DISCORD: the Story of Noise
- Discord: the Story of Noise (Oxford University Press, 2012)
- As Thomas Carlyle said in 1824,
“You are packed into paltry shells of brick-houses; every door that slams to in the street is audible in your most secret chamber . . . and when you issue from your door, you are assailed by vast shoals of quacks, and showmen, and street sweepers, and pick-pockets, and mendicants of every degree and shape, all plying in noise or silent craft their several vocations.”
Noise is a widely recognized problem and health concern in the modern world. Given the importance of managing noise levels and developing suitable 'soundscapes' in contexts such as industry, schools, or public spaces, this is an area of active research for acousticians. But noise, in the sense of dissonance, can also be used positively; composers have employed it from Baroque music to Rock feedback; medicine harnesses it to shatter kidney stones and treat cancer; and even the military uses it in (real and rumoured) weapons. This book looks back at the long history of the battle between people and noise - a battle that has changed our lives and moulded our societies. It investigates how increasing noise levels relate to human progress, from the clatter of wheels on cobbles to the sound of heavy machinery; it explains how our scientific understanding of sound and hearing has developed; and it looks at noise in nature, including the remarkable ways in which some animals, such as shrimps, use noise as a weapon or to catch prey. The book concludes by turning to the future, discussing the noise sources which are likely to dominate it and the ways in which new science and new ideas may change the way our future will sound.
_
Page 99
Ford Madox Ford said "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you", and arch-blogger Marshal Zeringue asked me to write something on the subject. This is the result.
One of the things I love about the subject of noise.... no, really, there is lots to love... is that it is full of mysteries, from the sources of strange undersea sounds to the mechanism by which some meteors can be heard long before sound waves have time to get from them to the hearer. And page 99 is about one of these: the Railway Bonus. The Bonus is a mark of the strange affection that humans have for the sounds of trains: many experiments and surveys over many decades have established that listeners are significantly less annoyed by railway noise than they are by that made by other traffic. So well-accepted is this that planners knock 5 or even 10 dB off their noise predictions if the noise source is a railway train.
In writing this book I learned many things, and one of them is the antonym for bonus: "malus". And the reason I learned it is that the Railway Bonus has a sinister relative: the Aircraft Malus. If the Bonus is a blessing for railways companies, the Malus is a curse for aerospace agencies, and it means that people are as annoyed by an aircraft flying over as they are by a car driving past whose sound output is objectively about 5 dB more intense.
For some time, the supposed explanation for this referred to the "flying over" element. Of course, experts said, a large object thundering by above your head is bound to generate at least a fleeting fear that it might stop flying and start falling. Or maybe not, they added in 2005, when experiments showed that aircraft noise from above is LESS annoying that aircraft noise from other directions.
Mysteries. There to make life interesting.
One of the things I love about the subject of noise.... no, really, there is lots to love... is that it is full of mysteries, from the sources of strange undersea sounds to the mechanism by which some meteors can be heard long before sound waves have time to get from them to the hearer. And page 99 is about one of these: the Railway Bonus. The Bonus is a mark of the strange affection that humans have for the sounds of trains: many experiments and surveys over many decades have established that listeners are significantly less annoyed by railway noise than they are by that made by other traffic. So well-accepted is this that planners knock 5 or even 10 dB off their noise predictions if the noise source is a railway train.
In writing this book I learned many things, and one of them is the antonym for bonus: "malus". And the reason I learned it is that the Railway Bonus has a sinister relative: the Aircraft Malus. If the Bonus is a blessing for railways companies, the Malus is a curse for aerospace agencies, and it means that people are as annoyed by an aircraft flying over as they are by a car driving past whose sound output is objectively about 5 dB more intense.
For some time, the supposed explanation for this referred to the "flying over" element. Of course, experts said, a large object thundering by above your head is bound to generate at least a fleeting fear that it might stop flying and start falling. Or maybe not, they added in 2005, when experiments showed that aircraft noise from above is LESS annoying that aircraft noise from other directions.
Mysteries. There to make life interesting.
