Research

Music Technology PhD Opportunity

Project Title: Novel Methods for Measurement and Description of Sound-fields in Critical Listening Rooms

Project Description:
A critical listening room is a space commonly used for the monitoring of audio programme where the acoustics presented to a listener must ensure a correct judgment of sound over a wide frequency range and extend over a required listening area. This is a topic that has puzzled acoustic designers and researchers for a number of decades since the alignment between objective acoustic parameters (eg: Reverberation Time, Early Decay Time, etc) and the perception of listeners is difficult to define.

This project looks into aspects of critical listening in such rooms and aims to develop new measures that accurately represent the listener�s experience. It also investigates novel methods to measure room acoustics that are better suited to the measurement of spaces with smaller dimensions. The outcome will be a number of measures that describe how suitable a given space may be for monitoring audio program in stereo or multichannel formats.

The work involves the study of room acoustics and the design/deployment of psychoacoustic tests in order to identify the important factors that affect listening in rooms. This will be combined with the development of a hardware/software application for the measurement of monitoring spaces.

A successful candidate will have an academic background in audio or music technology or a related scientific subject. A good knowledge of maths and previous experience with programming are desired.

Entry requirements: The standard entry requirement for PhD study is a First or Upper Second class honours degree, or the overseas equivalent, in a relevant subject. In certain circumstances, a Lower Second class honours degree supplemented by a Masters degree, or appropriate relevant work experience, may be acceptable.

Course fees: Tuition Fees

Related website:  Music Technology Research

Academic department: Department of Engineering and Technology: Music Technology

Contact: Dr Bruno Fazenda
Email: b.fazenda@hud.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1484 471893

How to apply: http://www2.hud.ac.uk/research/gradcentre/applications/