Impulse responses of real-world acoustic systems drive musical sound

Evidence

Give a violin body a rap with a knuckle and the resulting sound lasts for a fraction of a second. A rap on a piano soundboard lasts a little longer. Clap your hands once in a room and the sound dies out to inaudibility typically in under a second, but it might take much longer depending on the size of the space and reflectivity of the walls. Such impulse responses of real-world systems are of prime importance to music and sound. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1122

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the concept of an ‘impulse response’ through concrete everyday examples: knuckle raps and hand claps.
• XREF: connects to: A physical impulse excites all frequencies equally in struck instruments — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1290