visual representation of sound

Science Friday

Seeing the patterns in sound.

A pair of artists finds ghostly imagery in sound vibrations.

Vibrations of D. Credit: Louviere + Vanessa

In the late 18 th century, German physicist and musician Ernst Chladni demonstrated how vibrations could be used to create striking imagery. By spreading fine sand across the top of a metal plate and running a violin bow alongside, Chladni showed that the sand would settle into distinct patterns, depending on the frequencies of the sound waves produced by the bow.

Centuries later, in the 1960s, a Swiss physician named Hans Jenny built on Chladni’s experiments in an effort to study vibrational phenomena—what he called “ cymatics .” Visual artist Jeff Louviere happened upon the works of Jenny and Chladni while researching another project, and he and his partner, photographer Vanessa Brown, became inspired to conduct their own experiments to see what sound could look like. The resulting work became Resonantia (Latin for “echo”), a multimedia project centered around 12 images produced by vibrations.

To create the images, the pair (also known as Louviere + Vanessa ) built their own version of a Chladni plate in their New Orleans home. Louviere dismantled one of his guitar amps and separated the speaker, aiming it upwards. On top of the speaker, he placed a lined box and filled it with water and black food coloring. He then hooked the speaker up to an amp plugged into a frequency generator—that is, a computer program with an oscillator—that he could use to play musical notes at various frequencies. A bright ring light mounted over the box illuminated the water below.

As Louviere cycled through musical notes at different frequencies and volumes, from low to ear-piercing—“there was a point where it was so high we had to put the dogs outside so it wouldn’t hurt their ears,” he says—Brown took photographs through the ring light of the water formations produced by the vibrations.

“It was just constant shooting, and trying like every frequency we could stand,” Louviere says.

Brown took about 2,000 photographs in total, and the duo narrowed those down to a dozen, based on the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. They chose the images with the most complex or aesthetically pleasing patterns.

Louviere says he was surprised by some of the patterns they produced. “It’s the first time we’ve done a series of work where we didn’t know what the end result was going to look like,” he says. One of his favorites is the image for F sharp, which is “kind of a weird sound,” he says. The result looked “ like a puffer fish or an alien or something ; it’s got all these crazy lines in it. That one was pretty remarkable.”

And the image for G turned out to be even more eerie. Louviere had been researching the frequencies of various sounds like heartbeats and hurricanes when he read a conspiracy theory about a strange hum called the brown note —a low frequency that would supposedly cause people to lose control of their bowels. When Louviere tried to hit that frequency with their device, Brown captured a vibration pattern that looked like a demonic face.

“It looked like Satan,” Louviere says. “We were like, oh my god.”

Satanic visages aside, the images themselves are a creative example of physics at work. “It’s kind of a classic demonstration in acoustics,” says Trevor Cox, a professor of acoustic engineering at the University of Salford in England. “These are actual physical patterns.”

Every object has a characteristic frequency, or frequencies, at which it vibrates most, with the least input of energy. Those vibrations are associated with standing wave patterns called modes . When the Chladni plate, for instance, vibrates in one of its modes, a pattern appears in the sand on the plate.

“What’s happening is, the sand is moving away from the bits [on the plate] where it’s vibrating a lot” says Cox, and it’s settling in places where there are no vibrations (these places are called “nodes”). And, “if you up the frequency, you’ll find the patterns get really complicated,” because more of those nodes occur.

Cox, who isn’t affiliated with Resonantia , surmises that the patterns depicted in the images formed when the water vibrated in its natural mode. The bright light that Brown shone on the water illuminated the areas that rippled the most.

To achieve the vintage look of the final images, Louviere + Vanessa first printed each photograph onto kozo paper, which is thin and tissue-like, and lay that on top of a metal substrate covered in gold leaf. Then they poured resin over the paper, which turned transparent, allowing the gold leaf to shine through.

The prints have been on display at various galleries across the United States, including A Gallery for Fine Photography in New Orleans and the Verve Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can also learn more about a record and music video that Louviere + Vanessa produced for Resonantia , based on the sounds and images, here .

Meet the Writer

About chau tu.

Chau Tu is an associate editor at Slate Plus . She was formerly Science Friday’s story producer/reporter.

Explore More

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The Art & Science of Sound March 03, 2020

Cymatics: The Visualization of Sound

Cymatics is the study of the visualization of sound, using a physical medium such as sand or water to give a graphic representation to sound waves. The patterns are developed when desructive standing waves form - the sound energy is weakest where the desructive standing waves are so the sand or water migrates there, forming patterns. The higher the frequency, the greater the number of standing waves and therefore the more intricate the patterns. On their own, cymatic patterns are amazing to watch form, but they can also be helpful for us to visualize the way standing waves form and change with frequency.

