Glossary

The study of the relationship, mediated through sound, between living organisms and their environment. It explores how soundscapes affect the biological and social health of an ecosystem.

The theory that species in a healthy ecosystem evolve to communicate in specific frequency bands or time slots to avoid "masking" each other — much like instruments in an orchestra occupying distinct registers to remain audible within the ensemble.

The collective sound of all distant, non-identifiable sources in an environment. In archiving, the noise floor is not "static" to be removed, but a vital indicator of a location's spatial scale and acoustic health.

The gradual loss of intensity as sound travels through a medium. High frequencies attenuate faster than low frequencies — which is why a distant thunderstorm sounds like a low rumble even when its source is intense broadband noise.

The bending of sound waves around obstacles or through openings. This explains why you can hear a bird behind a thick tree trunk even if you cannot see it — the wave bends around the obstacle, carrying acoustic information across the obstruction.

The ratio between the quietest and loudest sounds in a recording or environment. A desert at dawn has a vastly different dynamic range than a coastal cliffside during a gale — and preserving this contrast is central to archival integrity.

In a field recording context, sounds created by the physical movement of the recordist or their equipment — clothing rustle, footfall, cable noise. Aurafact principles dictate that these must be minimized to achieve Zero Acoustic Impact on the specimen.

An environment where the signal-to-noise ratio is high, allowing individual sounds to be heard clearly without overlapping or masking. Typically found in remote or protected natural areas where anthropophonic interference is minimal or absent.

An environment where individual sounds are obscured by a dense, overlapping wash of noise — often anthropophonic in origin. In a Lo-Fi soundscape, perspective is lost and the "acoustic horizon" is significantly narrowed, compressing the listener's sense of spatial depth.

A biological or technical phenomenon where one sound interferes with the perception of another. For example, the sustained drone of a highway "masking" the subtle frequency signature of a nearby stream — rendering the quieter signal imperceptible without altering it physically.

The way sound travels through a specific environment. Factors like humidity, temperature, and topography — a canyon versus a meadow — fundamentally alter how a sound propagates, determining its reach, timbre, and the reflections it accumulates along the way.

The scientific study of sound perception — how humans psychologically and physiologically respond to various frequencies, rhythms, and volumes. Psychoacoustics informs the design of listening interfaces and the annotation of archive specimens.

The "bouncing" of sound waves off hard surfaces. The timing and character of reflections — echoes — provide the listener with an intuitive sense of the physical size and material composition of a space, encoding spatial information into the waveform itself.

A measure used to compare the level of a desired signal — such as a specific bird call — to the level of background noise. A high SNR indicates a clean, intelligible recording; a low SNR indicates the signal is buried within the ambient noise floor.

A sound that is unique to a specific community or location — an acoustic landmark. Examples include a particular lighthouse foghorn or a historic town bell whose character is inseparable from the identity of the place that produces it.

Term coined by R. Murray Schafer · World Soundscape Project

A visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies in a sound as they vary with time. It is the primary tool used by researchers to "see" the layers of an archive — revealing the simultaneous presence of biophonic, geophonic, and anthropophonic elements at a glance.

A high-amplitude, short-duration sound at the beginning of a waveform — a twig snapping, or a single raindrop striking a leaf. Transients provide the "definition" in an acoustic texture: they are the moments of onset that allow the ear to resolve one event from another.