1.

Introduction

A sound spectrum is a graph of the power of sound at different frequencies; this represents a short sample of sound.
A note played on an instrument will have a sound spectrum like that shown in Fig. 1. The said figure illustrates the
sound spectrum of the note G4 played on a flute. Note that there are peaks in the power of sound at frequencies 400
Hz, 800 Hz, 1200 Hz, 1600 Hz, and so on. Each peak is called a harmonic of the note and each is a multiple of 400
Hz which is the fundamental frequency of the note G4. This series of frequencies is termed as the harmonic series.

Fig. 1. The sound spectrum of the note G4 played on a flute [1].

The period is the reciprocal of the frequency and is the amount of time in between the occurrence of harmonics. In
general, we can denote the harmonics of a note as f, 2f, 3f, 4f,,nf. Similarly, the period of each harmonic can be
denoted as T, T/2, T/3, T/4 T/n. Fig. 2a. below shows a sinusoidal graph of the first six harmonics of the note G4
on a flute while Fig. 2b. depicts the sum of these harmonics, a graph called a sawtooth wave.

Fig. 2. (a) Graphs of ansin(2(nf)) for each n-multiple, n = [1,6], of the fundamental frequency of a note where an is the amplitude of the wave for
each harmonic. (b) Plot of the sum of the sinusoidal graphs for each harmonic. [1].

Fourier analysis is a helpful tool for analyzing samples of sound since it can define a sound wave as a sum of its
harmonic waves. That is, a repeated vibration with fundamental frequency f can always be made up of a
combination of vibrations with the harmonic frequencies f, 2f, 3f, 4f, , nf. In Fourier analysis, a wave can be
expressed by the following function [2].

(
x ( t )=a 0+ ak cos
n=1
( 2 nt
T ) +b sin (
k
T ))
2 nt
[1]

T [2]
1
a0 = x ( t ) dt
T 0
 T [3]
2 2 nt
ak = x (t ) cos ( )dt ; n (1,2,3)
T 0 T

T [4]
2 2 nt
bk = x (t ) sin ( )dt ; n (1,2,3)
T 0 T

This paper aims to observe the sound spectrums for various notes played on different musical instruments using
Fourier analysis.

References

[1] Wolfe, Joe. "What is a Sound Spectrum?" phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/sound.spectrum.html (accessed 16 May 2017)

[2] Olson, Harry, F. Music, Physics and Engineering. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.

II. Methodology

The recording setup consists of a mic connected directly to a computer where recorded sound is immediately
imported into a software named, Ableton. Instruments used in the setup consists of an acoustic guitar, a bass guitar,
an electric guitar, a violin, and a piano. Before recording, string instruments were tuned using a tuner to ensure the
accuracy of the notes produced. Recorded frequencies were limited to ~392 Hz (G note) and ~256 Hz (C note).
Imported audio files were then altered such that the intensity peaks and volume were deemed accurate to the target
frequency. Single cycles for each recorded sound were then clipped and imported into a software called Wavepad
which would analyze the files and produce Fourier Transforms of each. Resulting plots of each transform were then
plotted against each other for better representation of their differences.