What is Reddit's opinion of Master Handbook of Acoustics, Sixth Edition?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Speaking from a similar background as /u/Hoaxtopia, This was my textbook in my Acoustics course; it's a good breakdown of what acoustics mean for music, how we interpret sound around us, how our environment shapes the sound around us, and what exactly all that soundproofing in recording studios does.

Dry as sand to read, but a handy resource that won't be out of date in 10 years nonetheless.

It’s a mixture of some who act out of insecurity, as a lot of people don’t understand how sound works, but don’t want to admit it, and others who think they’re the shit and everyone needs to know it, and lots of pedantic nerds that know enough to be dangerous and want to show off. They are usually nice, but not always. There is a lot that can happen when 100 random people get thrown together like a traveling carnival. Lots of different personalities, backgrounds, priorities, past experiences with other random characters...

The art and science of it can be a deep rabbit hole and there is a lot of subjective phrasing presented as objective facts. If you want to dive in, I recommend the Master Handbook of Acoustics by F. Alton Brown

Easier said than done. There's plenty of guides around the internet, but if you're wanting to know why and really get it right, check out F. Alton Everest's Master Handbook of Acoustics. It's such a great book I bought it again, not realizing I already owned it, lol.

You're welcome.

This will go over so much, and Is essentially a religious text in the world of sound as far as I'm concerned.

You seem to cover a number of different subjects - all of which are useful to delve into but are huge subjects in their own right.

Music theory, Harmony and Counterpoint obviously cover a lot of ground but there are also various fields of music analysis which go further.

Orchestration is also a more a traditional subject and is usually bounded by the orchestra and its instruments. Learning basic orchestration can be very helpful though even with electronic music. Orchestration Online run by Thomas Goss is a great resource for all things orchestration. Thomas has a very good bibliography on his site too.

Acoustics is another huge subject but psycho-acoustics is also worth looking into. A really good book on the subject is An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing by Brian Moore.

Sound design theory is a bit of a cross between acoustics and psychoacoustics. Andy Farnell's Designing Sound is a great introduction to sound design and especially procedural methods. Stefan Bilbao's Numerical Sound Synthesis is a fairly dense but thorough overview of sound synthesis techniques.

Gareth Loy's Musimathics covers a lot of ground with acoustics, psychoacoustics, sound design and composition. It might be generally closer to the kind of thing you are asking about.

Dennis Smalley wrote a paper called Spectromorphology - explaining Sound Shapes (warning pdf) Its an overview of a kind of taxonomy of sound. If you don't like terms like 'muddy' or 'brittle' or 'warm' then this paper gives you tools to be able to describe and analyse sound with more precision.

The Master Handbook of Acoustics is a solid choice.

You can apparently get the Fifth Edition for $10 used.

This is a good read on the subject https://www.amazon.de/-/en/F-Alton-Everest/dp/0071841040

I teach an evening adult acoustics class at a local college and use this text as an introduction:

Master Handbook of Acoustics, Sixth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071841040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_fabc_AX3Z21E6WZENQ4JWMABY

https://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Sixth-Everest/dp/0071841040

The first part of this one covers up what you're asking for without going too deep.

The approach is usually broken into two categories: transmission loss and reverberation.

Transmission Loss is a measure of how much sound (noise) is reduced through partitions (i.e. walls, doors, windows). Increasing the transmission loss of a partition is what most will consider as "blocking" sound.

Reverberation is a measure of the effect of reflections that occur when sound waves interact with walls, doors, windows, ceilings, walls. We can affect reverberation by adding sound absorption panels to a space. Reduction reverberation is what most will consider as "absorbing" sound.

You will need to study up on these concepts to understand why possible options/approaches will or will not be effective and what impact each option will have. https://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Sixth-Everest/dp/0071841040

Most noise occurs during movement between classes, so we're less concerned about that hindering studying.

Step 1: characterize all noise sources that occur during class activity (from inside the building and outside).

Step 2: characterize the pathway for each of those noise sources.

Step 3: identify possible solutions to mitigate each source-pathway combination with predictions on effect after treatment.

not trying to be snarky, but hire a pro. randomly, and blindly throwing acoustic treatments into an environment is a quick way to waste money.

treatments are not universal, and different treatments and approaches are used to deal with different issues.

what issues are you trying to deal with by using these "clouds"

what dose the architect, GC, acoustician and the HVAC/ mechanical contractor, and the electrical/ lighting contractor? Any of these parties will have something to say, as you need to know flow treatment will be supported by the building structure, not block HVAC ducting or airflow. not obstruct/ interfere with lighting, work esthetically within the space, meets code, dose not interfere with any installed sound/ pa coverage and then control/ adjust the sound of the room.

all that being said heres a decent enough book start with as far as reference material https://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Sixth-Everest/dp/0071841040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467930274&sr=1-1