1.2 Theory Paragraph 1.

2 - Frequency, amp litu de, and waveform

If t he amplitu de of a wave being o utput by an algorit hm exceeds t he maximum

permitted by th e audio interface (a wave, fo r example, that ranges betwee n
1.2 and -1.2, being o utp ut by an interface that cannot accurately play values
greater t han 1), all of the values exceeding 1 or fa lling below - 1 w ill be limited
respectively to t he maximum and the minimum value: offend ing values w ill be
"clipped" to the values 1 or -1. Clipped waves are deformed, and because of
th is, t heir sound is d isto rted 11 (see fig. 1.13).

05

Cl)
-0
.~ 0
0.
E
r'O

•0.5

·1

0 2 8 10
t ime in msec -

Fig. 1.13 A "cl ipped" wavefo rm

In most soft ware, besides using "raw" numb ers to represent amp lit ude, it is
also possible to indicate levels by using dB SPL: the symbol dB indicates t hat
the level is to measured in deciBels, and the acronym SPL stands for Sound
Pressure Level. W hereas raw amp litude measurements represent the diff erence
betw een a sound pressure measurement and some normal pressure, SPL is
instead defined as t he relationship of a sound pressure at a given moment to a
reference pressure (w hich is typ ically 0 dB in digital aud io). 0 dB SPL represents
the highest level of accurately reproducib le pressure (corresponding to the maxi-
mum amp litud e), and lower levels are indicated by negative values.

Using th is scale, the raw amp lit ude 1, as used in the preced ing examples,
wou ld correspond to 0 dB SPL, wh ile a magnitude of 0.5 wo uld cor respond
to approx imately -6 dB, and an amp litude of 0.25 wou ld fal l still lowe r on th e
scale at approx imately - 12 dB. It fo llow s t hat a reduction of 6 dB corresponds
to a halving of the amplitude, whatev er the level may be. This kind of relative
measurement is very usef ul because you can use it while working w ith sounds
of unknown loudness.

11 As we w ill see in Section 5.1, harmonic distortion is the modification of a signal due to the
alteration of its waveform, wh ich results in the int roduction of spectral components that are not
found in the original signal.
14