What Is Sound?

All sounds are vibrations traveling

through the air as sound waves.
Sound waves are caused by the
vibrations of objects and radiate
outward from their source in all
directions. A vibrating
object compressesthe surrounding air
molecules (squeezing them closer
together) and then rarefies them
(pulling them farther apart). Although
the fluctuations in air pressure travel
outward from the object, the air
molecules themselves stay in the
same average position. As sound
travels, it reflects off objects in its
path, creating further disturbances in
the surrounding air. When these
changes in air pressure vibrate your
eardrum, nerve signals are sent to
your brain and are interpreted as
sound.

Fundamentals of a Sound
Wave
The simplest kind of sound wave is
a sine wave. Pure sine waves rarely
exist in the natural world, but they are
a useful place to start because all
other sounds can be broken down into
combinations of sine waves. A sine
wave clearly demonstrates the three
fundamental characteristics of a sound
wave: frequency, amplitude, and
phase.

Frequency
Frequency is the rate, or number of
times per second, that a sound wave
cycles from positive to negative to
positive again. Frequency is measured
in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz).
Humans have a range of hearing from
20 Hz (low) to 20,000 Hz (high).
Frequencies beyond this range exist,
but they are inaudible to humans.
Amplitude
Amplitude (or intensity) refers to the
strength of a sound wave, which the
human ear interprets as volume or
loudness. People can detect a very
wide range of volumes, from the
sound of a pin dropping in a quiet
room to a loud rock concert. Because
the range of human hearing is so
large, audio meters use a logarithmic
scale (decibels) to make the units of
measurement more manageable.
Phase
Phase compares the timing between
two similar sound waves. If two
periodic sound waves of the same
frequency begin at the same time, the
two waves are said to be in phase.
Phase is measured in degrees from 0
to 360, where 0 degrees means both
sounds are exactly in sync (in phase)

and 180 degrees means both sounds

are exactly opposite (out of phase).
When two sounds that are in phase
are added together, the combination
makes an even stronger result. When
two sounds that are out of phase are
added together, the opposing air
pressures cancel each other out,
resulting in little or no sound. This is
known as phase cancelation.
Phase cancelation can be a problem
when mixing similar audio signals
together, or when original and
reflected sound waves interact in a
reflective room. For example, when
the left and right channels of a stereo
mix are combined to create a mono
mix, the signals may suffer from
phase cancelation.

Frequency Spectrum of
Sounds
With the exception of pure sine waves,
sounds are made up of many different
frequency components vibrating at the
same time. The particular
characteristics of a sound are the
result of the unique combination of
frequencies it contains.
Sounds contain energy in different
frequency ranges, or bands. If a sound
has a lot of low-frequency energy, it
has a lot of bass. The 2504000 Hz
frequency band, where humans hear
best, is described asmidrange. Highfrequency energy beyond the
midrange is called treble, and this
adds crispness or brilliance to a sound.
The graph below shows how the

sounds of different musical

instruments fall within particular
frequency bands.