How would you demonstrate natural sciences with music/sound?

[Idonotlikebroccoli]

I would very much like to get a music show/exhibition going at the local science museum. They do a lot of work geared towards schools, and one of their primary goals is to get kids and teenagers interested in natural sciences.

I'm thinking there has to be quite a lot that can be shown with music/audio, and maybe some sensors. Ideally, I'd just record a burp from the audience and make a beat with it and live loop it, but there should be an educational component to it as well.

My knowledge in natural science subjects, studio hardware or music theory are all relatively poor, so I need some help and ideas. Have any of you been involved in similar projects?

Some ideas:
- Spectrogram: Show what the burp (or incoming sound) looks like in both logarithmic and linear mode.
- Sampling: Use a small part of the burp as a synth waveform, add reverb, play chords -> amazement.
- Tone generator: Simply go from 20 to 20000 hertz, and turn the volume down progressively because something about perception and frequencies.
- Music theory: I don't know. Ratios and stuff, I guess.
- Hearing: Maybe solo individual harmonics in a static square wave ("how many sounds do you hear?")
- Physics: Waves in general. Sound is a wave, but is a wave a sound?
- Maybe simply explain how common audio effects work - I don't know. Vocoders are cool.

[Shift Gorden]

Hey mate - sounds fun!

Try these:

What does sound look like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px3oVGXr4mo
What's sound capable of? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odJxJRAxdFU (not that you could do this, but you might be able to do something fun with a speaker cone, polystyrene balls and different types of sound)

[Lojik]

You've got it on your list already but for me, learning about sound waves was really interesting because wave theory is the same across anything, sound, water, air etc. You can see how everything is linked together with physics but understanding the theory of sound waves.

You could explain the doppler effect for example, or (without getting too "boring" and technical) why putting your head in a closet sounds more boomy.

Interesting idea though!

[login]

Produce sounds out of human hearing range, show people there is stuff they can't hear. Maybe bring a dog so he reacts.

Anyway Max Cooper has a show with visuals around evolution, he is a molecular biologist also. Maybe read the interview made by Ableton, may have some ideas that can inspire you https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/max-coo ... iful-data/

[nowtime]

What makes brooks babble?
Why can we hear voices or speech sounds in the wind or forrest?
How can everything from melodies to entire orchestral arrangements be heard in that rare fan/heater? (are other environmental sounds sub-aurally combining with the white noise? or picking up radio noise? or other [phenomena]...
Why are vocoders so fun?

[Lojik]

Does a tree falling in the forest make any sound if no one can hear it - yes, because sound is physics!

[Ubik]

Frequencies and patterns : http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/06/t ... ting-sand/

[Idonotlikebroccoli]

Great suggestions, everyone!

I just found this video+tutorial on how to draw mushrooms on an oscilloscope:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtR63-ecUNo
- http://www.jerobeamfenderson.net/post/1 ... w-it-works

I also love this one where a 24hz sine wave is played onto falling water, and recorded at 24 FPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uENITui5_jU