HW1: Data Sonification

Gabriele Carotti-Sha

Sonification of multiple data series using the ChucK programming language. Data series: U.S. population from 1900 to 2002. Values represented in thousands. Each series includes a range of ten years of age (0-5 years, 5-14 years, 15-24 years, and so on).

Sonification was obtained via the CCRMA ChucK functions provided, Player and Multi. Target frequency parameters were varied in order to produce different pitch biases from the same data series. Each value series was normalized and converted from MIDI to frequency, and used to characterize a continuously varying sine wave. The recording superimposes different voices, each with a manually selected time delay. The final two voices, given by infant and child population in the U.S. throughout a century, were generated by randomly selecting new frequencies for each input value.

Data source: United States Census Bureau.
Census Bureau link

ChucK functions used:
Player class
Multiplayer function

Sound file recording (.wav):
Play mixed sound file.