In the video below, the output of a tone generator is connected to a metal plate covered with sand. More sand is added during the experiment to replace sand that has vibrated off the surface.

The patterns result from the sand being pushed away where the standing waves on the metal plate are the strongest, and gathering where the standing waves are weakest.

Here's another video showing a visual representation through a tonoscope of a singer singing Mozart's Una Donna a Quindici Anni:

Be patient, because 48 seconds in, you're going to be fairly well amazed. This video is an amazing mix of art and science using cymatics:

Now that you've seen what sound looks like, here's a few pictures you might find interesting:

Rose Window, York Minster, UK:

Fresco, Alhambra, Spain:

Buddhist monks in Tibet finish a sand mandala:

Leonardo da Vinci's original drawing of the Flower of Life:

Cat's Eye Nebula, Outer Space:

Spirograph:

Patterns similar to those created with sound through cymatics are consistently similar to patterns found throughout nature and art history. Kinda cool.

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Mastering Audio Visualization: A Beginner’s Guide to Waveforms

Table of contents.

Audio waveforms are graphical representations of audio signals that display changes in a signal’s amplitude over a period of time. They play a vital role in understanding and manipulating audio content, from podcast creation to music videos.

What is an Audio Waveform?

An audio waveform serves as a snapshot of a sound’s overall dynamic range and helps us comprehend the intricacies of sound waves. To understand this better, let’s delve into the basics of visualization and sound waves.

Understanding the Basics: Visualization and Sound Waves

Visualization involves converting sound waves into a graphical format that can be understood easily. Sound waves are vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear. They have characteristics like amplitude (loudness) and frequency (pitch), which when graphically represented, form an audio waveform. This waveform serves as a visual guide to the audio file, making it easier to edit, navigate, and understand the audio content.

How Does an Audio Waveform Generator Work?

An audio waveform generator creates visual representations of sound waves from audio files. It analyzes the audio file, breaks it down into various segments, and presents each segment’s amplitude and frequency as a visual graph. These generators are especially helpful in video editing and music production, where precise editing and synchronization are necessary.

Usage of Audio Waveform

Audio waveforms are a universal tool employed across various sectors, demonstrating their wide-ranging functionality. In essence, they act as visual aids that simplify the audio processing workflow.

The podcasting realm is increasingly adopting audio waveforms. As visual cues, they assist in the audio editing process, streamlining operations such as cutting and trimming and optimizing audio levels. This enhancement leads to an improved listening experience for the audience.

Social Media

With the surge in online video content, adding audio waveform animations to video posts on social media platforms has become a popular trend. These animated waveforms boost engagement, visually appealing to viewers and promoting interaction with the content.

Music Production

For music producers and sound engineers, audio waveforms are invaluable. They provide a clear snapshot of a track’s structure, helping pinpoint specific sections for editing or mastering, thereby facilitating the production of harmonious tunes.

Youtube Videos

YouTube creators harness the power of audio waveforms to enrich their videos. They improve the video editing workflow and can even serve as a backdrop for an online video, thereby enhancing the overall aesthetics and drawing more viewers to the YouTube channel.

Sound Engineering

In the field of sound engineering, audio waveforms allow professionals to analyze audio details intricately. They enable the modification and optimization of audio for performance, playing a crucial role in the delivery of high-quality sound.

Why Should You Use Audio Waveform for Your Video?

Incorporating audio waveforms in your videos is not merely a trendy aesthetic choice, but it carries several practical benefits that can enhance your content’s value:

The dynamic movement of animated waveforms can intrigue viewers, drawing their attention and fostering interaction with your content. This added dimension can make your video stand out among the static content on the web.

Visual Appeal

Audio waveforms add a unique visual element to your content. They can transform a standard audio track into an audio waveform animation, heightening the video’s overall aesthetic appeal and attracting more views.

Professional Touch

Including waveform animations can instill your content with a professional feel, thereby enhancing your brand image and credibility.

Informative

Waveforms reveal essential details about the audio content, such as rhythm, dynamics, and amplitude, providing insights that could potentially inform your creative process.

5 Online Audio Waveform Generators to Try

Are you interested in creating stunning and engaging audio waveforms? Here are five online audio waveform generators that you can use to animate your audio:

Kapwing offers a versatile online editor where you can add audio waveforms to any video, free of charge. You can explore different styles, sizes, and colors to generate an audio waveform that complements your content.

