A standard proposal for rating airborne sound insulation in buildings [ISO 16717-1 (2012)] defines the reference noise spectra. Since their shapes influence the calculated values of single-number descriptors, reference spectra should approximate well typical noise spectra in buildings. There is, however, very little data in the existing literature on a typical noise spectrum in dwellings. A spectral analysis of common noise sources in dwellings is presented in this paper, as a result of an extensive monitoring of various noisy household activities. Apart from music with strong bass content, the proposed “living” reference spectrum overestimates noise levels at low frequencies.

This paper presents the method for prediction of some basic mechanical parameters of a wood specimen by using simple instrumentation. The standard acoustic method for assessment of modulus of elasticity using the impulse excitation is extended by using a recording in the very near field. In this way, visualization of vibration patterns of the analyzed sample was accomplished for all modes below 5 kHz. This enables detection of signals with a good signal-to-noise ratio over a wide frequency range which is then used for loss factor assessment.

Multipath propagation within an urban area introduces a specific type of reverberation in response to sound excitation. That appearance affects the level of ambient noise produced by strong sound sources. In this paper, the signals recorded during the 1999 bombing of Belgrade were used to analyze the characteristics of reverberation in that urban environment. Six recorded signals were selected among more than 50 explosions recorded at that time. Due to the impulse nature of sound sources, the recorded signals represent the impulse responses of that area. The measured reverberation time T30 is about 7 ± 1 s in octaves between 31.5 Hz and 1 kHz. There is a variation of decay slope in time that is verified by differences between values of T10 and T30. The reverberation gain calculated from recorded signals is 2-7 dB, depending on the global position of the sound excitation point as well as its micro-location according to its position among the surrounding buildings. A variation of gain over octave bands is in the interval of approximately 3 dB. Information about reverberation gain in urban environment can be useful in a quick estimation of noise level produced by strong sound sources in a large area of urban environment.

This paper describes an improved method for detecting early reflections in the initial part of the room impulse response using multifractals. The proposed method uses the two-dimensional multifractal analysis. The room impulse response is visualized as a spectrogram image which is then subjected to the multifractal analysis. The algorithm is based on describing local regularity in the image using distribution of Hölder exponents. The time positions of the selected Hölder exponents in the image are utilized in detecting early reflections. The obtained results show better efficiency of the proposed algorithm compared to the previous one-dimensional multifractal analysis based algorithm.

This paper presents the research that was aimed at examining the possibilities for improving the multifractal method for detecting early reflections in the room impulse response. Multifractal method for the detection of early reflections uses distribution of H?lder?s exponent calculated for the acoustic impulse response. Modifications of algorithm proposed in this paper perform filtering of the distribution of H?lder?s exponent to improve the detection of significant early reflections. The results obtained in this way provide guidance how to improve detection of early reflections and to make it more precise.