The traditional Chinese structure of the interlocked timber-arched covered bridge serves multiple purposes within Chinese culture—both as a physical connection between communities, but also as a function space for various rituals and performances. Because of these structures multiple uses, the acoustics are different from other bridges or event spaces. In this episode, we talk with Dongxu Zhang (Guangzhou University) and Jian Kang (University College London) about their work to better understand the unique acoustics of these structures.

Associated paper:
- Dongxu Zhang, Guanyu Ren, Fei Cheng, Dong Xiao, Mei Zhang, and Jian Kang. "Sound field characteristics and influencing factors of traditional Chinese interlocked timber-arched covered bridges." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 158, 1156-1176 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0038959

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Longitudinal studies of how an individual's accent changes over the course of their life are hard to come by. Fortunately, Taylor Swift's decade-plus career-- and the numerous interviews she's given over those years-- has opened a window into our understanding of how and why dialect changes may occur on an individual level. We talk to Miski Mohamed and Matthew Winn (University of Minnesota) about their work analyzing the shifts in Taylor Swift's speech over the years.

Associated paper:
- Miski Mohamed and Matthew B. Winn. "Acoustic analysis of Taylor Swift's dialect changes across different eras of her career." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 158, 2278–2289 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0039052

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

In an effort to develop renewable energy, scientists have turned to the sun, the wind, and now the ocean. With these new forms of energy harvesting, considerations need to be made about how the new technologies will impact the surrounding environments. In this episode, we talk with Joseph Haxel (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), Christopher Bassett (University of Washington), Brian Polagye (University of Washington), and Kaus Raghukumar (Integral Consulting) about their research related to the noise produced by marine energy converters.

Read the associated article: Joseph Haxel, Christopher Bassett, Brian Polagye, Kaustubha Raghukumar, and Cailene Gunn. (2023) “Listening to the Beat of New Ocean Technologies for Harvesting Marine Energy,” Acoustics Today 19(4). https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2023.19.4.23.

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Intro/Outro Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

A lot has changed in the twelve years since JASA's first special issue on soundscape research. This episode, we talk to the editors of the recent special issue on  Advances in Soundscape: Emerging Trends and Challenges in Research and Practice, Francesco Aletta (University College London), Cynthia Tarlao (McGill University), Tin Oberman (University College London), and Andrew Mitchell (University College London), to discuss these changes, which range from developments in understanding indoor soundscapes, cultural dimensions of soundscape assessment, perceptual assessment tools, and the use of virtual technologies. 

Read all the articles from the special issue here!

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Ultrasonic tomography has been applied in many fields, from geophysics to engineering, and now to medicine. In this episode, we talk with Aaron Chung-Jukko and Peter Huthwaite (Imperial College London) about their work to develop an ultrasonic tomography algorithm that can be used to assess fracture risk in bones, and, as a result, be used as a noninvasive way to diagnose osteoporosis.

Associated paper:
- Aaron Chung-Jukko and Peter Huthwaite. "Virtual initialised ray tomography: Towards contact-free realistic ultrasonic bone imaging." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 158, 276-290 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0036902

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

For a long time, it was believed that words were mostly arbitrary symbols. However, with advances in our ability to study speech, it has become clear that we must reconsider the fundamental relationship between words' sounds and their meanings. In this episode, we talk to two of the editors of the Special Issue on Iconicity and Sound Symbolism, Aleksandra Ćwiek and Susanne Fuchs (Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics), about research in the issue that examined these connections. 

Read all the articles from the special issue here!

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Recreating the natural hearing experience has long challenged researchers who study auditory perception. Recently, ambisonic panning has been developed as a method to accurately reproduce soundscapes. In this episode, we talk with Nima Zargarnezhad and Ingrid Johnsrude (Western University) about their research testing the accuracy of the "AudioDome," a device that using ambisonic panning to simulate soundscapes in the lab.

Associated paper:
- Nima Zargarnezhad, Bruno Mesquita, Ewan A Macpherson. and Ingrid Johnsrude. "Focality of sound source placement by higher (ninth) order ambisonics and perceptual effects of spectral reproduction errors." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 157, 2802–2818 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0036226.

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Much of the research into the historical acoustics of worship spaces has focused on Christian churches or Islamic mosques. However, little is known about the acoustic history of Hindu worship spaces, despite Hinduism being the third largest religion in the world. Shashank Aswathanarayana and Braxton Boren (American University) share their efforts to fill this knowledge gap by studying the acoustics in Hindu temples from the 8th and 15th centuries. 