WaveVisual presents an opportunity to generate unique sound wave art in seconds. All you need to do is upload your audio or choose a song from their library or Spotify. WaveVisual’s sound wave generator will craft beautiful sound waves tailored to your taste.

Speechify AI Video Editor

The Speechify AI Video Editor can take your videos to another level. It incorporates audiograms that represent speech and sounds using waveforms, inviting viewers to listen in. This approach makes your videos more captivating and dynamic, helping you garner more views and engagement on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

Veed.io provides a straightforward and free tool for generating animated sound waves. With a wide array of templates and customization options, you can shape the waveform to match your specific preferences and needs.

Echowave.io

Echowave.io emphasizes on the power of audio-waveform animation in driving social media engagement. This platform enables you to add dynamic animations to your videos effortlessly, enhancing the connection between your content and audience.

A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners: Adding Audio Waveforms to Your Videos

Delving into the world of audio waveforms may seem daunting for beginners. Still, with the right tools, guidance, and a little practice, you’ll be able to seamlessly integrate audio waveform visuals into your video content. Here’s a straightforward step-by-step tutorial to help you through the process, including a specific example using Speechify, an online audio waveform generator.

Choosing and Using Your Audio Waveform Tool

Start by selecting your audio waveform tool. There are numerous options available online, like Kapwing, veed.io , or Speechify. Evaluate the pricing and features of each tool and choose the one that best aligns with your needs.

Once you’ve chosen your tool, you need to upload your audio file. Most of these tools support different audio formats, such as WAV and MP3. After uploading, the software will automatically analyze the audio and generate the waveform. Depending on the tool you chose, you should be able to customize the waveform’s style, color, and size to match your video’s aesthetics. For instance, Speechify allows you to select a waveform style and further customize it.

Customizing Your Video

Adding personal touches to your video can greatly enhance its appeal. Most waveform tools enable you to customize your video by adding text, subtitles, images, or even GIFs. Carefully chosen fonts and a relevant background image can add depth to your video, creating a perfect blend of audio and visuals.

With Speechify, this customization is just a click away. After generating and customizing your waveform, you can add captions and subtitles or insert images and GIFs directly into your video.

Exporting Your Audio Waveform Video

The final step in creating your audio waveform video is to preview it, ensuring the waveform aligns correctly with the audio. If everything looks good, save your changes and export the final video. In Speechify, this process is as simple as clicking ‘Export’.

Remember, as with learning any new skill, practice is key. So, don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time!

The use of audio waveforms can significantly improve the quality and engagement of your audio and video content. Tools like Speechify make the process of generating and integrating waveforms simpler and more accessible, allowing creators to produce visually captivating content. From podcasters to YouTubers, the value of using audio waveforms cannot be understated. Experiment with audio waveforms in your next project and see the difference it makes.

How can you generate an audio waveform?

Generating an audio waveform can be achieved by using an audio visualizer or video editing software that supports waveform visualization. These tools interpret your audio file and produce a visual depiction of the sound waves.

What are the steps to incorporate a waveform into audio?

Incorporating a waveform into audio can be achieved through a music visualizer or sound wave animation tools. These tools create waveforms grounded on your audio’s frequency and amplitude, which can subsequently be overlaid on your audio or video content.

How do you craft a soundwave QR code?

To create a Soundwave QR code, you first need to produce a sound wave from your audio file using a sound wave generator. Once your sound wave is ready, a QR code generator can transform the waveform image into a QR code.

Why would you adjust the amplitude of an audio waveform?

Altering the amplitude of an audio waveform influences the perceived volume of the sound. This adjustment is often made to ensure the audio isn’t excessively loud or soft and to preserve a consistent volume level throughout the audio file.

Can you explain the contrast between a sound wave and an audio wave?

Sound waves are physical waves that journey through a medium, such as air, and are detectable by the human ear. On the other hand, audio waves or audio signals are electronic representations of these sound waves. These can be stored, manipulated, and replayed via electronic devices.

What are the basic types of waveforms?

The three fundamental types of waveforms are sine waves, square waves, and triangle waves, each possessing its distinctive shape and properties.

What are the advantages of using an audio waveform generator?

Employing an audio waveform generator can amplify the quality of your audio and video content. It can furnish a visual guide for the audio, assist in aligning audio with visuals, facilitate audio editing, and introduce an attractive visual element to your content.

How is a waveform different from a spectrum?

A waveform represents a sound wave graphically over time, showcasing changes in the sound wave’s amplitude. In contrast, a spectrum demonstrates how the energy of the sound wave is distributed across frequencies.

What functionality does a waveform editor provide?

