Assignment

P1: Sound Explorations 1

Introduction to Music Technology

Tutorials
Prof. John Buonamassa

Project 1: Sound Explorations

Your first project consists of a series of explorations of sound properties using the
program Audacity. There will be seven parts to this project., and as you go along you
will fill in questions on a worksheet. You’ll turn in a single zipped folder with all of
the Audacity files and the worksheet.

From the Project 1 folder (downloaded from Canvas), launch Audacity and choose
(menu) FileàNew. Choose (menu) FileàSave Project As…, navigate to your
Documents folder, and save this in your Project 1 folder as “Part 1.” Project folders in
this class should be labeled “Last name_ Project #” (1-7).

Part 1. Explore Basic Waveforms

a) Generate 3 seconds of a sine wave, a square wave, and a sawtooth wave on
separate tracks. The process is as follows:
• Create a new audio track (TracksàAdd NewàMono Track)
• Choose GenerateàTone…, and select “Sine” from the pop-up menu.
• In the dialog box, choose a frequency between 200 and 1200 Hz,
amplitude (choose something like .5), and duration (3 seconds).
• Choose a different frequency for each waveform and enter them on the
worksheet.
• Repeat these steps for square wave and sawtooth wave.

b) Rename each audio region by double-clicking on “Audio Track,” and typing in
the name of the waveform.

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Assignment P1: Sound Explorations 2

c) Adjust the volume your computer so it is not very loud; you can always turn it
up later. Listen to each of them in turn by clicking on the “solo” button for the
track you want to hear.
d) Make sure that the waveforms on your three tracks are lined up at “0.0” on the
timeline. If they are not, hover over the top of the audio region until your
mouse turns into the Move tool (a little hand). Click and drag the region left so
that it lines up at 0.0.
e) Click on the zoom tool (looks like a magnifying glass) and zoom in until you
can see the actual waveforms. Select and highlight one complete cycle of each
waveform (remember: a cycle is one complete pattern of ups and downs). The
right edge of the shaded area will be your approximate period (make your best
guess to four digits after the decimal point). Does it come close to the expected
period given the frequency you entered above? (remember: f = 1/T and T =
1/f).

f) Repeat this process to get the periods of the other two waveforms.

Part 2. Explore Noise

a) Choose FileàNew to create a new Audacity project. Name this “Part 2” and
save this part to your Project 1 folder as before.
b) Generate 3 seconds of white, pink, and brownian noise on separate tracks.
• Create a new audio track (TracksàAdd NewàMono Track)
• Choose GenerateàNoise…, and select white from the pop-up menu
• Repeat these steps for pink and brownian noise.
c) Adjust the volume of your computer so it is not very loud; you can always
turn it up later. Listen to each of them in turn by clicking on the “solo”
button for the track you want to hear.
d) Click on the zoom tool and zoom in until you can see the “waveform.” How
do these differ from the waveforms in Part 1? How do they differ from each
other? How do the waveforms relate to the sound of the noise?

Part 3. Explore Pluck and Drum waveforms

e) Choose FileàNew to create a new Audacity project. Name this “Part 3” ”
and save it to your Project 1 folder.

Assignment P1: Sound Explorations 3

a) Generate 4 seconds of the “pluck” (set fade out to “gradual”) and 4 seconds
of the “Risset drum” sounds on separate tracks in the same manner as
before.
b) Adjust the volume of your computer so it is not very loud; you can always
turn it up later. Listen to each of them in turn by clicking on the “solo”
button for the track you want to hear.
c) Click on the zoom tool and zoom in until you can see the waveform. How
do these differ from the waveforms in Parts 1 and 2? How do they differ
from each other?
d) Scroll to the beginning and look at the waveforms and then scroll later in
the tone and look at them again. In what two ways are they different?
e) Zoom out and notice the shape of the amplitude envelopes for pluck and
drum. Are they ADSR or AR?

Part 4. Explore Other Waveforms

f) Choose FileàNew to create a new Audacity project. Name this “Part 4” and
save it to your Project 1 folder.
a) Download the files for this part of the project from Canvas. Once they been
downloaded, choose FileàImportàAudio.
b) In the downloads folder, select the three sound files (BowedCym,Drum-
tom, Trumpet) and click Open. The three files will be placed in your
Audacity window in separate tracks.
c) Click on the zoom tool and zoom in until you can see the waveform for one
of the notes. How does this differ from the waveforms in Parts 1, 2, and 3?
How do the waveforms for the recorded notes differ from each other?
d) Scroll to various parts of the notes. How do the waveforms differ at
different points in each note?
e) Zoom out and notice the shape of the amplitude envelopes for the different
articulations. Are they ADSR or AR? How do the envelopes differ from the
ideal ADSR or AR envelopes described in Chapter 4?

