More Sound Science With Free Software

I teach high school physics and we spend some time talking about waves and sound. I've found that one of the best ways to do this is to use free software to analyze the harmonic components of various sounds and then to rebuild them one frequency at a time.

We are able to talk about, not only about how various frequencies combine, but also how the sounds begin and decay to result in what we hear.

Step 1 Stuff You Need

1. Computer with microphone input
2. Microphone you can plug into the computer
3. Audacity. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
4. Visual Analyser - Free oscilloscope program for Windows. http://www.sillanumsoft.com/
5. Something to make a sound. I've found a beaker struck with a pencil eraser works great.

Comments

[Myself]

From my collection of audio links, a few more software packages you might be interested in:

DL4YHF's insanely powerful spectrum analyzer software which is fast approaching kitchen-sink stage. This stuff is made for amateur radio operators, but has plenty of toys for the audio experimenter.

Also check out the trial version of Yoshimasa Electronic's very expensive audio analyzer package, which includes signal generators that will blow your mind.

[falconphysics]

Thanks for the links, I'll have to check them out.

[royalestel]

Have you considered the relationships between sound and images? Ever done a low-frequency pass on an image in photoshop? A high pass? The words we use to describe the two phenomena we call light and sound have striking correlations.

[Crash2108]

My first thought as an application for this was sound production in video games and movies. It appears to produce a much nicer, cleaner sound that is almost indiscernible from the original. You could make a very detailed, cool and realistic scene all from just generated tones. How long did it take you for the single sound effect? How long do you think it would take you to generate another one replicating a different sound?

[falconphysics]

This one didn't take me long, only a couple of minutes. But, it is a very simple, easy to isolate sound. The first time I did it may have taken 5 to 10 minutes tops.