A waveform editor is a software application permitting you to view and manipulate audio waveforms. It provides a variety of editing functions, such as cutting, copying, pasting, trimming, and adjusting volume levels. A waveform editor can also apply effects and filters to enhance or alter the sound.

How can you visualize an audio spectrum in After Effects?

After Effects provides a powerful tool called the Audio Spectrum Effect. This tool allows you to create dynamic sound wave animations that can be synced with your audio, thereby visualizing the audio spectrum.

Can you add audio waveforms to videos on iPhone?

Yes, several apps available on iPhone let you add audio waveforms directly to your videos. This enables you to give a professional touch to your audio projects even while on the go.

How does a music visualizer work?

A music visualizer generates animated imagery in synchronization with a music track. It uses the frequency and amplitude of the music to drive the animation, creating a visually immersive experience for viewers.

Can video editing software generate a waveform visualization?

Yes, many video editing software can generate waveform visualizations. These visualizations can help with editing tasks by providing a visual reference for the audio content, making it easier to synchronize audio and video content.

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Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.

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November 13, 2019

Hearing Is Seeing: Sound Waves Create a 3-D Display

An interactive system produces levitating images by projecting color onto a tiny bead as it zips around a darkened box

By Sophie Bushwick

Acoustic system displays an abstract floating butterfly.

Eimontas Jankauskis  University of Sussex

To move visual technology into the future, sometimes it helps to make a little noise. Researchers have harnessed acoustic waves to produce levitating three-dimensional images, create a sensation of touch and even supply a soundtrack.

Since the 1940s , scientists have toyed with the concept of acoustic levitation , the use of soundwave vibrations to trap tiny objects in midair. The technology has gained greater capabilities in the past decade, allowing acoustic systems to push and pull small particles around like sonic tractor beams. Some researchers believe this improvement could lead to applications such as mixing or sorting grains of powder, performing small chemical reactions in isolation, contributing to novel 3-D printing methods—or creating displays that would be visible from any angle.

Fast-moving dot can trick the human eye into seeing a figure eight or a smiley face. Credit: Eimontas Jankauskis University of Sussex

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This type of display is called volumetric: Unlike holographic technology, it can create an image without requiring a screen, and it can be viewed from all sides. Picture it like the message R2-D2 carries from Princess Leia in a very famous film. “I like the Star Wars thing,” says study co-author Ryuji Hirayama, a research fellow at the University of Sussex in England. Hirayama and his colleagues produced their own floating images with a system they call a multimodal acoustic trap display (MATD). It looks like a 10-centimeter box with open sides and a top and bottom that consist of arrays of tiny speakers (512 in all). These speakers emit patterns of sound waves in the ultrasonic range—too high for the human ear to pick up—which sets up vibrations in the air that manipulate a plastic sphere slightly smaller than a sesame seed.

As the bead flies around in programmed patterns, the researchers project changing colors onto it. “We illuminate that levitated particle using RGB LEDs—red, green, blue—so we can control the color of the scattering light,” Hirayama says. Thanks to its high speed—the particle can zip vertically at almost nine meters per second and horizontally at nearly four—the glowing dot fools the human eye into perceiving a continuous image. This phenomenon is known as persistence of vision. The same principle enables a visual trick often seen on the Fourth of July, when the glowing head of a sparkler appears to trace golden outlines as one moves it through the night air. The new volumetric-display technique was reported in Nature on Wednesday.

To capture more complex graphics, the researchers filmed their display with a camera shutter speed of 20 seconds. Credit: Eimontas Jankauskis University of Sussex

Other researchers have also worked on visual displays that use acoustic levitation: One Japanese team used a large number of minuscule particles as a sort of shimmering projection screen . And in a paper published this past August in Applied Physics Letters , researchers described a system similar to the University of Sussex project. Yet according to a co-author of the August study—Asier Marzo, a researcher at the Public University of Navarre in Spain—the new system from the University of Sussex is more advanced than any previous attempts. “Their results are much better than ours,” Marzo says. “In the paper that we published three months ago, our particle was going at not even one meter per second. And in the new paper that this group has released from Sussex, I think they can reach up to nine meters per second. And that’s why I think the results are amazing.”

In addition to visuals, the system can also produce audible noise to give the display a soundtrack. And the ultrasound speakers can also concentrate vibrations in one spot so that a finger might feel a sensation pushing back—a little like the object depicted by the floating image is really there. “We created a 3-D display that we can see and we can touch,” Hirayama says. “In this paper, we combine these three modalities: we are using ultrasound, but we can create visual, tactile and audio content at the same time.” This three-pronged approach could, for example, show a blinking and blaring alarm that one might reset with the touch of a finger.

