1. Introduction to Music Production
Lesson 1 Assignment
Pedro Galo
32 years old
Portugal

2. Basic Properties of Sound
•Soundwave characteristics:
• Sound Propagation
• Amplitude
• Frequency
Introduction to Music Production : week 1

3. Sound Propagation
•Sound is wave which is created by vibrating objects/molecules , propagated to a
medium from one location to another. ( ex.: the air is made of molecules)
• The medium is simply the material through which the disturbance/vibration is
moving and it can be visualized as a series of interactive particles. Usually this
medium is air , but it can be also water, wood, etc.
Introduction to Music Production : week 1

4. Sound Propagation
• Iniatially we need to have a source to create a sound wave, a vibrating object
capable to disturb the first particle of the medium. ( ex.: guitar string, tuning
"fork", etc. )
Introduction to Music Production : week 1

5. Sound Propagation
• The sound wave is transported from one location to another by means of
particle to particle interaction, with each particle causing a disturbance of his
nearest neighbours.
• Due to the longitudinal motion of the air particles there are regions where
particles are compressed together and other regions where air particles are
spread apart. These regions are called respectively compressions or rarefactions.
Introduction to Music Production : week 1

6. Amplitude
• The maximum distance the particle of any medium moves away from its rest
position is called Amplitude.
•The higher the source of the sound moves as it vibrates, the larger the Amplitude
of the disturbed particles
•The equivalent to Amplitude in electrical terms is the voltage of the electrical
signal. An acoustical compression of the air corresponds to positive going voltage
and an acoustic rarefaction corresponds to negative going voltage.
Introduction to Music Production week 1

7. Frequency
• The number of complete cycles per unit of time is called Frequency.
•Hertz is the unit used to measure wave frequency. The frequency of the wave
depends on the frequency at which the source is vibrating.
•Certain sounds are described by high and others by low. A description of the
sounds as high or low is know as pitch of the sound, therefore picth is how we
perceive the sound. Sound waves that have high frequency are heard as high
pitch sounds and sound waves that have low frequency are acknowledge as low
pitch sounds.
Introduction of Music Production : week 1

8. • Thank you for reading.
• any questions, corrections, suggestions, please let me know :
pgalo80@gmail.com