Hey Ethan, thanks a lot bud. Maybe this ole skull has "absorbed" something afterall.
And then again, maybe I said the blindingly obvious
Woudn't be the first time. You see, I have this affliction called...babblespeak
Out of all things acoustical I STILL don't understand though. is distance. I live up on a forested hill. When I lay in bed at night, I can hear sounds down in the valley below I listen for cues that will answer my question which is..what is it about sound, that you can tell the approximate distance, and if its stationary or moving, EVEN if you are seperated from it by an enclosure. This is what baffles me. When I'm laying there, I can hear a car, or a dog, or boat etc., from various distances. I hear NO echos, or any reflection phenomena to account for the "distance" quality I hear, which in the room, even seems more bizaar. SUPPOSEDLY, When a DIRECT sound(wave) reachs my ears, there is a short delay between one ear and the other, which is because of the speed of sound. This gives the brain clues to DIRECTION, no? But what clues does the brain decipher that account for distance. Being in a valley, there are certain sounds that DO echo. REALLY LOUD
Like thunder. Or a ship in the slough down below. and an occasional plane. But moving traffic or a car starting up have lower amplitude. And thats the other thing. Even very quiet sounds, still have a "distance" quality. In fact, this is what bothers me. When you "hear" sound, your ears are picking up vibrations in the air, DIRECTLY at the physical point in space where the vibrations are passing your ear canal. Then what is it that tells you the sound is at a distance, and what that distance is approximately. Even outdoors, when a person speaks to you 10 feet away, it sounds different than when he is 5 feet away but speaking at a relatively lower SPL. Thats why I'm not talking about amplitude, because if your ears detect two sounds that are 1000 feet apart' yet produce the same amplitude level when exiciteing your ear drums, why can you tell the distance. I've stood in the backyard and listened to ambient sound with my eyes closed, and could pick out things very distant, while very soft music was playing in the background 20' away. Some sounds matched the amplitude of the radio. Yet I could hear the distance.In an enclosure such as my bedroom, this "quality" also passes through the wall. yet I hear no local reflections, or "comb filtering" type effects off the hills that surround my property outdoors So, anyone got a clue to give me.
BTW, it would seem your OWN voice has something of a "distance" standard the mind uses as a "calibration" or comparison to, since it is the closest to your eardrum, no?
Anyway, just one of my meandering "curiositys".
Thanks again Ethan.
fitZ