Software
There are many different programs for generating, recording, processing, and analyzing sounds. Here are some free ones that you may want to explore. The first program listed below (Raven Lite) is used in this course to do the homelabs.
Spectrum Analysis
These programs display the frequencies or musical pitches that are present in a sound. Some of them require that you record the sound before you can analyze it, while others can process sound in 'real time' as it comes to the computer. Most of these programs will also show the sound in 'time domain' by displaying a graph of the sound pressure versus time.
Raven Lite An excellent tool for people who are new to sound analysis. It was developed at Cornell University to study bird sounds. The program records sounds from a microphone and then displays the waveforms in time domain and as spectrograms. Mac, PC and Linux versions are available. To get Raven Lite, first go here and get a free license file. To do this, you add Raven Lite to your shopping cart, and then check out. No payment is required, but be sure you give a working e-mail address, because they will e-mail the license file to you, and you must use the same e-mail address when you enter the license code into the program. You will get an e-mail with the subject line "Raven Lite License" that includes your license code (serial number) and instructions for downloading and activating the program. Be sure to paste the serial number in exactly as it appears in the e-mail, including the hyphens. Also be sure to follow the instructions about installing the latest version of Java. To learn how to use Raven Lite, the first video tutorial on this page is very helpful. The full user manual for Raven Pro 1.4 (same as Raven Lite 2.0 but with some extra features) is here. You might not need to look at it for this course.
Sonic Visualizer Fairly complex for beginners, but with many cool spectrogram features, including direct note/cents readout. Does not record, but loads .wav and .mp3 files. Works on Linux, Macs and PCs. Excellent for frequency estimation.
Visual Analyzer Project Real-time analyzer with 'oscilloscope' style display. Typical of the style of spectrum analyzer used in electrical engineering. PC and Linux under wine.
iSpectrum Mac only. I have not tried this one.
There are also many nice smart-phone apps. These are fun for field work but it is usually not possible to get permanent data records from them. n-Track offers a free app called n-Track Tuner, as well as a sophisticated laptop/desktop system.
The RTTA Tuner is a great way to check your intonation when playing a musical instrument or singing. (But you might not want to know the truth!)
Recording and Editing
Audacity sound recorder and sound editor.
Wavosaur sound recorder and sound editor.