Spectrograms require intensity maps or waterfall plots because they are three-dimensional
Evidence
Since a spectrogram is a three-dimensional mapping – the magnitude level as a function of time and frequency – it cannot be illustrated by a single curve. One typical graphical representation is as an intensity map where the grey shade or colour at each point stands for the magnitude (see Figure 3.6). Another representation is the ‘waterfall’ or mesh plot with a set of curves, as shown in Figure 6.5 on page 105. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 393
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
Related
- Spectrograms plot frequency against time to show both at once (similarity 0.84)
- A spectrogram displays a sound’s spectrum plotted against time (similarity 0.82)
- Spectrogram gray-scale plots show how a sound’s spectrum changes over time (similarity 0.82)
- A single amplitude envelope cannot capture how separate spectral parts evolve (similarity 0.80)
- A spectrogram preserves timing of acoustic changes in a note (similarity 0.80)
- Harmonics appear as horizontal lines at fixed vertical positions (similarity 0.79)
- Short-time Fourier analysis converts signals into spectrograms via windowed transforms (similarity 0.78)