Physics and music have been closely related for thousands of years. The art and the science of music acoustics are presented on this site, in musician-friendly format, as is some of our research work in music science.

Navigate around our site using the headings and the images above. In most cases, there is a simple non-technical introduction, followed by more or linked to more detailed work. The 'Basics' section gives a simple introduction to general topics in acoustics (decibels, waves and so on).

News

• Victory in Athens: the NICTA-UNSW clarinet robot won the Artemis competition.
• Music Science at UNSW: inter-faculty collaborations in research and teaching.
• Saxophonists learn to tune their vocal tracts: a recent study, reported in Science.
• Meet our two new research staff: André Almeida and Maëva Garnier.
• The Sounds of World English: make a 'map' of your own accent and contribute to this global project.
• PhD scholarship in music acoustics or voice acoustics now available.

Recent projects

• Arlen Fast, contrabassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, came to the lab on sabbatical in the lab, for a project on register holes and transients.
• To honour an outstanding researcher, we have added a Neville Fletcher archive.
• How do violins change with age and playing: an interim report on a long term study.
• Vocal tract tuning by sopranos: how do they sing so loudly? Reported in Nature.
• The acoustics of harmonic singing
• How does the didjeridu work? Reported in Nature.
• Test your own hearing response curve using this interactive web service.
• FAQ - Frequently asked questions about music acoustics. For example: What is a decibel?
• Introduction to the acoustics of musical instruments. This series of web pages, with plenty of illustrations and sound files, presents an introduction to brass instruments, saxophone, clarinet, flute, violin, guitar and didjeridu.

 

Excellence in acoustics

This website has won a Scientific American Science and Technlogy Web Award 2005 for its innovation, creativity and value. It has also won the MERLOT 2005 Editors' Choice Award for exemplary online learning resources.

Other recent awards won by the Acoustics laboratory.

How to get to UNSW Acoustics Lab: Maps