7 "Highly Successful" Characteristics of Sound

Transducer, transducer... What's a transducer? A transducer is any device that converts one form of energy into another. It's probably best to consider examples...

Microphone - this takes the physical sound waves traveling from a source, such as a voice, and converts it into electrical signals.













Speaker - This converts electrical signals into physical sound waves that travel to your ear.
















Ear - This converts physical sound waves into nerve impulses that the brain recognizes.














Now on to the seven characteristics of waveforms:



1. Amplitude - This is the height of soundwave measured in decibels (dB). 0 dB is near silence. Human ears can hear a difference of roughly 3 dB increments. 80-85 dBs is the optimal level to monitor sound. The human ear hears mid-range frequencies the best, followed by high-range and lastly low-range.

2. Frequency - This is cycles per second measured in Hertz (Hz). Human ears can hear frequencies between 20 to 20,000 Hz (20Hz to 20 kHz).

Lows - 20 Hz to 200 Hz
Mids - 200 Hz to 5 kHz
Highs - 5 kHz to 20 kHz

Bass sounds are omnidirectional and will fill a room.

3. Velocity - This is the speed at which sound travels. 1,130 feet per second.

4. Wavelength - Physical length of one cycle. Bass waves travel farther in a cycle than guitar waves. Guitar waves will sound louder up front but less so farther away.

30 Hz sound / 1,130 = 37.6 feet long sound wave
300 Hz sound / 1,130 = 3.76 feet long sound wave

5. Phase - This is defined as a point in a sound wave's cycle. When considered with multiple sounds, these sounds have a relation to each other.

In-Phase - Multiple sounds have the same phase and are additive making the output louder.
Out-of-Phase - Multiple sounds have opposite phase and cancel each other out.

Recording consoles have many buttons that control phasing. Turning all output from stereo to mono and back, will allow you to hear if sounds are canceling each other out (or how much of this is occurring...).

6. Harmonic Content - This is the timbre (rhymes with amber). One of the two characteristics that differentiate one instrument (or sound) from another.

7. Envelope - One of the two characteristics tat help differentiate instruments from one another. The envelope includes ADSR: Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release.

Attack - How quickly a sound reaches full volume.
Decay - How quickly a sound drops to the sustain volume.
Sustain - The constant volume which a sound makes until release.
Release - How quickly a sound fades.