Prelab 6: Exploring Sound

1. Review background reading

Lecture slides on sound
JES Help: Understanding Sound and Sound Functions (Duke IP only access)
Chapters 6,7 from Mark Guzdial, Introduction to Computing and Programming in Python: A Multimedia Approach, Prentice Hall, 2006.
How Hearing Works by HowStuffWorks

2. Setup your iPod

If you do not already have one, get an iPod and microphone from the OIT Help Desk in the Bryan Center.
Make sure your iPod is formatted for Windows. If you are using a Mac, you can check the current format or reset to the factory settings which is Windows-format.
Set up your iPod for use as a hard drive
Read the guide on recording audio with the iPod

3. Record Sounds on Your iPod

Using your iPod and the microphone, record a number of sound files. These recordings should include:

High-pitched sound
Low-pitched sound
Sound with low maximum amplitude (i.e. quiet)
Sound with high maximum amplitude (i.e. loud)
Music
Same music as above but recorded over the phone
Electronic sound (e.g. buzzer, beeping, alarm)
Human-generated version of above sound

You can only access fils that are not in your iTunes library on the iPod, so once you record the sounds either

Don't sync your ipod to your library after you record.

or

Once you record, sync your ipod to your own library. The voice memos will now be in your itunes library. Enable your iPod for hard disk use. To make the voice memos accessible in lab section: open up your ipod from My Computer and drag the voice memos from the itunes library onto your ipod.

4. Review loops

Below is a function, increaseVolume, built from the code from class with line numbers. .

1 def increaseVolume(sound): 2 samples = getSamples(sound) 3 for samp in samples: 4 setSample(samp, getSample(samp)*2) Answer the following questions

What is samples? For a particular Sound, what does len(samples) represent?
What does line 4 do for a particular sample?
The method is called increaseVolume. How does it do that?

Last modified: Fri Feb 29 22:41:49 EST 2008