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When listening to music, we can recognize a variety of sounds. It’s simple to tell the sound of a piano from the sound of someone’s voice. But, how can we tell this? What is sound made up of, anyways? 

Sound is made up of sound waves. It is common to see sound waves depicted as sine waves. However, this is not the only way in which sound is made. There are many different types of sound waves, some more complex than others, each which hold a unique timbre (the character or quality of a musical sound). 

As stated earlier, the sine wave is the simplest waveform. It only emits one frequency. Therefore, more complex waveforms are constructed from sine waves. More complex waveforms include more than just one frequency value. 

Think of a cake: before you bake the cake, you have the ingredients. Cake is made up of multiple ingredients. Although these ingredients can be consumed and enjoyed by themselves. Once combined, you have a more complex piece of food. 

Sine waves symbolize the ingredients: they are the most basic type of sound wave you can get. 

Complex waveforms would symbolize the cake: they are made up of many simple frequencies, in order to get a more complex sound. 

Some other sound waves to be familiar with, especially within the realm of music production, include square waves, sawtooth waves, and triangle waves. Named after the shape of their curve, these are all examples of complex waveforms. 

Check out the graphic and the video included with this article! They explain the topic in much more depth and detail. 

Sound is everywhere. No matter your location- a busy street full of honking cars, a silent library with rustling papers. These are familiar sensations to all of us- but how do we describe what we hear? Terms like “pitch” and “volume” provide simple explanations. However, there’s value in using more specific terms like “timbre” or "amplitude” or “hertz.” Used especially in the field of music production, it is essential to understand the vocabulary used to express the characteristics of sound.

What is frequency? 

• - Frequency refers to the number of oscillations per unit of time and is measured in Hertz (Hz). 

• - Sound is made up of wavelengths (which is described in more detail in the video linked at the bottom of this article). One wavelength is equal to one cycle. When more wavelengths repeat over a shorter period of time, what results is a higher frequency. 

• - High frequencies correspond with high pitched sounds, Lower frequencies correspond with low pitched sounds. 

What is amplitude? 

• - Amplitude measures the magnitude or intensity of a sound wave. It corresponds to the loudness or volume of the sound. Greater amplitude results in louder sounds, while smaller amplitude results in quieter sounds. 

• - Amplitude is usually measured in decibels (dB). 

  • - dBFS measures digital audio (0dBFS = max sound): this is typically the way you see decibels measured in your DAW

  • - dB SPL measures sound pressure level

  • - dBu and dBV measure voltage

  • - https://magroove.com/blog/en-us/decibel/ resource to learn more about decibels

What is timbre? 

• - Timbre is the character or “color” of a sound, it’s how different instruments make different sounds, even if they are playing the same note. 

• - This is dependent on the harmonic content (combination of frequencies that make up a sound), the envelope (ADSR- how sound evolves over time from its attack to its delay- more on that later), and spectral shape (relates to the distribution of energy across different frequencies).

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