Page 1: Introduction, news and installation
What is MathSounds?
MathSounds is a small, web based application that allows you to create synthetic sounds. It comes with a number of so called wave generators, each of which uses a simple mathematical function to generate numbers that are being send to your loudspeakers, and in doing so sound is being created. Furthermore the sound data are being send to a viewer, which will then display a graph of the generated sound in real time. You can completely customize what you hear and see. The wave generators offer several ways to modify the waves they create, and the viewer can be adjusted to look at the sound in any time interval you like. Also, if you wish to see and hear what a sound will be like at any point in the future, MathSounds can do that, or if you want to take a close look at what a wave looks like from millisecond to millisecond, with MathSounds you can slow down time as much as you like.
News
On May 17, 2009 MathSounds version 2.0 has been released, about a year after it's first release. With this new version MathSounds has grown up. No longer are you limited to playing around with one wave generator that usually produces no more than a beep, but now a seemingly infinite number of those wave generators can be combined in an equal number of different ways to produce a neverending range of different sounds. It will require some patience, and you'll have to develop some skill, but even a small number of generators can produce astonishing sounds, as show the example sounds that can be loaded from within the program. The basic element of MathSounds is still the wave generator, an actually quite simple and small device that generates a rather simple sequence of numbers, but by letting wave generators work together, thereby allowing them to modify each others' waves, incredibly complex sequences of numbers can be produced, creating sometimes really beautiful, sometimes just noisy, but always interesting sounds. The easy to understand graphical interface, that allows you to line up your wave generators in a neat and orderly way, can turn anyone who is willing to take some time to get to know the basic principles of the program into a real composer.
On May 21, 2009 the first update of version 2.0 has been released. The major change implemented is the removal of 'reversed mode'. This mode was a nice idea, but it didn't work well, and it will never work well. We're sorry for the inconvenience if someone already used it, but it was so buggy that we're better off without it. Furthermore an error in how MathSounds calculates the sound has been solved. This error produced sometimes a message that the generator sequence was corrupted. This should work fine now. Another problem that has been solved is that sometimes a graph would be drawn that had already been drawn. Now it will throw this graph away and draw a newer one. Some minor issues involve the text on a button that now shows better what it does, and the delay setting has been modified a bit to prevent the program from getting stuck. Finally an attempt has been made to stop MathSounds from producing an error message stating that a viewer has to be shut down when shutting it down was actually what you wanted it to do. It needs more testing to find out if this attempt was succesfull.
On August 9, 2009 the second update was released. The only change made is that some erratic behaviour when MathSounds got overloaded with too much work has been solved.
Installing MathSounds
The previous version of MathSounds was supplied to you as an applet. An applet is a small program that runs inside of your web browser. This had the advantage that MathSounds could easily be used by anyone, since no installation was required, the program would be available just by opening the web page. There is however one significant drawback to applets, which makes it very unsuitable for this release of MathSounds, and that is that it cannot save and load files from your hard drive. And that just wouldn't be right, to make you spend several hours in creating this really cool sound that is just right, and then you'd have to throw it all away, simply because you had to shut down your computer.
So this version of MathSounds is supplied to you as an application. This has a lot of advantages, and some drawbacks. First of all it requires you to install the program on your system. And secondly, you'll have to trust me that MathSounds will not damage your computer. MathSounds still needs the Java Runtime Environment to be run. Furthermore, it is launched and run by the Java Web Start technology. This is a very safe way of running applications, but it will usually not allow them to access your hard drive. MathSounds however really needs to be able to write files, and it will, but this means that when you install MathSounds it will warn you that this application might harm your computer and you'll have to agree to run it anyway. If I could afford a digital signature, I would get one, but alas, these are expensive, so you'll have to trust MathSounds without one.
An advantage of Java Webstart Technology is that the application resides on your computer, so you can also use it when you are offline. Also, you never have to worry about updating your program. You will be warned when an update is available. In order to avoid confusion all updates will be mandatory, but using the archive will allow you to keep using outdated versions. Furthermore the installer will create a shortcut on your desktop and an item in your start menu, so you'll allways have a quick access to MathSounds. Not yet implemented in this version, but probably in a future version, will be the possibility to simply click on a MathSounds file to open the program with the file loaded.
So here's the procedure for installing MathSounds:
1: If you don't have Java installed on your computer you should download it from www.java.com.
2: If you have Java installed you will probably see a button in the top left corner of this page for downloading MathSounds. Simply click it. You'll probably get to see a download dialog then, asking you what to do with the file. Choose the 'Open with Java Web Start Launcher' option. It makes no sense to store the file on your computer. There's nothing you can do with it.
3: Next you'll get to see the warning about this being an untrustworthy application, because the digital signature could not be verified. Everything MathSounds does to your computer has been mentioned already, so you should click the 'Run' option to continue.
4: MathSounds is not a large application, so it will now soon be downloaded and start up. In the future you can simply start it up using the shortcut on your desktop. To get a quick hands on experience with MathSounds, go to the File menu in the main screen and click the Examples item. This will show you a list of available example sounds. Click on one to download it. Hit the Play button and see for yourself how powerfull an application MathSounds is. If you feel like you want to try to create great sounds yourself, go to the next page of this web site and learn how to create a simple sample sound with a step by step tutorial. The tutorial deals in an easy way with the most important aspects of MathSounds and the underlying theory. Next you can use the manual to look for more information when you need it. All pages can be accessed through the page selector at the top of each page, or through the links at the bottom of each page.
5: It has come to my attention that some browsers don't show the button for downloading MathSounds. So if you are sure you have Java installed on your computer, but you don't see a button, then you can go to the downloads page to manually download MathSounds. Or you can just click on the picture at the top of this page.
If you've done everything right you'll see a window pop up that looks exactly like the one shown here. This is the start up screen of MathSounds, and it is the beginning of the tutorial that starts on the next page, and which will guide you through the process of creating a simple sound.
One more remark should be made here. Although MathSounds is a small program, it is capable of making your computer work really hard, so it's best to have as few tasks running in the background as possible. Also use the buffer status display at the bottom of the main window to see how well your computer is doing. The buffer display shows how well the buffer that stores the sound data is filled. If the display is to the right and all green, then the buffer is well filled, meaning your computer can still handle the work load very well. If the display shows usually to the left and in red, then you shouldn't add more wave generators or open up more controllers, since your computer is already doing the best it can
Finally, MathSounds produces so much the better sounds when your computer is hooked up to a stereo, instead of the usual loudspeakers. You should try it
Page 2: Tutorial: creating a simple sound
Page 3: Modulation: wave generators working together
Page 4: Inverted mode and the interval of a wave
Page 5: Frequency modulation, waves and inverted mode
Page 8: Manual: the main window
Page 13: Release notes, known bugs and issues
If you can't find a button to download MathSounds try
Please send your questions, comments or remarks to info@mathsounds.com