And an alarm clock is hardly the only potential application. “Display without a screen is remarkably versatile and useful,” says Daniel Smalley, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Brigham Young University, who reviewed the Sussex paper for Nature but was not involved in the research. “It means that everybody in the room can see the image—any perspective, location—and that’s extremely helpful.” As a communications system, such a display might one day allow users to chat with a 3-D projection of a person who can turn his or her head to follow as they move around a room. Hirayama also suggests the technology could be used to visualize data in midair. For example, Smalley points out, a 3-D view of the satellites surrounding Earth would provide a more intuitive idea of how space junk is distributed and how astronauts might avoid it.

Although a variety of techniques have been used to produce volumetric displays, Smalley thinks acoustic levitation shows promise. “This particular display is interesting because it’s much closer to commercialization than other types of free-space volumetric displays,” he says. “They use off-the-shelf components, and they’ve demonstrated that it’s not too inertial. My impression was that the strategy was going to be too inertial to work at persistence-of-vision rates—and they've proved, with this paper, that’s not the case.”

The display will require a lot more work before you can install it in your living room, however. “So far, this has been done in the research laboratory,” Marzo points out. “And I think we need to push it a little bit harder. We need to do more analysis, more simulations, to see if it would make sense to create a real display that people would have at home.” The current system can only show simple graphics, such as a smiley face or figure eight, in real time (although it can produce the more detailed image of a spinning globe when filmed with a camera that has a slow shutter speed). To demonstrate more detailed visuals—such as a graph or a 3-D visualization of the satellites around Earth—it would need to whip the bead around the display at a significantly higher speed. “You may ask why getting the particle faster is good for the display,” Marzo says. “That’s because the speed of the particle determines how large and how complex the graphics that you can display are.”

Still, Smalley is optimistic about the potential for this type of technology. If the system had only one speaker-covered surface instead of two, he suggests, it could generate images that are bigger than the device itself. “You can’t make a TV image that’s bigger than the TV—even a projector has to have a projection screen that’s bigger than the image itself,” he says. But with a volumetric display, a small, portable device might produce a much larger picture. “You can imagine, in the future, having volumetric displays in watches, for example, that create large images that just project out of your watch.” Or perhaps out of your Star Wars droid.

FREE K-12 standards-aligned STEM

curriculum for educators everywhere!

Find more at TeachEngineering.org .

• TeachEngineering
• Designing Musical Art to Help See Sound

Hands-on Activity Designing Musical Art to Help See Sound

Grade Level: 1 (K-2)

Time Required: 45 minutes

Expendable Cost/Group: US $0.00

Group Size: 1

Activity Dependency: None

Subject Areas: Measurement, Physical Science, Physics, Reasoning and Proof

NGSS Performance Expectations:

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Engineering connection, learning objectives, materials list, worksheets and attachments, introduction/motivation, vocabulary/definitions, activity extensions, activity scaling, additional multimedia support, user comments & tips.

Sound is used in many different types of engineering to solve various problems. There are engineers called audio engineers who specifically focus on how to make music sound good when creating records for artists. There are also acoustic engineers who help design buildings like theaters to carry or muffle sound as needed. Sound can also be important in fields like biomedical engineering when creating hearing aids or studying the ear.

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Explain how sound is caused by vibrations.
• Summarize why sound is louder or quieter.
• Design their own instrument to produce sound.
• Create a visual representation of sound waves.

Educational Standards Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards. All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) , a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org). In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g. , by state; within source by type; e.g. , science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc .

Ngss: next generation science standards - science, common core state standards - english.

View aligned curriculum

Do you agree with this alignment? Thanks for your feedback!

Common Core State Standards - Math

Each student needs:

• piece of cardboard about 1 to 2 sq. ft in area
• piece of white paper
• 5-10 rubber bands
• Measuring Sound Waves Worksheet

For the entire class to share:

• multiple colors of paint (liquid tempura paint works well)
• smocks or large shirts to keep students’s clothes clean (optional)
• table coverings for painting (optional)

(If the teacher has  access to a guitar, ukulele or any other stringed instrument, it recommended to bring that instrument into the class for a demonstration can. If not, parts of this video from All Sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PK_mKCfIDE&t=26s can be played to demonstrate different sounds a guitar can make.  Have the students gather around and then very dramatically strum the guitar just once quietly, so that a sound can barely be heard.)

Did you hear that sound? (Let students respond. After they acknowledge they have, strum it once more very loudly.) Can you hear the sound better this time? (Let students respond. Note: If  both a guitar and ukulele are available, do this first with the guitar and then with the ukulele.)

