First assignment for a course I'm taking right now.

1. VISUALIZING SOUND
Presentation by Antonio García

2. Introduction
Hello! My name is Antonio García, and I’m from Mexico.
This brief presentation is part of what I’ve learned
during the first week of the “Introduction to Music
Production” course on coursera.org, by Berklee college
of music.
Today we’ll be reviewing some information about how
some visual graphics help us to understand sound and its
relationship with other elements in a better way.

3. Overview
I will show the highlights about three of the most common
graphics/displays- The Oscilloscope, the Spectrum Analyzer,
and the Sonogram/Spectrogram analysis.
Studying and understanding the importance of these visual
displays is essential for a music producer, because trying to
connect different frequencies and sounds with numbers or
letters is a very hard task for anyone who has never seen it on
screen. Furthermore, a couple of displays will allow us to
check into every little overtone or harmonic that would
otherwise be impossible to detect with our ears alone.
I will be using the letter x and y to refer to vertical and
horizontal axis, respectively.

4. The Oscilloscope
Main window of a DAW, showing the typical Oscilloscope style visible tracks.

5. The Oscilloscope
It’s one of the most used displays
for audio. Even if you are not into
production, you may already
recognize this graphic easily
when you see it first in any DAW.
The disadvantage from this
graphic is that it’s not practical
to recognize different
frequencies; and in order to do
so, you would have to count the
“cycles” or “hertz” during a
certain amount of time. However,
it’s really useful to use the
Oscilloscope graphic type when
recording different instrument
tracks, because of how easy it is
to visually adjust the decibel
levels and do a quick “mix” of
the whole project on the go.
The basic layout for this display is to show
X = Time and Y = Amplitude.

6. Spectrum Analyzer
The spectrum analyzer shows sound waves as “bumps” in
the display. The layout of this graphic shows:
X =Frequencies, Y = Amplitude.

7. Spectrum Analyzer
It’s important to mention that, while this display clearly shows
the frequencies in sound, it doesn’t show the progression of that
sound as time passes, unlike the Oscilloscope display.
On the other hand, you can clearly see all the overtones and
harmonic frequencies on the picture in the last slide, as well as
their amplitude.
This graphic is very useful when applying compressors, limiters or
when using equalizers to shape our sound. This is very important,
because all those different overtones are what change the
timbre* of an instrument.
*timbre:the quality of tone distinctive of a particular singing voice or musical instrument, given by its overtones

8. Sonogram/Spectrogram
Analysis
Basic Sonogram example. X= Time, Y= Frequencies, Z= Amplitude (color)

9. Sonogram/Spectrogram
Analysis
While the amplitude is not that clear on this display, it
shows all of the previous three factors involved. The
amplitude is shown by the intensity of the colors of each
bar, depending on the software used. Some DAWs use a
blue/green hue, while some others use red colors.
Spectrograms are sometimes used as a tool for creating
different timbres and software instruments by changing
the intensity of different frequencies over time or
creating new ones.
All of the three different visual tools should be used in
conjunction to get the most out of it because of all the
different advantages and disadvantages involved.

10. Reflection
I’m really happy to be part of this whole course.
I’m trying very hard to grasp all this new
information to complete the assignments. I’m open
to criticism and any comment you need to point out
about my presentation, feel free to tell me; I would
be pleased to correct any mistakes in future work,
and I’ll keep practicing my English to add emphasis
and articulation/vocabulary on texts.
Thanks a lot for reading and taking your time!  