# Audio people: that little graph thingy that rises and falls with the sound (better explained in OP) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811 "2024-07-06T16:24:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/1 "2024-07-06T16:24:55Z")
You know that gizmo that shows a number of vertical lines (as few as three, as many as several dozen (I guess?)) that audio technicians use? The lines will rise and fall as the music or whatever progresses. What’s it called? And what information do you get from it – as in, how does the second vertical line from the left rising and falling at this time, while the fourth vertical line from the left rises and falls at that time – how does this information help you more fully understand your quarry? And how does it direct you to what to do with it (if you’re in the business of manipulating sound)? ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/2 "2024-07-06T17:36:25Z")
Graphic equalizer, at least the readout for it. Each line represents a frequency. The tech will have a slider for each frequency to adjust the sound. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/3 "2024-07-06T17:45:49Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Each line represents a frequency. Slight nitpick: a range or band of frequencies. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/4 "2024-07-06T17:53:21Z")
The low range frequencies like bass guitar will be on the left, midranges like the human voice in the middle, and highs like cymbals on the far right. The slide controls are pretty much volume controls for the various band widths. The sound mixers can play with it to get the desired range emphasis where they want it at different times throughout a song. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/5 "2024-07-06T17:58:50Z")
It’s a poor-man’s [Spectrum Analyzer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_analyzer). ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/6 "2024-07-06T18:32:14Z")
It could be a single frequency - if you have enough lines and sliders ! ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/7 "2024-07-06T18:44:27Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > if you have enough lines and sliders ! More than the Universe could contain 😉. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/8 "2024-07-07T03:35:49Z")
We did fine for years with Bass & Treble! Over in the ham and scanner world, cheap processing and memory has made super wideband RF receivers basically disposable and there are some visualizations possible that used to be pretty much Star Trek-Tron stuff. Broadly called waterfalls, they show all sorts of data with respect to time. That’s been around for a while for audio but it’s a lot harder to sample and remember chunks of signal a meg at a time. [![](https://www.onallbands.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Picture13.png) ](https://www.onallbands.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Picture13.png) [Waterfall Displays—What Information Do They Provide?](https://www.onallbands.com/waterfall-displays-what-information-do-they-provide/) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-people-that-little-graph-thingy-that-rises-and-falls-with-the-sound-better-explained-in-op/1003811/9 "2024-07-07T16:49:35Z")
If you’re specifically referring to the LED strips you see being used to monitor the loudness of channels or of specific groups of frequencies on a mixing board and/or its outboard modules, that’s an audio meter. In the past, that’s what the little VU meters were for, modern equipment often uses strips of multicolored LEDs for the same purpose. My board at home uses a combination of VU meters for the stereo mix it’s sending out, and a LCD screen for metering the individual channels. > **[Mixing console | Metering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixing_console#Metering)** > > There are usually one or more VU or peak meters\[a\] to indicate the levels for each channel, for the master outputs and to indicate whether the console levels are clipping the signal. The sound engineer typically adjusts the gain of the input signals to get the strongest signal that can be obtained without causing clipping. Having the gain set as high as possible improves the signal-to-noise ratio. Most mixers have at least one additional output besides the main mix. These are either individual bu...