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  1. Lightbulb Recording and Sound Waves

    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!

  2. #2
    Welcome to the forum!

    I have tried to asses my sound as you suggest, and so far I've had luck only with rudimentary observations. When I was considering switching from my beloved Sterling Virtuoso to the Adams, it took me a while to decide. One observation I had was that in the wave form comparison (using Audacity), the Adams seemed to have more "in the middle" of the wave.

    But it's tricky for sure. For one thing, the steady-state tone comparison is useful, but it is not the whole story. Part of the sound is how the horn transitions from note to note, and also how quickly it can adjust to new volume input from the player.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  3. #3
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by stevenpbarba View Post
    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

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