Sounds have measurable characteristics that can indicate how effective a sound will be at creating a desired effect. A technique that portrays these characteristics is called sound visualization. On a graph, the x-axis portrays one characteristic (such as time) and the y-axis portrays another characteristic (such as amplitude). In some cases, a characteristic is graphed using only a single axis.

These guidelines describe how sound can be visualized as a function of time, frequency (how high-pitched or low-pitched a sound is), or timbre (the character of a sound).

• Time
• Frequency
• Timbre