Are you a music enthusiast, sound engineer, or just curious about how audio technology works? Then you must have heard about waveform and spectrogram. These two concepts play a significant role in the analysis and manipulation of sound signals. In this blog post, we will compare waveform vs. spectrogram and outline their differences.
Waveform
A waveform is a visual representation of a sound signal that shows how the amplitude (loudness) of the signal changes over time. It is represented by a graph where the x-axis shows time, and the y-axis shows the level of the signal. The waveform is a valuable tool for identifying different parts of an audio signal, such as amplitude, frequency, and phase.
This waveform of a voice signal shows the loudness of the sound over time.
Spectrogram
A spectrogram is a visual representation of the frequency spectrum of a sound signal as it varies with time. It is represented by a graph where the x-axis shows time, the y-axis shows frequency, and the level of the signal is represented by a color code. A darker color indicates a higher amplitude of the signal at a specific frequency.
This spectrogram of a bird's song shows how the frequency spectrum of the sound changes over time.
Comparison
The main difference between waveform and spectrogram is the information they provide. The waveform shows the amplitude of the signal over time, while the spectrogram shows how the frequency components of the signal are distributed over time. The waveform is mostly used in audio editing software to visualize and manipulate audio files, while spectrograms are used for audio analysis, such as identifying the dominant frequency components of a sound signal or detecting audio anomalies like noise or glitches.
Another difference between waveform and spectrogram is the amount of information they provide. Waveform displays the audio data in a single axis, making it easy to view the audio signal's overall shape. Spectrograms, on the other hand, provide more comprehensive information about the audio signal's frequency content, but at the cost of detail in time representation.
Conclusion
Waveform and spectrogram are both useful tools for analyzing and manipulating sound signals, each with its specific use case. While waveform displays the overall shape of an audio signal, the spectrogram provides more comprehensive information about its frequency components.
We hope this article helped you understand the difference between waveform vs. spectrogram. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.