Page 58 - Summer 2015

Book Review
Who should read this book? Students, researchers, and prac- titioners who want to learn the state-of-the art on small- room acoustics will find this book an interesting, useful ref- erence. I will recommend to my new graduate students that they start their reading here, but warn them that they will then need to go further and deeper.
[J.H. reviewed this book from the perspective of a recent me- chanical-engineering graduate with experience in the study, research, and practice of building acoustics, who is very inter- ested in music, who has studied acoustics at a graduate level and is currently taking on small-scale consulting projects, as well as working to design and commercialize a line of acous- tical products. As such, he was most interested in extracting practical information from this book.]
The content of this book is similar to many graduate-level room-acoustics texts, except for the intentional exclusion of phenomena pertaining to large rooms, such as concert halls and lecture auditoria. The examples and practical content are largely focused on rooms for sound reproduction and rooms for music; both authors note they are fans of music. Information specific to industrial and office acoustics is not included.
Although the authors acknowledge that “the construction of satisfactory listening rooms is very demanding and requires an extensive knowledge of their building construction,” this book only provides generalized practical considerations and is missing information on construction detailing and pre- scriptive design processes. The theory is well-covered, how- ever, most of the physics and math content was not relevant to my current interests.
For me, the book could have served a better purpose by delving into more detail, providing design guidelines, and forgoing long sections on the basics of room acoustics. The content in chapters on absorption, diffusion, modeling, and rooms for sound reproduction fell flat, as I have read books with more detailed and exhaustive coverage on these topics. However, I did find the chapter on “Small rooms for voice and music practice” particularly interesting, as I recently de- signed and built a 230 m3 rehearsal studio.
The premise for this book is intriguing, but it did not meet my expectations for the amount of new information or for insight specific to small rooms. It is a useful book to have for reference on a number of topics, but it may be overshadowed by greater texts in an acoustics library.
[L.S. reviewed Chapter 7: Psychoacoustics of this book- from the perspective of a recent doctoral graduate in Envi- ronmental Psychology, pursuing research involving room and psychoacoustics, and who had to quickly get up-to-speed on these topics.]
The chapter aims to provide an overview of the key issues in psychoacoustics. From my perspective, it overemphasizes technical aspects of the physical aspects of sound and under- emphasizes the relevant psychological processes.
What is missing? Beyond this discussion of the perceptual aspects of sound, I would expect that this chapter (or anoth- er chapter in this book) might discuss other psychological aspects of sound in small rooms. For example, many stud- ies have investigated the effects of sound on office workers’ performance, finding variations according to the complexity of the task, demographic factors such as age, and character- istics of the sound, such as novelty. Another large body of research has examined the effects of sound on academic per- formance in children and teachers. Other than performance, sound in small rooms is linked to a number of psychological outcomes, including well-being, social behavior, and health outcomes. While such work may be of relevance to readers from other disciplines (e.g., psychology), perhaps it is be- yond the scope of the current book.
The reader requires knowledge of various acoustical terms and methods to fully follow the chapter. While this may be achieved by reading earlier chapters, this requisite knowl- edge reduces the accessibility of the chapter for interdisci- plinary readers.
Some of the sections are lacking psychological explanations. The section on meaning alludes to the fact that sound has meaning, but says little about the way that the meaning of sound is constructed (with the exception of modulation). Sound acquires meaning in other ways too, such as through classical and operant conditioning, statistical learning and language, and cultural and evolutionary processes. The sec- tion on types of signals discusses three types: aperiodic, pe- riodic, and quasi-periodic; I did not see how each is clearly linked to perception, except for some anecdotal examples. The section on source center is a brief description of the source centers of various sounds; a more explicit discussion of how this relates to perceptual outcomes would be helpful.
Some of the terms and explanations may be confusing for the psychological reader. For example, in the section on per-
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