Seven Characteristics Of Sound You Should Know If You're Into Music

Amplitude

The amplitude is better known by the height of the sound wave. It’s commonly related directly related to volume. When you turn up or down the volume of an EQ, television or stereo, you are turning up or down the amplitude of that sound. The Amplitude is measured in dB and ears are commonly capable of recognizing 3 dB changes in amplitude.

An Audio Engineer might say boost that sound 5dB. Or cut that sound 5 dB.

Frequency

The frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz). The frequency of a sound is measured as the number of times their wave cycles occur in one second. When you boost the bass on your amp you are cutting the frequency. The less bass a track has, the more frequency it has. There’s a video on Youtube that shows a sound changing from 20Hz to 20kHz where you can easily see the sound waves changing, I’ll drop down the link if you’re interested in seeing that.

 

Phase

 

Velocity

Wavelength

Harmonics

Envelope