Associated paper: Shashank Aswathanarayana and Braxton Boren. "Acoustic analysis of two Hindu temples in Southern India." JASA Express Letters  5, 031601 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0036033.

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 Music: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

This episode showcases the latest winners of the POMA Student Paper Competition: First, Jonathan Michael Broyles (University of Colorado, Boulder) discusses his database to help acoustical consultants design more environmentally friendly spaces. Next, John Latta (University of Nebraska - Lincoln) shares his work regarding spatial impulse response measurements. Finally, Michelle Ruth Crouse (California State University, Dominguez Hills) talks about the acoustic spectrometer she created using off-the-shelf parts. 

Associated papers:

Jonathan Michael Broyles and Wil Srubar, III. "A comprehensive dataset of environmental emissions, health, and manufacturing information of building acoustic products in North America." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 55, 015002 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001997.

John S. Latta and Lauren M. Ronsse. "An analysis of spatial impulse response measurements and their ability to validate spatial features within acoustic models." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 55, 015001 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0002004.

Michelle R. Crouse, Małgorzata Musial, Jason A. Widegren, Jacob Pawlik, Bryan Bosworth, Nathan Orloff, Aaron Hagerstrom, Angela C. Stelson, and Robert Lirette. "A low-cost ultrasonic absorption spectrometer mainly using off-the-shelf parts."Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 55, 030002 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0002003.

Learn more about entering the POMA Student Paper Competition for the Spring 2025 meeting in New Orleans.

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications.

Large venues like amphitheaters and stadiums are used across the world for a variety of purposes, hosting everything from sporting events to concerts to large social gatherings and other events. The massive size of the spaces, alongside their multifaceted uses, however, mean their acoustic needs are quite different from those of smaller rooms or even concert halls. This episode, Gary W. Siebein (Siebein Associates, Inc.), Keely Siebein (Siebein Associates, Inc.), Jack Wrightson (Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon, & Williams, Inc.), and Joe Solway (Arup) discuss the unique considerations for designing these structures. 

Read the associated article: Gary W. Siebein, Keely Siebein, Jack Wrightson, Joe Solway, and Raj Patel. (2024) “Large-Venue Acoustics- Arenas, Stadiums, and Amphitheaters,” Acoustics Today 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2024.20.1.55.

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Intro/Outro Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

In this episode, we explore things that go boom: from volcanic eruptions to underwater ordinances to the (relatively) tiny explosions of gunshots. Thomas Blanford (University of New Hampshire) joins us as a cohost as we discuss the use of high-amplitude acoustic sources in research with three members of a special session on the topic from the Ottawa ASA meeting: Steve Beck (Beck Audio Forensics), Daniel Bowman (Pacific Northwest National Laboratories), and Andrew McNeese (University of Texas at Austin). 

Associated paper: Thomas E. Branford. "Summary of “Things that go boom: High amplitude acoustic sources." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 54, 002002 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001991.

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

The phenomenon of acoustic scattering, when a sound wave bounces off a surface and is redirected in different directions because of the surface texture, has been recognized since ancient Greece. Accounting for acoustic scattering when designing a built space, however, can be tricky. In this episode, we speak with Michael Vorländer (RWTH Aachen University) about his work to develop a general guideline for estimating the effects of acoustic scattering from a given surface.

Associated paper: Michael Vorlaender and Stefan Feistel. "Show your scattering coefficients." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 50, 015003 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001816.

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Human-made noise from shipping is an ongoing problem for aquatic life. However, actually implementing measures to reduce noise can be costly and time consuming-- a risk many ship makers don't want to take without knowing how effective those methods will be. In this episode, we talk with Vanessa M. ZoBell (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) about her research that simulates the impacts of various strategies, with hopes for finding the most effective methods to improve the lives of our underwater neighbors.

Associated papers:
- Vanessa M. ZoBell, John A. Hildebrand, and Kaitlin E. Frasier. "Assessing approaches for ship noise reduction within critical whale habitat." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 156, 3534–3544 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0034455

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Acoustic levitation allows objects to be suspended in air or in liquids without falling. In this episode, we speak with Philip Marston (Washington State University) about the history of acoustic levitation, and his work to translate previous research into terminology more accessible to modern readers and those outside of the field of physics.

Associated papers:
- Philip L. Marston. "Trapping in acoustic standing waves: Effect of liquid drop compressibility." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 154, R5–R6 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0020809

- Philip L. Marston. "Contrast factor for standing-wave radiation forces on spheres: Series expansion in powers of sphere radius." JASA Express Lett. 4, 074001 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0027928.