Let’s think about these three questions:

• What do we think causes sound?
• How could we see sound?
• What factors can make sound louder or quieter?

Now, I’d like you to turn to the person next to you and discuss these questions. I’ll give you two minutes. (Give students a five-minute timer, or just keep an eye on how the conversation is flowing.)

Okay, let’s hear what you think! What do we think causes sound? (Let students share with the whole group the responses they discussed with their partners. Write down some of the main ideas or answers the group came up with on the board next to each question.  See how close students are to the truth or how far away they are.) Today we are going to answer these questions by designing a device that will help you see sound by creating your very own sound art. (Optional: Show students this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP36xoPXDnM&t=94s to get them interested if needed.)

Sound is created by vibration. One of the clearest examples of this can be seen in music and musical instruments. Instruments are designed so that they will create sound within a particular pitch range and be able to reach a certain volume level. These parameters are developed by considering things like the size, shape, and materials used in creating the instrument. The same engineering design process will apply to each student’s design.

Sound is vibrations that create waves and move through a medium like a solid, liquid, or gas. Waves are energy that moves across a given space. Different wavelengths and amplitudes of waves produce different energy and thus, different sounds. This is how we get all the different sounds in the world that we hear around us. While these concepts may be advanced for early elementary, they can be useful for anyone who is thinking about how to scale the concept of sound design toward this age group.

Before the Activity

• Gather cardboard boxes and cut them into rectangles or squares. They do not all need to be the same size but the minimum size  is about 6 sq. inches.
• Have the Measuring Sound Waves Worksheet printed and ready.
• Have paint, tape, paper, rubber bands, and any other necessary materials set up.
• (optional) Have a long roll of paper ready to cover tables.

• Tell them that they will receive:
• a piece of cardboard
• 6-10 rubber bands
• Tell the students there will be criteria and constraints around designing their instrument.
• Their instrument can be any size or shape, but:
• Their instrument must have between 4-8 strings
• There must be white paper underneath all of their strings.
• They must be able to pluck their strings without the strings breaking.
• They must have their name on their instrument.
• They can use anything they might have in their pencil box or on their table (i.e. crayons, glue sticks, scissors).
• They will have 20 minutes to build their instrument.
• Let students choose their cardboard and materials in whatever method works best for the classroom procedures.
• Allow students to begin building.
• While students are working, facilitate their designs by asking pointed questions. Some examples include: What are you modeling your instrument after? How many strings will your instrument have? Why did you choose that shape? What struggles are you having?

• When the sharing session is over, gather the students together. Tell them they will now be using their instruments to see sound. Tell them they will be putting paint on their strings. They will then pluck their strings and watch how the paint moves to create sound waves. (If smocks are available, now would be a good time to put them on.)
• They will get to choose three colors of paint.
• They need to try plucking at least one string hard, and one string gently.
• They must be careful with the paint.
• They can put their paint colors in any order and design their art any way they want.
• After giving them these criteria, have students choose paint colors individually, or have some responsible students help, depending on the number of students and their level of ability.
• Put the paint directly on the rubber bands. Just a line should do.

• When they are finished, have them put them in a place to dry in somewhere in the classroom and wash their hands and remove smocks if they were wearing them.
• When all students are finished, have them gather on the carpet for a discussion.
• Ask students:
• What did you observe? (Potential answer: I noticed that the paint spread more when I plucked the string harder.)
• What did the string you plucked lightly look like? (Potential answer: The paint didn’t spread very much at all.)
• What about the string you plucked hard? (Potential answer: The paint went much further.)
• What do you think this means? (Potential answer: That bigger waves make louder sounds.)
• How do you think you saw sound? ( Potential answer: I saw how the vibrations made everything move around them and how that was like my voice spreading around a room for people to hear.)
• What do you think the different size waves mean? (Potential answer: That sounds can be louder or quieter depending on the vibrations.)
• What do you think sound is now after seeing this? (Potential answer: Sound is waves and vibrations.)
• Show this video for wrap-up for the day. What is Sound? | Physics for Kids | SciShow Kids  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-xKZKxXuu0 ). Then tell students that tomorrow we will measure the sound we made and see if we can discover even more.
• Hand out students’ instruments from the previous day and a ruler for each student, the instruments should now be dried.
• Have them do the measurement activity paper.
• After students have completed the paper. Have a discussion using the following questions:
• What do you think a bunch of sound waves close together might mean? (Answer: The sound is faster.)
• What do you think very tiny waves could mean? (Answer: The sound is quiet.)
• What about bigger waves? (Answer: The sound is loud.)
• How does seeing what sound waves look like help us understand how sound works? (Answer: We can see that sound is made up of waves and they look different depending on the sound being produced.)

frequency: How many waves there are per second.

pitch: The rate at which vibrations are produced.

sound wave: Vibrating forms of energy that are made of molecules and look like waves.

vibration: A rapid motion (as of a stretched cord) back and forth.

volume: The measure of loudness.

wavelength: The measured distance between two identical points on two back-to-back waves.

