The next property of sound we're going to

look at is Amplitude, which is the, kind

of, extent of the wave.
How wide it's moving, or actually, how
much the air compresses and rarefies as
that wave form moves or propagates
through the air.
Now, there are many types of waves.
And one of the tough things is that we
tend to think of a wave like a wave on a
pond, which is this flat surface with
vibrations on top of it.
And the truth is, wave in the air moves a
little bit of a different way.
air on a pond, the, direction of the
vibration is perpendicular.
Or kind of at a right angle to the
direction of propagation.
But waves but sound and air, the
direction of the vibration is parallel.
The same direction as the direction of
propagation.
I'm going to use this spring to kind of
demonstrate, what I mean by that.
So if we look at a wave on a pond, or
sound on a guitar string, we'll see a
wave kind of like this.
[SOUND].
Where its propagating this way, but we
see the wave is moving that way.
Now in the air, we have the air
compressing and rarefying, and we call it
a longitudinal wave.
Because the direction of vibration is
perpen, is parallel to the directional
propagation, so if I were to push one end
of the string the spring here.
[NOISE].
We see that the wave moves down and back
all through the spring.
Now the extent of that, the amount of
compression is the amplitude, if we
thought of amplitude in a transverse
wave, it would be the amount that I'd
swing it back and forth.
[NOISE].
So that would have a high amplitude,
[NOISE] and now we have a low amplitude.
If I think of a longitudinal wave, if I
push gently, [NOISE] we get a slight
movement across the spring, and that's a
low amplitude.
Or I push very hard on this, [NOISE] we
get a large wave, [NOISE], and that's a
high amplitude.
So amplitude is the extent of compression
in rare faction of the air.
Compression is the amount of the, amount
of the air is, is getting more dense as

the way it moves by.

And rarefaction is the way that the
actually air is getting less than as the
way it moves by the extent of that is our
amplitude.
Now, perceptually, we hear that as being
louder or quieter.
The higher the amplitude, the louder it
is.
Now, when we look at diagrams of wave
forms though, we never see, I mean how
would you diagram, the longitudinal wave,
it's very difficult.
So we diagram it as it it's transverse.
We need to know when we're thinking about
air that it is this longitudinal
compression and rarefaction it's moving
in the same direction as the propagation.
Amplitude is measured in decibels.
And there are numerous places in our
signal flow where we do measure
amplitude.
we measure it out in the air.
And in that instance, we use Decibels of
Sound Pressure Level, or dBSPL.
Now, the thing you have to know about
decibels is it's a relative measure.
There's no definite set point where zero
is, and it gets used differently in a
variety of contexts.
So, in the air we use dBSPL, and the SPL
portion of it is actually setting where
zero is.
And dBSPL is related to the threshold of
hearing, or the quietest thing we can
possibly hear in the air.
Once we get into the digital domain, into
the computer, we measure amplitude with
DBFS or full scale.
And that then is related to the loudest
thing that could be represented in
numbers within the computer.
And we find a kind of variation in the
way the numbers work.
If we're thinking about the real world,
out here we measure DBSPL.
It's going to be from zero being the
quietest thing and just gets louder and
louder and louder.
Until it gets to the kind of threshold,
the pain or the the loudest thing we can
perceive with, you know, comfortably.
when we're in the computer, we measure
dBFS.
And in that case, we have zero as the
loudest possible thing that can be
represented in the computer, and it goes
negative from there.
So you're much more likely to see
negative DB in the computer, but positive

DB, when you're talking about sound in

the air.
Now this is important, just because a lot
of times you leave off the extension.
Everyone just says dB but you need to
recognize every time you hear someone
talking about amplitude and talking about
decibels, you need to know the context.
You need to realize are they talking
about dBSPL in the air, or are they
talking about dBFS full scale inside the
computer.
People will tend to use the terms
amplitude and loudness interchangeably.
And we're going to find that as we go
through these six weeks, that we're
going to get finer and finer definitions
for some common words.
And in fact, amplitude and loudness are
different things.
Amplitude is something measurable by a
computer, and loudness is our perception
of that.
And actually, our perception of amplitude
is a very complex thing.
It includes many other factors, like
mostly duration.
How long has this thing been loud for?
And also, frequency, we hear amplitudes
different in the lows and the highs.
So, it's important in our own
conversation, in our forums, and in our
discussions with each other.
That we start being really particular
about are we talking about amplitude,
which is a measurable thing in the real
world and in the computer.
Or are we talking about loudness, which
is the human perception of amplitude
which is related to things like duration
and frequency.
When producing music, amplitude becomes a
primary concern.
our, our functions of mixing is largely
based on controlling the amplitude of our
many tracks and making them relative to
each other in a pleasing way.
The idea of panning is controlling the
level between the two speakers.
And we have a number of plugins that are
dynamic plugins which are going to be
controlling the amplitude of our signal
over time.
the dynamic plugins are going to be your
expanders, gates, compressors, and
limitors.
Now, amplitude also comes into a great
extent when looking at gear.
So if you're buying a microphone, you'll
see something called the dynamic range of

the microphone.
And the dynamic range of a microphone is
the decibels in which it will reproduce
the sound properly.
And when you talk about dynamic range,
and this another one of those words
that's going to be used different ways in
different contexts.
But when you're talking about dynamic
range in a piece of gear, its the range
levels between the noise floor or the,
the, the quietest that is just going to
be the hiss that the device is putting
out.
And the distortion when you get so loud
that it just can't reproduce it.
And it gives you an ugly crackling or
upper harmonics, are added to the signal.
So your dynamic range distance from the
quietest things that can be reduced
clearly above the noise.
So your noise floor, to your distortion,
is going to be your dynamic range.
Every piece of gear has a specific
dynamic range, our own ears have a
dynamic range.
And we also use the term dynamic range
when talking about a piece of music.
You can say the dynamic range of a piece
of music is the range from its quietest
section to its loudest.
So we see that this idea of amplitude is
going to be of primary concern throughout
the music production process.
And it's something to take very great
care with when you're setting levels for
a microphone, when you're mixing, when
you're setting your output levels.
Something to always be aware of, and this
is again a big topic.
The idea of decibels, there's so much
more to think about there.
So this is something I would really love
you to take to the forums.
And, even look for outside resources
about this stuff.
Things to look up would be logarithms,
dynamic range, decibels, equal loudness
contours, the Fletcher Munson curves, and
dynamic range.