Pickups can be seen as the “heart” of the electric guitar, turning vibrations from the strings into electricity for sound. The details of how the pickup coil is wound has a significant impact on the resulting sound of the instrument, and variables such as the type and thickness of the wire, the winding pattern, the shape and size of the pickup, and even the type of magnets used can all influence the guitar’s sound.
Tag: Acoustic
Treadmill for microswimmers allows closer look at behavior
A new acoustic microfluidic method offers opportunities to conduct experiments with swimming cells and microorganisms. With it, ultrasonic waves like those used for imaging are able to hold a cell’s body in place without affecting the way it swims.
Vocal Tract Size, Shape Dictate Speech Sounds
In JASA, researchers explore how anatomical variations in a speaker’s vocal tract affect speech production. Using MRI, the team recorded the shape of the vocal tract for 41 speakers as the subjects produced a series of representative speech sounds. They averaged these shapes to establish a sound-independent model of the vocal tract. Then they used statistical analysis to extract the main variations between speakers. A handful of factors explained nearly 90% of the differences between speakers.
On Mars, NASA’s Perseverance Rover’s Playlist Like No Other #ASA182
After more than a year of recording on the surface, the team reduced the data to a Martian playlist that features about five hours of sounds.
Snap, Crackle, Pop: Healthy Coral Reefs Brimming with Noise #ASA182
Altogether, the hundreds of thousands of animals living in the reef sound like static on the radio, or the snap, crackle, and pop of a bowl of Rice Krispies as you pour milk on the cereal, when the coral reef is healthy. The sound changes for reefs that are not healthy, becoming quieter and less diverse.
Explosions Help Probe Elusive Atmospheric Waves #ASA182
Infrasound waves can probe some of the most complex weather patterns hidden to normal observations, but finding a powerful enough source of infrasound waves can be a challenge unless there is a munitions factory nearby.
Diverse Social Networks Reduce Accent Judgments #ASA182
Everyone has an accent. But the intelligibility of speech doesn’t just depend on that accent; it also depends on the listener. Visual cues and the diversity of the listener’s social network can impact their ability to understand and transcribe sentences after listening to the spoken word.
Story tips: Fueling up on savings, COVID’s behavior effect, cosmic collisions, seismic and sound, and space-to-ground comms
ORNL story tips: Fueling up on savings, COVID’s behavior effect, cosmic collisions, seismic and sound, and space-to-ground comms