So hopefully today we'll get our first Ustream on the guys from New Age Dynasty giving us a glimpse of their free-styling skills. In the meantime, I'm going to give a breakdown of the energy we define as "sound".... for the purpose of a better understanding of the info I'm going to give in the next numerous blogs. This information will be necessary because a lot of these terms are used in producing, recording and mixing.
So what is sound and how is it produced? Let's look at the physics: Generally, "Sound" is used to identify a shift of air molecules that is created by some kind of impact and picked up by our ear drums. Specifically, think of it like a ripple in water. You touch it with your finger, a ripple occurs and expands. Sound is the same way. When an impact is made that causes "sound", air molecules at the source of that impact are shifted and cause high-air-pressure/low-air-pressure "waves" that expand away from the source, such as ripples in water. The image below gives you a visual example of what the pattern looks like. The parts where there are more air molecules are called "compression" (or condensation) and the parts where there are less air molecules are called "rarefaction". Non-impacted air molecules would have a more even distribution as opposed to a wave, resulting in lack of sound.
Remember in my previous blog "How To Build a Home Studio (Part 2)" (http://yungsolomon.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-build-your-home-studio-part-2.html) , I was explaining why cork or a soft-surface wall is important for your home studio? These were the sound waves I was talking about that bounce back and forth in a room with hard walls and floors.
Now let's break down the basics of what kind of information these "sound waves" hold. Well, there are two things: "Frequency" and "Amplitude". So for my "super beginners" who are reading this:
Frequency = pitch
Amplitude = volume
Let's look at Frequency. Frequency, in a nutshell, indicates how many of these waves are produced in one second, particularly in what we call "Hertz". One full wave is considered one Hertz. The more waves there are, the higher the number of Hertz, thus the higher the "pitch", (and every pitch/note you hear in every octave is assigned a specific frequency that produces that note). Check out the waves at the bottom of the image.
Now Let's talk about Amplitude. Amplitude is the level of "intensity" a sound has, which is shown in the vertical height of a sound wave. The "taller" the waves, the louder the sound. Normally amplitude is calculated in decibels (dB), and for those of you who are like me and are not mathematicians, all you need to know is, the higher the dB, the louder the sound. For the nerds out there, here's a link that further explains how amplitude is calculated: http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/acoustics/amplitude.htm
Anyways, here's the last important piece of information you need to know about sound. This is what makes the trombone sound different than the piano when they both play the same tune. There's this thing called a "tone" that represents just one frequency. Normally, a sound that's produced is made up of a group of different tones (or a group of frequencies) that happen at one time. This group of tones, or what I call an "overtone", has tones that occur at different frequencies and at different amplitudes, which makes that sound, or "timbre", unique. So in terms of the trombone vs the piano, they both are playing a note where most of their frequencies and amplitudes are in a similar area, but the exact number of tones, their frequencies, and their amplitudes are different, which is what makes the piano and trombone sounds distinct from each other. So, sounds with multiple frequencies and tones would look a little more like this dysfunctional-looking guy below:
OK I think I've picked your brains enough for one blog. We'll be Ustreaming below LIVE today March 17 around 12pm EST so check back in at that time for some good music production in action, some more valuable information, and even send us an instant chat message below the Ustream screen! You can also watch the previously recorded videos until then. Enjoy and comment! :-)
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