- Philip L. Marston. "Position dependence of the standing-wave radiation pressure quadrupole projection on a sphere applied to drop shape." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 156, 1586–1593 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0028518.

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

This episode is part two of our interviews with the POMA student paper winners from our meeting in Ottawa. First, we talk with Miranda Jackson (McGill University) about her research regarding modeling the mouthpiece and bells of brass instruments. Next, Mark C. Anderson (Brigham Young University) talks about the noise created by the Falcon 9 boosters as they fly back to Earth and the impact that noise can have on surrounding communities.

Associated papers:
- Miranda Jackson and Gary Scavone. "A comparison of modeled and measured impedance of brass instruments and their mouthpieces and bells." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 54, 035004 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001925

- Mark C. Anderson, Kent L. Gee, and Kaylee Nyborg. "Flyback sonic booms from Falcon-9 rockets: Measured data and some considerations for future models." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 54, 040005 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001916

Learn more about entering the POMA Student Paper Competition for the Fall 2024 virtual meeting.

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

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This episode, we talk to a few of the latest round of POMA Student Paper Competition winners from the 186th ASA Meeting in Ottawa about their exciting research endeavors:
- Using a small-scale ship-like structure to test noise mitigation techniques for shipping noise
- Modeling spatial coherence in underwater sonar
- Understanding the noise created by rotorcraft

Make sure to keep an ear out for our next episode, which will include interviews with the remaining two winners!

Associated papers:
- Marc-André Guy, Kamal Kesour, Olivier Robin, Stéphane Gagnon, Julien St-Jacques, Mathis Vulliez, Raphael Tremblay, Jean-Christophe Gauthier Marquis. "Effectiveness of standard mitigation technologies at reducing ships’ machinery noise using a small-scale ship-like structure." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 54, 070001 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001912

- Kyle S. Dalton, Thomas E. Blanford, Daniel C. Brown. “Bistatic spatial coherence for micronavigation of a downward-looking synthetic aperture sonar.” Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 54, 070002 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001924.

- Ze Feng Gan, Vitor Tumelero Valente, Kenneth Steven Brentner, Eric Greenwood. “Time-varying broadband noise of multirotor aircraft.” Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 54, 040006 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001946.

Learn more about entering the POMA Student Paper Competition for the Fall 2024 virtual meeting.

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications.

 
Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

Current touchscreen technology has its limitations. In this episode, we talk with Jérémy Moriot (Université de Sherbrooke) about his team's development of an ultrasound-based system that not only can work with various types of surfaces, but can also detect multiple touches at the same time. 

Associated paper: Maxime Bilodeau, Jérémy Moriot, Joëlle Fréchette-Viens Raphaël Bouchard, Philippe Boulais, Nicolas Quaegebeur, and Patrice Masson. "Embedded real-time ultrasound-based multi-touch system." JASA Express Letters  4, 082802 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0028323.

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 Music: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

When pulsed active sonar was found to cause mass strandings of whales, researchers turned to the quieter continuous active sonar for underwater monitoring. In this episode, Brian K. Branstetter (Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific) shares his work to find out how this sonar affects killer whales.

Associated paper: Brian K. Branstetter, Michael Felice, Todd Robeck, Marla M. Holt, and E. Elizabeth Henderson. "Auditory masking of tonal and conspecific signals by continuous active sonar, amplitude modulated noise, and Gaussian noise in killer whales (Orcinus orca)." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 156 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0028626.

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

We know noisy classrooms and learning environments can negatively impact students and teachers. However, these problems can be compounded for those with autism. We talk to Carmen Rosas-Pérez (Heriot-Watt University) about her research to better understand the experiences of autistic people in daily life acoustic environments. 

Associated paper: Carmen Rosas-Pérez, Laurent Galbrun, Mary E. Stewart, and Sarah R. Payne. "How can anyone learn or teach? Experiences of autistic people with sound in schools and universities," Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 51, 015001 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001741.

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

Because cardiovascular disease is the world's leading cause of death, researchers have been looking for ways to diagnose it early. Low-frequency sounds have been used to assess the elasticity of blood vessels, but until now,  the elastic waves being studied were too fast to get precise measurements. Sibylle Gregoire (INSERM) discusses how here team has been able to image a different type of elastic wave, opening up the possibility to more precise assessments and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease in the future. 