Reviews
Lancet
lancet_review_of_goldsmith.pdf | |
File Size: | 77 kb |
File Type: |
New Scientist
BBC Focus Magazine
discord.pdf | |
File Size: | 148 kb |
File Type: |
Current research interests
History of acoustics
Soundscapes
Sound quality parameters
Automated noise mapping
Noise abatement
Soundscapes
Sound quality parameters
Automated noise mapping
Noise abatement
Areas of research and publications
MEMS-based microphones for noise mapping and monitoring
“Performance of a MEMS-based measurement microphone”, NPL Report AIR (RES) 003, Richard Barham, Firas Farhan, Mike Goldsmith, Richard Lord, December 2007
“A MEMS-based system for environmental measurement, monitoring and mapping”, Mike Goldsmith & Richard Barham, Proceedings of Symposium: European Strategies for Noise Reduction and Management in the Cities, March 2009
“Development and performance of a multi-point distributed environmental noise measurement system using MEMS microphones”, Richard Barham, Mike Goldsmith, Dan Simmons, Martin Chan, Lee Trowsdale, Simon Bull, Richard Tyler, Proceedings of Conference: EURONOISE 2009, October 2009
“A MEMS-based system for environmental measurement, monitoring and mapping”, Mike Goldsmith & Richard Barham, Proceedings of Symposium: European Strategies for Noise Reduction and Management in the Cities, March 2009
“Development and performance of a multi-point distributed environmental noise measurement system using MEMS microphones”, Richard Barham, Mike Goldsmith, Dan Simmons, Martin Chan, Lee Trowsdale, Simon Bull, Richard Tyler, Proceedings of Conference: EURONOISE 2009, October 2009
Machinery noise
“Comparison of different measurement instruments for the study of complex industrial noise fields”, Mike Goldsmith, Tony Shepperson, John Shelton, Dan Simmons, Pete Theobald, Graham Beamiss, Institute of Acoustics Bulletin, December 2008
Underwater acoustics
“A new equation for the accurate calculation of sound speed in all oceans", Claude Leroy, Stephen Robinson, Mike Goldsmith, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Volume 124 part 5, pp 2774-2782, November 2008
Automated speech recognition
"Final Report of Alvey Man-Machine Interface Project MMI/132: Speech Technology Assessment", MJ Goldsmith & HC Fuller; National Physical Laboratory External Report RSA(EXT)26; November 1991.
Environmental effects on speech signals
"Effect of Whole‑Body Vibration on Speech"; MJ Goldsmith & MR Taylor; in Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics; 12; 1990.
"Stability of Voice Frequency Measures in Speech"; WJ Barry, MJ Goldsmith, AJ Fourcin & HC Fuller; in Proceedings of 12th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences; Aix en Provence, 1991.
"Stability of Voice Frequency Measures in Speech"; WJ Barry, MJ Goldsmith, AJ Fourcin & HC Fuller; in Proceedings of 12th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences; Aix en Provence, 1991.
Laryngeal measures of speech
"Larynx Analyses of Normative Reference Data"; WJ Barry, MJ Goldsmith, AJ Fourcin & HC Fuller; Alvey Speech Technology Assessment Project Report; June 1990.
"Stability of Laryngeal Measures in Speech"; WJ Barry, MJ Goldsmith, AJ Fourcin & HC Fuller; Alvey Speech Technology Assessment Project Report; August 1990.
"Stability of Laryngeal Measures in Speech"; WJ Barry, MJ Goldsmith, AJ Fourcin & HC Fuller; Alvey Speech Technology Assessment Project Report; August 1990.
Speech databases
"Speech Databases for UK Speech Technology Research: A Survey of Resources and Future Needs"; MJ Goldsmith; National Physical Laboratory External Report RSA(EXT)010; 1989.
"A Database of Normative Speech Recordings"; HC Fuller, AJ Fourcin, MJ Goldsmith & M Keene; Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics; 12; 1990.
"A Database of Normative Speech Recordings"; HC Fuller, AJ Fourcin, MJ Goldsmith & M Keene; Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics; 12; 1990.