Noisy neighbour? Put down the broomstick and check out some science

Put your hands in the air like you just can't hear
Put your hands in the air like you just can't hear

An engineer in Spain has developed a system that makes your brain think music is louder than it actually is - finally offering up a better solution than banging on your neighbour's roof with a broom to get them to turn the volume down.

Xergio Córdoba is a mastering engineer who has been working in psychoacoustics - the way your brain perceives sound - and reckons he has a process that can make things sound louder but with less volume.

"Basically it's as much about the physical sound-wave as it is about how the brain interprets the same sound-wave. It's pure psychoacoustics," he told Vice.

Drum and/or bass

"To give an example, it's like when you listen to an mp3 through headphones and there's a drum or a bass, but the headphones are too small to reproduce it correctly," he added.

"This is instead done by evolutionary compensation. It's something that we use a lot in mastering and have applied to our system in order to accomplish what we were after.

"...what it does is it helps your brain perceive music as if it's louder than it actually is and, in that way, it minimises exposure to damaging frequencies."

Now - if he can also fix leaky headphones and terrible, terrible music then he's definitely welcome to move into the flat upstairs in Future Towers.

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.

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