How To Clean Up A Soundwave Image

How to Make Your Own Soundwave Art

What is Soundwave Art?

Visualising and "printing" sound

Soundwave fine art is a audio recording that has been printed and made into an artwork.

[photo credits: epitome ane and 2 created by Katie Wardrobe. Epitome iii by music teacher Linda Horne of Tafelmusik ]

Creating soundwave art with your students is a great way to teach them nigh the science of sound. Click To Tweet

Before you get the students to create artwork, you can teach:

How audio is produced
What a waveform is
How the waveform changes when sounds are loud or when they are soft

Going one step further, you tin use sound recording software to bear witness them the soundwave. Two great complimentary options are Brazenness (for Mac or PC) and Twisted Wave (online – practiced for Chromebooks).

How to create soundwave art – the bones steps

After learning about sound, students can create a visual "audio message" for someone they know. The basic steps involved are:

Open your audio recording software and record a curt message
Have a screenshot of your recorded waveform
Import the screenshot into Google Docs
Optional: edit the image
Print and get together artwork!

It'south really simple to do, lots of fun and in that location are many applications. Students can stick their soundwave fine art on to a carte, print it on colored newspaper and decorate it yet they like.

Ideas for using soundwave art

Creating soundwave fine art is a perfect way to gloat an event, holiday or other special occasion in your form. You lot can leave it upward to the students to choose what they volition say in their recording, but Curt letters usually piece of work all-time.

Hither are a few suggestions:

Mother's Day or Male parent'southward Day – "You're the all-time!" or "I love you" or "My Dad rocks"
Valentine's Day – "I love yous" or "be my Valentine"
Holidays – "Happy holidays!" or "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Thanksgiving Day"
Halloween – tape a spooky laugh or imitate a ghost!

Step-by-footstep

You tin use whatsoever sound recording software that shows a waveform for this pace. I've had success with both Brazenness (download to your Mac or PC) and Twisted Moving ridge (online) which are both costless to utilize.

Yous do not demand any special equipment for this – the built-in microphone on the laptop or Chromebook is more than adequate. This is peradventure the merely time that you don't actually need to worry too much about the quality of the recording. You just need the audio wave to look good since it will be seen and non heard! Having said that, if students are too close to the mic or speak too loudly, the waveform won't accept much variation in information technology (it volition look like a "block" of sound). They might demand to experiment with their speaking book and/or distance from the microphone to get the best-looking result.

Here are the steps:

1. Record your message

Open up Audacity or Twisted Wave (if you're using Twisted Wave online, you lot'll need to give information technology permission to use your microphone) or any other software/app that records audio and produces a visual waveform
Click the Record button
Say your message
Printing Stop
Take a look at the waveform you recorded. If y'all need to tape it again, press the Undo button to remove the recording and get back to step 2 (or select your recording and delete it)

2. Take a screenshot (screen capture) of the waveform

Next, accept a screenshot of the waveform and save the image. You lot can use screen capture software, or utilize the inbuilt screen capture option on your laptop:

On Mac: printing Cmd+Shift+4 (or v if y'all're on Mojave)
On PC: press the Printscreen push button
On Chromebooks: Ctrl+Shift and the Switch Window primal

NB: Save the screen capture with a descriptive file name . Include the student's proper noun, class, group etc. so that you tin locate it easily side by side time.

3. Import the image into a Google Dr.

Open a new Google Doc
Go to Import > Image > Upload From Computer or select Bulldoze if your image is stored there
You can as well simply drag the paradigm into the document

4. Optional: edit the image

In Google Docs, you can change the appearance of the soundwave image before printing it.

To ingather the epitome: click on the paradigm first and then click on the Crop button. Ingather to the desired shape:

To change the background of the waveform: click on the image to select it, click on Prototype Options and so adjust the Contrast (drag to the right to make the groundwork lighter or white):

To change the colour of the waveform: click on the image to select it, click on Image Options and and so choose one of the options in the Recolor drop-down carte. Some of the options will affect but the waveform and some will affect the waveform and the groundwork. Experiment until you observe one y'all like!

Here are four examples using a waveform image from Twisted Wave:

5. Print your soundwave and create your artwork

The final footstep is to print the soundwave. You can then add it to a carte du jour or print it as is and then frame it.

Listen to a podcast episode about soundwave art!

In episode 98 of the Music Tech Teacher podcast, I described the process for making your ain soundwave art and gave some examples.

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Desire More?

Hello! I'm Katie Wardrobe – an Australian music engineering science trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music .

I'm a qualified teacher but no, I don't currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development infinite – the Midnight Music Community – where in that location are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.

I like to focus on easy means to incorporate applied science into what y'all are already doing in your music curriculum through a range of creative projects. I likewise run live workshops and have presented at countless conferences and other music educational activity events.

If you want elementary, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would Dear to assistance you inside the Midnight Music Community .

Learn more than and take a sneak peek inside

I love to simplify engineering science for music teachers. I assistance teachers from all around the world through the Midnight Music Community - an online professional development community where teachers can take online courses, inquire questions and receive personalised help for the music tech goals.