Pre-Activity Assessment

Discussion : Turn and talk to a partner about these questions.

Activity Embedded (Formative) Assessment

Discussion: Students will discuss designs with peers and teacher to create various iterations. They will also have a post discussion aftward of their observances during the engineering design.  

Post-Activity (Summative) Assessment

Measurement of waves activity: Students will measure the distance between their sounds waves to understand how sound spreads and gets quieter as it gets further away using the Measuring Sound Waves Worksheet .

Making Sense Assessment: Have students reflect on the science concepts they explored and/or the science and engineering skills they used by completing the Making Sense Assessment .

Safety Issues

You may want to wear smocks if you have them to avoid any paint on clothes, but this is optional.

Have students devise another way, on their own, that they might be able to see vibrations. Students develop a design to allow them to hear the sound waves from further distances. Students could also delve into how different instruments vibrate to make sound and design a new instrument after their research.

Have students work in groups to create an instrument

• Help students with the tape and maybe give them fewer sizes and shapes to choose from.
• Allow students to make a non-stringed instrument.
• Give students the added parameter of making their instrument as loud as possible.
• Have students do the activity with less reusable materials such as real guitar strings and wood.

Fun extras:

• https://www.incredibox.com/
• https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker

Links to videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PK_mKCfIDE&t=26s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP36xoPXDnM&t=94s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxGWsHYITAw

Contributors

Supporting program, acknowledgements.

This curriculum was based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under RET grant no. EEC 1711543— Engineering for Biology: Multidisciplinary Research Experiences for Teachers in Elementary Grades (MRET) through the College of Engineering at the University of Florida. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Last modified: March 16, 2023

Harmonograph: A visual representation of sound

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8 Stunning Ways Artists Are Visualizing Sound

We’re a little obsessed with Sound Vizualizations, and we think there are some other artists out there doing a pretty awesome job at it. Here’s a roundup of some of our favorites.

Unique artists who are doing Sound Vizualizations

Dancing Colors by Fabian Oefner – Source

Sound is a vibration and this artist wanted to visualize that in a way never seen before. Fabian created this affect by adding hundreds of colorful, tiny crystals on top of foil that was placed on speakers. Every time he played a sound through the speakers, the crystals would jump to create these colorful forms.

Spectral Density Estimation by Andreas Nicolas Fischer – Source

Commissioned by the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and the Winston-Salem Symphony orchestra, recordings were taken of tunings at the last orchestra performances of the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Each recording was made into a beautiful and organic arrangement of audio frequencies. The result was then carved into wood from a cedar tree that had fallen outside of the museum.

Ljósið by Ólafur Arnalds – Source

This musician and producer from Iceland mixes strings and piano loops to create beautiful ambient and electronic music. The video beautifully combines melodic sounds and colorful waves of movement that will leave your senses in a trance.

Sound Wave by Jean Shin – Source

Records were literally melted to physically sculpt a crashing wave. The artist wanted to speak to the “inevitable waves of technology that render each successive generation of recordable media obsolete.”

The Sound of Taste by Grey London & Chris Cairns – Source

Herb and spice experts, Schwartz, wanted to created a visual representation of the intense effect that herbs and spices have on the senses. Several tonnes of spices such as cinnamon, black peppercorns, basil leaves and many more exploded perfectly to a musical composition.

Sound Chair by Matthey Plummer-Fernandez – Source

This Columbian artist created a simple chair made by the volume and frequency time graph of a short 1-second sound.

Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec – Source

A little bit of a stretch, but a project too unique not to mention. Over the course of a year, two women get to know each other through hand-crafted data visualizations they create. Their words turn into writings to augment these beautiful visualizations that communicate their feelings.

MilkDrop by Ryan Geiss – Source

Last but definitely not least, the legendary MilkDrop. Created 14 years ago, MilkDrop was a staple for any serious digital music listener. It’s complex color patterns transform and morph endlessly giving you the sense of infinity. It’s something we grew up with and will always be an inspiration to us.

