Spectrumlab is an interesting program I downloaded a while ago after seeing an interesting lecture at UBC about sound waves. So you can probably guess what it does. SpectrumLab is basically a sound visualizer, which doesn’t sound exciting, but it is, because it allows you to see sound in a completely new way. In Spectrumlab, new sounds coming in show up at the top of the screen, and their left/right positioning represents their frequency.
This image is of Spectrumlab’s output when I hummed a siren like noise, higher and lower, higher and lower. As you’ve probably noticed, the picture doesn’t just show one frequency though, so what’s up with that? As it turns out, no ordinary sound had only one frequency. Single frequency sounds can only be made electronically. The different frequencies in a sound are actually what makes sounds sound different from each other.
For example, when I hum a note and play the same one on accordion they look different in Spectrumlab.
See how the accordion note has more higher notes than my voice? That’s part of what gives accordion it’s distinct sound. Also, notice how each frequency line is actually two lines close together; that gives accordion notes a more full or “wet” feeling, and gives the sound a kind of slight vibrato because of the two frequency waves canceling each other out at regular intervals. Here’s the link to a safe download for Spectrumlab (windows only): http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/Spectrum-Lab.shtml
Here’s some more accordion music for you to visually enjoy:
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