Part 5. Explore Spectra (there won’t be an Audacity file for this part)
a) Open the Part 1 Audacity project (basic waveforms), select part of one of
the tracks with the I-beam tool, and choose AnalyzeàPlot Spectrum. You
may need to adjust some of the settings such as the size (512 or 1024
should do) to make the partials clear.
b) Hold your mouse over the peaks to see the frequencies. Do they follow the
overtone series? Notice that the peaks aren’t as neat as they are in the
book—real spectral analysis contains some amount of uncertainty.
c) Listen to each waveform by using the “solo” button for that track while
looking at its spectrum to “see” the differences you are hearing.
d) Repeat this for Part 2 (noise) above. Notice the broad distribution of
energy for each of the types of noise and how they differ from each other
at the higher frequencies.

Assignment P1: Sound Explorations 4

e) Repeat this for Part 3 (pluck an drum) above. Look at the spectrum for
different parts of each note (closer to the attack and closer to the tail). Use
screenshots to compare if necessary. How are they different?
f) Repeat this for Part 4 (other waveforms) above. How is the spectrum
different for each tone quality? How does the spectrum change for different
parts of a note?

Part 6. Explore Equalization

a) Open Part 4 (other waveforms) and choose FileàSave Project As… .
Rename this as “Part 6” and save it to your Project 1 folder
b) Select all or part of one of the tracks and choose EditàDuplicate. Select
the duplicated material and choose EffectàEqualization.
c) In the window, select “Graphic EQ” and then change the sliders to
emphasize or de-emphasize parts of the spectrum. Click OK to apply the
EQ.
d) Select part of the modified audio and select AnalyzeàPlot Spectrum. Do
the same for the un-modified audio. How do the two spectra now differ?
Use screenshots to compare if necessary.

Part 7. Explore Tempered Tuning

a) Choose FileàNew to create a new Audacity project. Name this “Part 7” and
save it to your Project 1 folder.
b) Create a track and use GenerateàTone… to create 10 seconds of a
sawtooth wave with a frequency of 440 Hz and an amplitude of .3
c) Create another track and use GenerateàTone… to create 5 seconds of a
sawtooth wave with a frequency of 660 Hz and an amplitude of .3.
d) Play these two tracks to hear a perfect fifth with an ideal 3:2 frequency
ratio.
e) Click in the second track at the end of the 660 Hz tone, and use
GenerateàTone… to create 5 seconds of a sawtooth wave with a
frequency of 659.255 Hz and an amplitude of .3. This is the frequency of an
equal tempered fifth.
f) Play these two tracks to hear an ideal perfect fifth for 5 seconds and then
an equal tempered perfect fifth for 5 seconds. How do they sound
different?
g) Create a third track and use GenerateàTone… to create 5 seconds of a
sawtooth wave with a frequency of 550 Hz. This is the ideal 5:4 ratio major
third.
h) Click at the end of that 5 seconds of 550 Hz and use GenerateàTone… to
create 5 seconds of a sawtooth wave with a frequency of 554.365 Hz. This
is the equal tempered major third.
i) Mute the second track and play the first and third tracks back to hear an
ideal major third for 5 seconds followed by an equal tempered major third
for 5 seconds. How do they sound different?
j) Un-mute the second track and play all three to hear 5 seconds of a triad
tuned to ideal ratios and 5 seconds of an equal tempered triad. If the tone

Assignment P1: Sound Explorations 5

of the sawtooth is too strident, you can select all of the audio and use the
equalizer discussed in project 6 to reduce some of the high frequencies.
When you have finished all seven parts and filled out the worksheet you will zip
your Project 1 folder and upload it to the Project 1 link on Canvas.

How to zip a folder:

Mac:
1. Right-click or Control-click (hold the Control key and click) your
project folder.
2. Select “Compress…”
3. A zipped version of your project will appear below the original.
4. Upload the .zip file to Canvas.

Windows:
1. Press and hold (or right-click) the folder, select (or point to) “Send
to.”
2. Select “Compressed (zipped) folder.”
3. A new zipped version with the same name is created in the same
location.
4. Upload the .zip file to Canvas.