i am collecting some material because I would like to prepare a multimedia lesson on acoustics, with possible experiments, for my middle school students. not being very well-versed in the subject, I would like to study it more deeply, especially because it will be useful to me for the construction of musical instruments.
that being said...
i am looking online for software for Mac that acts as an oscilloscope... possibly free.
mmm...as far as you know, does Logic X have any integrated?
and in any case, I am still in the middle of my search. if anyone has any tips to give me, I would be grateful!
with a microphone (either the integrated one or an external one) I would like to record various sound sources (e.g., the sound of a guitar string, a flute, a piano, a crumpled piece of paper, various noises) and, via the oscilloscope, I would like to show the isochronism and periodicity of the waves relative to pitched sounds (that is, wave periods generated all equal that repeat in the same way over time) and the irregularity of the waves generated by noises. furthermore, on the tube, a few days ago, I had found a video in which, with an oscilloscope (software), 2 tuning forks or 2 cassette recorders, and something else, it was possible to calculate the wavelength and the phase shift of two sounds as the distance between the two sound sources varied. I did not download the video and probably did not report the concepts correctly. in any case, the necessary instrument for these experiments is indeed the oscilloscope, which visualizes the sinusoid of one or more incoming sounds.
So perhaps rather than analyzing them in the time domain, it would be better for you to analyze them in the frequency domain... I would use a spectrum analyzer; it certainly makes much more sense for what you need to do.
hi! thanks for your advice and indications. I managed to get both software programs that you recommended.
i am still trying to understand how they work. I wanted to ask you one last thing: are these programs able to
represent waveforms as a function of various parameters, in real time? That is... if I make a tuning fork vibrate,
is the waveform of the sound just produced represented in real time? Or am I forced, first, to record the sound and, only afterwards, extrapolate the relative waveform?
In real time there is Smaart. Certainly there must be maximum silence and I don't know how much the tuning fork can be heard, perhaps by putting the lower part in direct contact with the microphone...
In Audacity, you need to record the sound and then change the view however you wish. You can also zoom in to go deeper. Perhaps Spear needs to be understood a little bit more, but it seems to me that with the first one you can easily achieve good results
gathering material on acoustic physics (for a school lesson), I discovered a world that is far too fascinating. could you recommend a good theoretical text on the subject? preferably with less mathematics (as much as possible) and more popular science oriented (ideally with suggestions for practical experiments)
What Micamahler di Frova suggested to you is what I prefer, but it is very technical.
There are others as well, some more discursive and others less so, but you will find mathematics in practically all of them; in the end, they are physics books, it's like asking for advice on a religious book that doesn't make references to the figure of God...
As an alternative...
- Righini - L'acustica per il musicista (also covers arguments related to psychoacoustics). It is a bit more discursive.
Then there are other books that deal with the acoustic physics of environments, but I don't think that would interest you.
With this, you can visualize in real time both waveforms with an oscilloscope (time domain analysis) and spectral analysis (frequency domain analysis).
What Micamahler di Frova suggested to you is what I prefer, but it is very technical.
There are others as well, some more discursive and others less so, but you will find mathematics in practically all of them; in the end, they are physics books, it's like asking for advice on a religious book that doesn't make references to the figure of God...
As an alternative...
- Righini - L'acustica per il musicista (also covers arguments related to psychoacoustics). It is a bit more discursive.
Then there are other books that deal with the acoustic physics of environments, but I don't think that interests you.
I quote Righini and suggest M. Barone's L'orecchio intelligente; if Smaart works, I will build a small statue to thesimons in the music room, I promise