Associated paper: Sibylle Gregoire, Gabrielle Laloy-Borgna, Johannes Aichele, Fabrice Lemoult, and Stefan Catheline. "Flexural pulse wave velocity in blood vessels." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 155, 2948–2958 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025855.

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

We have yet to fully understand the wind on Mars, even though it transfers heat, momentum, and molecules from the surface. Traditionally, heat loss and motion detectors have been used to measure wind speeds. Robert D. White (Tufts University) discusses his team's work on ultrasound transducers that may offer a more precise way to measure turbulent eddies on the  Red Planet.

Associated paper: Robert D. White, Rishabh Chaudhary, Zijia Zhao, Luisa Chiesa, Ian Neeson, and Don Banfield. "Modeling and characterization of gas coupled ultrasonic transducers at low pressures and temperatures and implications for sonic anemometry on Mars." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 156, 968- 988 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0028008.

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

In this episode, we dive into the world of acousto-optics, where light is used to visualize and measure sound-- particularly acoustic phenomena that are difficult to observe. Samuel Verburg (Technical University of Denmark) and Kenji Ishikawa (NTT Communication) share the history of this field of research, as well as discuss modern day applications and potential uses for acousto-optic sensing in the future.

Read the associated article: Samuel A. Verburg, Kenji Ishikawa, Efren Fernandez-Grande, and Yasuhiro Oikawa. (2023) “A Century of Acousto-Optics: From Early Discoveries to Modern Sensing of Sound with Light,” Acoustics Today 19(3). https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2023.19.3.54

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Intro/Outro Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

This episode highlights three recent articles from the field of musical acoustics. First, we talk to Elvira Brattico (Aarhus University) about her research into what causes a person to experience music as noise. Next, Stefan Weinzierl (Technical University of Berlin) discusses how a musician's movement during a performance will impact the notes listeners hear. Finally, Pablo Miranda Valiente (University of Southampton) discusses his work to develop a model that shows the impact a piano soundboard has on the note played.

Associated papers:
- Giulio Carraturo, Marina Kliuchko, and Elvira Brattico. "Loud and unwanted: Individual differences in the tolerance for exposure to music."  J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 155, 3274–3282 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025924.
- David Ackermann, Fabian Brinkmann, and Stefan Weinzierl. "Musical instruments as dynamic sound sources." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 155, 2302–2313 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025463.
- Pablo Miranda Valiente, Giacomo Squicciarini, and David J. Thompson. "Influence of soundboard modelling approaches on piano string vibration." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 155, 3213–3232 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025925.

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Most people have encountered speech recognition software in their day-to-day lives, whether through personal digital assistants, auto transcription, or other such modern marvels. As the technology advances, though, it still fails to understand speakers of African American English (AAE). In this episode, we talk to Michelle Cohn (Google Research and University of California Davis) and Zion Mengesha (Google Research and Stanford University) about their research into why these problems with speech recognition software seem to persist and what can be done to make sure more voices are understood by the technology.

Associated paper: Michelle Cohn, Zion Mengesha, Michal Lahav, and Courtney Heldreth. "African American English speakers’ pitch variation and rate adjustments for imagined technological and human addressees." JASA Express Letters  4,  047601 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025484.

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 Music: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

This episode, we talk to a new round of POMA Student Paper Competition winners from the 185th ASA Meeting in Sydney about their exciting research endeavors:
- An analysis of how drums convey emotion
- A method to assess stress caused by vibration in acoustic black holes
- An improved estimator for background noise in underwater signals
- A model to help remove distortion from the sound fields of parametric array loudspeakers
- A numerical study of a little-understood phenomenon in bowed-string instruments

Associated papers:

Zeyu Huang, Wenyi Song, Xiaojuan Ma, and Andrew Brian Horner. "The emotional characteristics of bass drums, snare drums, and disengaged snare drums with different strokes and dynamics." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 52, 035005 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001834

Archie Keys and Jordan Cheer. "Experimental measurements of stress in an Acoustic Black Hole using a laser doppler vibrometer." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 52, 065003 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001829

David Campos Anchieta and John R. Buck. "Robust power spectral density estimation via a performance-weighted blend of order statistics." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 52, 055006 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001849

Wenyao Ma, Jun Yang, and Yunxi Zhu. "Identification of the parametric array loudspeaker system using differential Volterra filter." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 52, 055005 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001850

Shodai Tanaka, Hiroshi Kori, and Ayumi Ozawa. "A mathematical study about the sustaining phenomenon of overtone in flageolet harmonics on bowed string instruments." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 52, 035006 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001835

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022