Sound Notes

Sound basics
Without sound life would not be able to be.
sound waves
Sound is in a wave.
Sound vibrates through the molecules and it is only the energy that moves
Good Vibrations
when the speaker vibrates so does the air around it
the moluclues dont move very far they just pass on the energy
Sound is our perception of this vibrations
Through matter
Sound waves can travle through matter
For sound t move through things they must have two defined characteristics-elasticity and
inertia
Elasticty-compress then return to original shape
Inertia- Object in motion stay in motion and object at still stays at still
Sine Wave
frequency is the distance between the bottom and top of wave energy
when cone moves out is called compression
when the cone moves back it is called rarefaction
this going from push out to in is one cycle
Frequency/pitch
the amount of cycles is called frequency
higher the frequency higher the pitch
Period
period=1/frequency 20 cycles per second is a period of .5 seconds per cycle
Wavelength
Wavelength is the actual physical distance covered by one complete cycle. based on speed of
sound
sound wave travels about 1130 feet/second
wavelength=speed of sound/frequency
Amplitude
Amplitude is the height of the sound wave
sound of higher amplitude are louder
Adding sine waves
Every musical sound is composed of a combination of sine waves
Phase
when 2 waves of the same amplitude and frequency come in contact with each other the create a
new wave with the same frequency but doubles the amplitude these 2 waves are in phase

Harmonics
-the tone of a voice or instrument is cause by its specific wave form
-the creation of a sound by combining several related sine waves
-inherent to musical instruments, or by means of electronic combinations
-Fundamental note is the loudest of the set of sine waves. The following harmonics sine waves
will be composed of frequencies which are multiples of the original
-The quality of an instrument is a direct reflection of the quality of the harmonics, the result of
a good instrument is resonances

Non-harmonic relationships
-drums and other similar instruments are know as non-harmonic, because the sound is made of
of waves which are not multipliers of the fundamental note

Waves you hear

-20Hz-20000Hz

THE electrical representation of Sound

Signal Voltage/Amplitude
-an audio signal is an electrical representation of a sound.
-audio signal is proportionally identical to the sound wave it represents

Properties of electricity
-voltage, current, resistance and power

Power
voltage x current = power, power is measured in watts
Resistance/Impedance
Resistance allows us to use electrical current
reactance is frequency based
Impedance like resistance is measured in ohms
ohms law
impedance is symbolized with a “Z”
[I=E/Z] [Z=E/I] [E=I x Z]
Power Calculators
[P=E x I] P=power in watts, E=electrical potential in volts, I=current in amps
dB or not dB....that is the question
the decibel is both electrical and acoustic values
Logarithms
Logarithms are exponents