, then work on the HW#1 problems. The problem solutions will NOT be collected.  These are simply practice problems for your own preparation.

There is a D2L quiz that will go active at 10AM on 8/29/2014.  Between now and class time on Friday, September 5, 2014, you have TWO attempts at the quiz.  Your Quiz 1 score will be the higher of your two attempts.  Each attempt is allowed one hour, although it should not take that long.

Aug. 27 (Wed)

Basic units and acoustical quantities.  Review of simple oscillators.

Assignment: Read Chapter 1 of Kinsler and Frey.

Aug. 25 (Mon)

First class meeting at 8:00AM in Roberts Hall 121.

Reminder of the Freshmen Convocation, 7:30PM, Field House.  All ECE students are welcome and encouraged to attend!

EELE 417 course introduction and some listening experiments.  Go over the syllabus and course expectations/goals/policies.