Hello. I am Bhooshan Thite from India.

This work is lesson for week 1 of

Introduction To Music Production at Coursera.org. In this text I am going
to cover how sound is generated and propagated. I will also cover
characteristics of sound such as amplitude fre!uenc" and tim#re.
Sound Generation and Propagation:
$ound is created #" vi#ration in form of pressure and displacement in a
medium. If two o#%ects hit each other the" vi#rate. These vi#rations are
passed on to the medium in form of push and pull. &hen there is no
sound we sa" that the molecules in a medium are evenl" spaced.
&hen two o#%ects in the medium hit each other the" vi#rate there#"
affecting the distri#ution of the molecules in the medium.
The compressions and rarefactions continue periodicall" until the
vi#ration energ" in the o#%ect dies out. 'lso with distance the energ" of
compressions and rarefactions in air also reduced and hence the loudness
of a sound heard is less if we are far awa" from it.
The figure #elow shows a graphical wa" to represent the vi#rations. This
representation makes it eas" to see anal"(e and process sound.
Amplitude:
'mplitude is the measure of the range of maximum compression and
maximum rarefaction of air molecules in response with a sound. In
simple terms we can see amplitude as the height of the waveform we see
on oscilloscope.
'mplitude is the term measura#le #" the computer when fed with a
sound. However the term loudness is mistakenl" seen as amplitude.
)oudness is the perception of sound. Because two different sounds
having the same loudness ma" #e perceived to #e differentl" loud.
The following diagram shows how amplitude is related to depth of
modulation*
Frequency:
+re!uenc" is num#er of repetitions in a unit time. +or example the
fre!uenc" of a #us is , times an hour. 's a characteristic of sound
fre!uenc" is num#er of c"cles of vi#rations in one second. -nit of it is
Hert( .H(/.
0ou#le click to hear the sounds of ,,1 H( and 1111 H(*
,,1 H( 1111 H(
The vi#rations created in the source of the sound cause compressions and
refractions in air. Thus repeated push and pull #" the sound source
causes the air to repeatedl" vi#rate. These vi#rations propagate through a
medium and are sensed #" a listener. The term pitch is mistakenl" used
for fre!uenc". However fre!uenc" can #e measured as num#er of
repetitions in unit time while pitch is the perception. Humans are ideall"
a#le to hear from 21 H( to 21111 H(. However the range of hearing
capacit" reduces with age.
Timbre:
It is not possi#le to naturall" produce a sound which contains a single
fre!uenc" #e it a 3note4 pla"ed on a musical instrument. It contains a
group of fre!uencies which are present in form of harmonics.
Tim#re is a tone or a specific !ualit" of a sound. Two sounds with same
pitch and same loudness can have different tim#re. +or example if we
hear a flute producing C5 tone and a singer singing C5 tone with same
loudness the" sound different to us. That is the difference #etween their
tonal !ualities precisel" their tim#res.
0ifference #etween tim#res can #e anal"(ed on spectrum anal"(er. The
followings are the spectrums of two sounds .guitar and piano/ pla"ed on
same tone .C5/ and same intensit"
Click to pla" Piano tone .C5/ Click to pla" 6uitar tone.C5/
Piano tone includes lower fre!uencies more as compared to 6uitar.
However fre!uencies around 7 kH( are more in 6uitar. The inclusion
and intensities of various fre!uenc" components make separate tim#res
for #oth of the sounds and there#" different sound !ualities.
It was a nice experience of explaining #asics of sound in a detailed
manner. I used audio files photos and text in the assignment. The audio
files and photos are extracted from )ogic Pro 8 'udacit". +or
understanding some topics in detail I have also taken help of internet in
addition to the course videos.
I would like to get a feed#ack a#out what is explained in a good manner
and what needs to #e improved. 9our feed#ack is valua#le to me. Thank
"ou.