When we hear sounds in the “real world,” they are in an acoustic space.
For example, suppose you are playing acoustic guitar in your living room.
You hear not only the guitar’s sound, but because the guitar generates sound waves, they bounce off walls, the ceiling, and the floor.
Some of these sound waves return to your ears, which due to their travel through the air, will be somewhat delayed compared to the direct sound of the guitar.
This resulting sound from all these reflections is extremely complex and called reverberation.
As the sound waves bounce off objects, they lose energy and their level and tone changes. If a sound wave hits a pillow or curtain, it will be absorbed more than if it hits a hard surface. [read]
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