We already saw and stated that it's important to know, see, and hear what's happening along a signal way. If we work in the realm of audio, there are four most important ways to measure a signal, which are conceptually partly very different and offer a very broad perspective on audio signals if we always have all of them in the back of our minds. These are the following important ways:
Numbers (actual sample values)
Levels (such as RMS, LUFS, and dB FS)
Transversal waves (waveform displays, so oscilloscopes)
Spectra (an analysis of frequency components)
There are many more ways to think about audio or signals in general, but these are the most common and important ones. Let's use them inside Max right away to observe their different behavior. We'll feed some very basic signals into them: DC offset, a sinusoid, and noise. The one that might surprise you the most and get you thinking is the constant signal or DC offset (if it's digital-analog converted). In the following...