Chelsea Davis

5 responses to “8 Stunning Ways Artists Are Visualizing Sound”

[…] that 3456 Google users are searching SoundWiz instead of Soundviz? Though we are Magicians and our Soundwave Art algorithm looks very much like Wizardy, we focus on the ‘Viz’ of the Data Visualisation […]

[…] http://blog.soundviz.com/2015/10/29/8-stunning-ways-artists-are-visualizing-sound/ […]

[…] Photo credit: Chelsea Davis. See more of this beautiful artwork here. […]

[…] http://www.mtv.com/news/2146358/melissa-mccracken-synesthesia-art/ https://mymodernmet.com/melissa-mccracken-synethesia-paintings/ https://weburbanist.com/2011/05/30/creative-cartography-15-artists-transforming-maps/ https://mymodernmet.com/modern-map-art-design/ https://www.pinterest.com/ingepanneels/artists-who-use-maps-in-their-work/ https://www.complex.com/style/2013/03/25-artists-inspired-by-maps/lost https://www.markpowellartist.com/portfolio-item/maps/ http://www.everydaylistening.com/articles/tag/visualization http://blog.soundviz.com/2015/10/29/8-stunning-ways-artists-are-visualizing-sound/ […]

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Interfacing Sound: Visual Representation of Sound in Musical Software Instruments

• First Online: 10 December 2016

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• Thor Magnusson 6  

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This chapter explores the role of visual representation of sound in music software. Software design often remediates older technologies, such as common music notation, the analogue tape, outboard studio equipment, as well as applying metaphors from acoustic and electric instruments. In that context, the aim here will be study particular modes in which abstract shapes, symbols and innovative notations can be applied in systems for composition and live performance. Considering the practically infinite possibilities of representation of sound in digital systems—both in terms of visual display and mapping of gestural controllers to sound—the concepts of graphic design, notation and performance will be discussed in relation to four systems created by the author: ixi software, ixiQuarks, ixi lang, and the Threnoscope live coding environment. These will be presented as examples of limited systems that frame the musician’s compositional thoughts providing a constrained palette of musical possibilities. What this software has in common is the integral use of visual elements in musical composition, equally as prescriptive and representative notation for musical processes. The chapter will present the development of musical software as a form of composition: it is an experimental activity that goes hand in hand with sound and music research, where the musician-programmer has to gain a formal understanding of diverse domains that before might have been tacit knowledge. The digital system’s requirements for abstractions of the source domain, specifications of material, and completeness of definitions are all features that inevitably require a very strong understanding of the source domain.

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The 160 character text message is a good example: the SMS (Short Message Service), although invented as part of the GSM cooperation in 1984, was initially implemented in Nokia phones for their engineers to test mobile networks. The technology was quickly adopted by users who began enjoying this mode of communication. This became a protocol of sorts, and as of 2016, Twitter is still respecting this 140 char limit.

Skeumorphic design is where necessary features in an original objects are used as ornamentation in the derivative object. Examples in graphical user interface design could be screws in screen-based instruments, leather in calendar software, the use of shadows, and so on.

The contrasting design ideologies between Moog and Buchla are a good example of the problems at play here. It is evident that Moog’s relative commercial success over Buchla’s was largely due to the referencing well known historical instruments (see Pinch and Trocco 2002 ).

There are exceptions of that model of course, such as the discontinued Nord Modular Synth.

Hunt’s software is of course no failure. It is a highly successful research project that has served its author and many others as musical tool, for example in education, and it has inspired various other research projects, mine included. But the context of this discussion is innovation and how a specific music technology instance might fare in the world of mass markets and sales.

The manufacturers of both interfaces call them “instruments”. Some might argue that they only become instruments when coupled with a sound engine, as familiar instrumental models indicate (e.g., Wanderley 2000 or Leman 2008 ), but I do believe it makes sense, in terms of innovation, longevity and spread of use, to call these instruments. Will there be a day when something like the Karlax will be taught in music conservatories? How would that even work? What would the training consist in?

See Boden ( 1990 ) on creativity - although her P-creativity and H-creativity stand for psychological and historical creativity (where the former is always included in the latter), in this case we use the term personal creativity.

However, further development and user experience shows that the system is more of a compositional tool, an instrument, and not a musical piece. Admittedly, the boundaries are not very clear here and the author has had interesting discussions with users who are of different opinions of what might constitute a musical piece.

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Thor Magnusson

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Institut für zeitbasierte Medien, Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin, Germany

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Hauke Egermann

Audio Communication Group, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Sarah-Indriyati Hardjowirogo

Stefan Weinzierl

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Magnusson, T. (2017). Interfacing Sound: Visual Representation of Sound in Musical Software Instruments. In: Bovermann, T., de Campo, A., Egermann, H., Hardjowirogo, SI., Weinzierl, S. (eds) Musical Instruments in the 21st Century. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2951-6_11

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