
154 Chapter 7 Sound
trumpet. The sound of an entire symphony orchestra is an extremely complex blending
of varied waveforms.
Sine waves, nonetheless, are central to acoustical theory and to
the reproduction of sound. This is because every sound—a whisper,
a lion’s roar, a symphony, a crack of thunder—can be re-created as a
combination of sine waves at particular frequencies.
7.2 Traditional Sound Reproduction
Sound waves are continuously varying, or analog, phenomena.
Traditional approaches to capturing and reproducing sound were
also analog. Sound waves vibrated the diaphragms of early micro-
phones, which in turn caused ...