The Sound Book, Trevor Cox
The Sound Book, Trevor Cox
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The Sound Book
The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World

Author: Trevor Cox

Narrator: Jonathan Cowley

Unabridged: 8 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/30/2014


Synopsis

Trevor Cox is on a hunt for the sonic wonders of the world. A renowned expert who engineers classrooms and concert halls, Cox has made a career of eradicating bizarre and unwanted sounds. But after an epiphany in the London sewers, Cox now revels in exotic noises—creaking glaciers, whispering galleries, stalactite organs, musical roads, humming dunes, seals that sound like alien angels, and a Mayan pyramid that chirps like a bird. With forays into archaeology, neuroscience, biology, and design, Cox explains how sound is made and altered by the environment, how our body reacts to peculiar noises, and how these mysterious wonders illuminate sound's surprising dynamics in everyday settings—from your bedroom to the opera house. The Sound Book encourages us to become better listeners in a world dominated by the visual and to open our ears to the glorious cacophony all around us.

About Trevor Cox

Trevor Cox is a professor of acoustic engineering at the University of Salford, where he carries out research and teaching focusing on architectural acoustics, signal processing, and audio perception. He is also the author of Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound and Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusers: Theory, Design and Application. He is a radio broadcaster and has presented many documentaries on BBC radio. Trevor lives in Manchester, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on September 28, 2014

Trevor Cox is an acoustic engineer, and his hobby seems to be to go around the world, looking (and listening) for locations of interesting sounds and sound effects. While the average person might not find it engaging, as a scientist with acoustics background, and as a composer, I found much of the b......more

Goodreads review by Jill on January 18, 2015

This book presents a great topic of investigation... in disappointing writing. The Good: The variety of natural and man-made sounds Trevor Cox investigated is impressive – the list of sound sites spans specific ancient ruins, artwork, concert halls, natural elements like water and sand, our own huma......more

Goodreads review by Noel on February 18, 2023

Well written, and enthusiastically written as well. The science here is easily understood for the most part as he focuses more on explaining what it all means or implies rather than on how everything is calculated. Lots of good footnotes for following up anything that strikes your fancy. This is the......more

Goodreads review by Mandy on September 05, 2015

Trevor Cox is an acoustic engineer and his passion for sounds of all kinds comes over loud and clear in this fascinating exploration of some of the sonic wonders of the world and the mysterious sounds that the natural world often produces. He points out that sound is often ignored or blocked out whe......more

Goodreads review by Kolya on December 28, 2018

This should be a series of movies! The author immerses the reader in the wonderful world of diversity of sound. And it was a real challenge for him. And I really admire his attempt. But unfortunately Trevor did not quite handle it. It is very difficult and inconvenient to try to perceive the informati......more