As an audio engineer, I find this kind of analysis of marginal benefit. While looking at a waveform can give you an idea of whether you are tapering before nite changes, etc, it tells you very little about your actual sound. You could use a spectrograph or something similar to assess harmonic content, but in my experience what we “think” we want and what ACTUALLY sounds good to our ears are different. (An example of this is the tube vs solid state stereo debate - the solid state is TECHNICALLY more linear and carries less distortion, but a lot of people prefer the tubes and find the lack of distortion “sterile”).
In my opinion, (and take it for what it is - an opinion) it’s far more valuable to be able to do things like slow down recordings of your playing without changing pitch so you can more accurately understand what your transitions between notes are REALLY sounding like.
Also note that recording in a very small room will often have less than desirable results for instruments like ours, which take more room for the full wavelength to propagate. (The wavelength of the Bb below the bass clef is almost 30 feet)
As always, YMMV.
Originally Posted by
stevenpbarba
I've recently started recording myself and putting the audio on audacity. A while ago a classmate talk a bit about how he looked at the sound waves to help him figure out his sound and resonance. I'm curious if anyone else does this and has any suggestions on what I should be looking/listening for with these sound waves. I play the tuba in college and right now I have been looking for "blocks" or smooth waves and not sure if this is correct or not.
Thank you!
Mike Taylor
Illinois Brass Band
Fox Valley Brass Band