How to design sound waves in Illustrator

Sound waves

This is a nice little trick using Illustrator’s Blend option.

To create perfect sine-waves – or something very close – first of all, draw a line. Then go Filter > Distort > Zig Zag… and choose the number and height of waves you want (remembering to click the smooth radio button, otherwise you’ll get a zig zag).

You then need to copy this beautiful wavy line and create a distorted version on top of it. To do this simply copy (Cmd/Ctrl-C) the wavy line and paste in front (Cmd/Ctrl-F). Put one line on a locked layer and, with your Direct Selection Tool (A), drag the peaks and troughs of the curves either up or down randomly. See below where the blue triangle is.

Then unlock the original wave and go Object > Blend > Blend Options… and select the number of Specified Steps you want. Then, with both selected, go Object > Blend > Make (Cmd/Ctrl-Option-B).

Sound waves tutorial

Tags: beautiful, cmd, ctrl c, ctrl f, curve, curves, design, Illustrator, images, objective, radio button, selection tool, sine waves, smooth radio, sound waves, triangle, trick, troughs, wavy line

This article was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Illustrator.
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13 Responses to “How to design sound waves in Illustrator”

ant, on November 15th, 2007 at 2:01 am, said:

If find there are no anchor points on your zigzag, then select it and go Object > Expand Appearance.
Rob Cubbon, on November 17th, 2007 at 7:21 pm, said:

Very good point, ant. As with a lot of Illustrator effects, such as brush effects, Object > Expand Appearance will turn the effect into vector. Thank you.
web design new york nyc, on December 28th, 2007 at 5:05 pm, said:

Interesting Blog!! needed help with this about 2 months ago to bad i just found the blog
aliput, on April 28th, 2008 at 11:00 pm, said:

you’re so full of neat tricks and tips Rob I may have to create a perm link to your tutorials on my site when it’s up and running
Rob Cubbon, on April 30th, 2008 at 11:18 am, said:

Links are always gratefully received, aliput!
Visualocity MD, on February 15th, 2009 at 6:06 am, said:

Hi there,

Thanks for the the tip. I was able to do everything but when I get to the last option (Blend > Make), I get a really nasty zig zag across and it looks like a black splatter. It makes no difference if I tell it to take 1 or 20 steps.
Rob Cubbon, on February 18th, 2009 at 12:33 pm, said:

Hello, Visualocity MD, make sure your two sets of curves are spaced enough apart for the number of steps, also, as per the screenshot, make sure you specify the correct type of blend first. Other than that, I’m not sure.
cartojb, on June 15th, 2009 at 10:55 pm, said:

very useful tips but can I make the peaks and troughs of the curve regularly spaced?
Rob Cubbon, on June 16th, 2009 at 1:02 am, said:

cartojb, the peaks and troughs of the curve are regularly spaced, do you want them irregular?
dorinda, on September 15th, 2009 at 8:19 am, said:

awesome! exactly what i needed.
Alex, on October 9th, 2009 at 12:44 pm, said:

ZigZag with smooth – of course. That’s such a brilliant solution. Spent ages with ‘Wave’ on the effects panel attempting to get a sine wave-y effect. This was exactly what I needed. Thanks for sharing.
Rob Cubbon, on October 16th, 2009 at 7:27 pm, said:

Glad to be of help dorinda and Alex, this article is quite popular for people Googling “how to draw a sine wave in Illustrator”!
_yak technoblog » Illustrator – Tips and Tricks, on June 11th, 2010 at 10:04 am, said:

[...] See this nice tutorial http://robcubbon.com/how-to-design-sound-waves-in-illustrator [...]

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