Visualizing Sounds

The Technology of Music Production

Hi, this is Rhythm Dutta from
Assam, India. This is an
assignment for week one of
The Technology of Music
Production course offered by
Berklee College of Music on
coursera.org. In today's lesson,
I’ll be discussing the various
ways of visualizing sounds.

So, let's dive in!!

Visualizing Sound Waves

We all know that sound is a longitudinal wave, meaning, the

oscillation of the medium particles is in a direction same as
that of its propagation. As a result, it becomes very difficult to
represent sound visually. So we tend to visualize sounds in
three different displays. And having a good visual
representation can really help in hearing and understand
what's being heard.
Ways of Visualizing Sounds

In a typical DAW, sound can be visualized in three different ways

or formats, namely:

● Oscilloscope Display
● Spectrum Analyzer
● Spectrogram/Sonogram Analysis

All of these will be discussed in detail in the following slides*.

*With reference to sine wave.

 Oscilloscope Display

An oscilloscope uses a
two-axis graph to give a
visual representation of a
waveform over time, with the
horizontal axis representing
time and the vertical axis
representing the amplitude.
It's like the waveform display in the DAW. That waveform is
actually the exact path that the speaker is going to make when the
sound is eventually made in the air by the speaker. Downside of
this type of display is that it's hard to tell what the frequency of
the sound is. Nevertheless, it is the most common way to visualize
sounds in a DAW.

When we change the frequency of the sound, the number of

repetitions of the waves per second increases.
On changing the timbre of the
sound, we get a waveform as
shown. It is called a sawtooth
waveform because of its
shape. Here, the frequency
and amplitude remains same.
 Spectrum Analyzer

In a Spectrum Analyzer, on the

horizontal scale, we see the
frequency and vertically,we
see amplitude. It doesn't give
us a sense of how things
change over time as in the
oscilloscope. Rather, it's a
momentary picture of the
sound, frequency and the
amplitude
When we change the timbre of the sound, we see a series of
peaks in the spectrum analyzer.

Any periodic waveform, like a sawtooth waveform is going to

have peaks at a number of frequencies. And each of these
frequencies is an integer multiple of the fundamental
frequency(See figure in the next slide). This is called a harmonic
series and it is a major function in timbre.
If the fundamental frequency
is 261Hz, the consecutive
peaks will be formed at
(2×261)Hz, (3×261)Hz,
(4×261)Hz and so on.

On changing the frequency,

the peak moves horizontally.
Here the fundamental peak
shifted from 130Hz to 261Hz
 Spectrogram/Sonogram

It is like a spectrum analyzer

but repeated over time. So we
see how the timbre, the
frequency and the amplitude,
all change over time. Here
time is along horizontal and
frequency is along the vertical
axis. Amplitude is depicted in
the form of its color.
On changing the timbre, we
get to see additional lines on
top of the fundamental
frequency.
 Key Takeaways
Oscilloscope Spectrum Sonogram
Analyzer

Amplitude Change Vertical Change Vertical Change Color Change

Frequency Change in number Horizontal motion Vertical motion

Change of repetitions

Timbre Change Change in wave Additional Additional lines

form(sawtooth) frequencies/energi
es