Chapter 2- Erica

Chapter 2 focuses on the basic concepts surrounding the science of sound waves.

2.1 Concepts

Overall, I found this section to be very clear (as clear as a section can be for someone who has been out of math and physics classes for two years or so.) Even though I am taking pretty extensive notes- forcing me to work through Chapter 2 rather slowly- I feel secure in my grasp of the concepts at this point. I believe that this section will also be more easily understood by the students enrolled in the Digital Sound course since class lectures will accompany the reading. This should iron out any confusion that students may have.

I found the supplements to be very helpful, providing additional explanations for the material. The only inconsistency that I found was in the supplement to section 2.1.4.4, “Non-Sinusoidal Waves,” in describing the types of computer synthesized sounds for each graph. While the sawtooth wave was equated with bowed instruments and the triangular wave was associated with flutes or trumpets, the square wave’s computer sound applications were not described. When I went back to the actual text, I found that square waves are essential in creating woodwind instrument sounds. Adding this information to the supplement would get rid of this inconsistency.

Also, I would have appreciated a few more practice problems involving the equations in section 2.1.2. While I found the quiz to be an accurate indicator of my understanding of the chapter, I would have appreciated two or three basic problems in which I was asked to find the frequency, amplitude, wavelength, etc. or analyze a sine graph. For me, practice problems like these really drive the concepts home and keep me less tempted to race through the reading.

(To Be Continued)