Product Description
This monograph provides novel insights into cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of sound and music in different environments. A solid understanding of these mechanisms is vital for numerous technological applications such as for example information retrieval from distributed musical databases or building expert systems. In order to investigate the cognitive mechanisms of music perception fundamentals of hearing psychophysiology and principles of music perception are presented. In addition, some computational intelligence methods are reviewed, such as rough sets, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, decision trees and genetic algorithms. The applications of hybrid decision systems to problem solving in music and acoustics are exemplified and discussed on the basis of obtained experimental results. ... Read more

Book Description
Applications of some selected soft computing methods to acoustics and sound engineering are presented in this book. The aim of this research study is the implementation of soft computing methods to musical signal analysis and to the recognition of musical sounds and phrases. Accordingly, some methods based on such learning algorithms as neural networks, rough sets and fuzzy-logic were conceived, implemented and tested. Additionally, the above-mentioned methods were applied to the analysis and verification of subjective testing results. The last problem discussed within the framework of this book was the problem of fuzzy control of the classical pipe organ instrument.
The obtained results show that computational intelligence and soft computing may be used for solving some vital problems in both musical and architectural acoustics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

comprehensive, exciting, novel treatment of known ideas
strongly recommended for broad review and introduction to the subject; excellent teaching guide; can be used for a course or individually guided reading ... Read more

Book Description
This classic work deals in a nonmathematical way with the interface between physics and music. There is a general introduction to wave motion and sound--its generation by vibration and the its reception by the ear and the brain. The sections that follow discuss consonance, dissonance, characteristic sounds of major instruments, the mechanical reproduction of music, and acoustics. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Confusing!
I cannot say anything good about this book except the fact that it's cheap. Even so, I think the book is not very worth the money. The notation and presentation are old and outdated. There are no example problems. The author often delves into technical details without fully introduce the concepts. This book may make a good technical reference, but it is, by no means, a good textbook that is supposed to teach students physics. As a not-so-dull physics students in Cornell (where they have been using this book for the honors wave class for years), I did not learn much physics from this book and was often left confused about what the author is trying to say.
I feel deeply sorry for Cornell students who have suffered under this book and prospective students who will be spending 4 months trying to understand this book. If you are in a physics class which uses this book, I strongly sugguest that you get a better text. Although there aren't many outstanding text on waves out there, many books are more suitable than this one, such as the one in the MIT introdctory sequence by French and Taylor.

Hit and Miss
Elmore and Heald is a very hit and miss book.The first chapter about simple transverse waves on strings is pretty good except for the confusing treatment of Fourier series (which I can't imagine would help anyone who hasn't seen them before).Chapter 3 on elastic theory was fine too and the EM waves stuff in chapter 8 wasn't bad.

However, the introduction to tensors in chapter 7 and their application to more complex elastic theory was horrible.The dyadic notation they use is really old-fashioned and their presentation is confusing.The stuff in chapter 12 on fourier transforms and integrals wasn't that great either.

More generally, the problem is that it spends too much time diving into excruciating detail without teaching and emphasizing important concepts.Not to mention the fact that there are no example problems. ... Read more