Creating a sound
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This forum is for Audacity on macOS 10.4 and later.Please state which version of macOS you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Audacity menu > About Audacity".
Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
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amstein0402
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2021 5:40 am
- Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later
Creating a sound
Hello! I am working on a project for my physics class I am in, and I am trying to recreate the Wilhelm scream sound effect. On a physics level I understand how to create a Fourier series that represents this sound, but I do not know how I would apply this in Audacity to create the sound. I am using macOS 10.15 and Audacity 2.4.2. I just download audacity today and watched some tutorials, but couldn't find anything that really helped me with my issue.
Re: Creating a sound
Did your tutor make any suggestions about how they expected you to achieve this, or how much time they expect you to spend on it?
9/10 questions are answered in the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Re: Creating a sound
Sound synthesis" is probably an advanced university course. You can do almost anything with Nyquist programming but that would be VERY tedious without a special library or other "shortcut tools"... The semester will probably be over before you get it figured-out. 
And, it seems more like "programming" than "physics".
Matlab (or one of the Matlab clones) seems to be popular among academics for DSP and other "scientific" sound-related purposes. But from what I've seen, it "looks like" programming and there is a big learning curve.
I think there is special software for this. Maybe look for "'sound design" software. But, this kind of thing is usually done by starting with a recording (a "sound sample") and then manipulating the existing Fourier series, or otherwise processing the sample. Almost all synthesized instrumts (where they are simulating a real instrument) is now done with samples. There is (was?) something called FM synthesis that was popular but again that's advanced programming and a human scream is probably difficult.
But, any specialized software is probably "abstracted" from the Fourier series and all of those nitty-gritty math & physics details...
And, it seems more like "programming" than "physics". Matlab (or one of the Matlab clones) seems to be popular among academics for DSP and other "scientific" sound-related purposes. But from what I've seen, it "looks like" programming and there is a big learning curve.
I think there is special software for this. Maybe look for "'sound design" software. But, this kind of thing is usually done by starting with a recording (a "sound sample") and then manipulating the existing Fourier series, or otherwise processing the sample. Almost all synthesized instrumts (where they are simulating a real instrument) is now done with samples. There is (was?) something called FM synthesis that was popular but again that's advanced programming and a human scream is probably difficult.
But, any specialized software is probably "abstracted" from the Fourier series and all of those nitty-gritty math & physics details...
Re: Creating a sound
I don't know about the scream, but perhaps this paper can be something to get you started: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.4832amstein0402 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 5:45 amHello! I am working on a project for my physics class I am in, and I am trying to recreate the Wilhelm scream sound effect. On a physics level I understand how to create a Fourier series that represents this sound, but I do not know how I would apply this in Audacity to create the sound. I am using macOS 10.15 and Audacity 2.4.2. I just download audacity today and watched some tutorials, but couldn't find anything that really helped me with my issue.
I hope this helps.
Re: Creating a sound
There is a free program called SPEAR where you can convert an audio file into a fourier-series approximation of that sound.amstein0402 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 5:45 am... I am working on a project for my physics class I am in, and I am trying to recreate the Wilhelm scream sound effect. On a physics level I understand how to create a Fourier series that represents this sound, but I do not know how I would apply this in Audacity to create the sound.
There are also vocal-tract simulation plugins which produce animal-like noises ,
e.g. ... https://www.kvraudio.com/product/fauna-by-xoxos (Windows only, & won't work in Audacity)
https://youtu.be/bAmZhaMiywE?t=8