How To Create A Sound Wave Chart In Five Easy Steps (Using Tableau)

4 min readFeb 12, 2024

A sound wave chart is a fun and visually appealing way to represent data. It is great to show the changes in numerical values without sticking to conventional charts like the bar chart. In this article, you’ll learn how to create a soundwave chart in five simple steps using Tableau.

NB. This article does not cover the basics of Tableau. It assumes you have a basic understanding of the software. Instead, it focuses on the easiest way to create an unconventional chart, in this case, a sound wave chart.

DATASET

Going forward, you’ll be working with data from the soundtracks of the Star Wars Film Series. This is a simple dataset showing the Name of the Soundtrack and the Energy level of the soundtrack. The Energy level of a soundtrack refers to how fast, loud, or noisy the soundtrack sounds. It is measured from 0 to 100, with 0 being the least energetic and 100 being the most energetic. Feel free to download the dataset or work with yours.

STEPS

After downloading the dataset, open Tableau and connect to the data. Now it is time to make magic happen using the following steps.

Create a Calculated Field for the Inverse of Energy
Drag Name of the Soundtrack to Columns and Measure Values to Rows
Remove other pills from Measure Values, leaving just SUM(Energy) and SUM(Inverse of Energy)
Change the Mark Type to Line
Drag Measure Names to Path

Your Tableau Workspace Area should look like this after Connecting to the Star Wars Soundtracks Dataset.

1. Create a Calculated Field for the Inverse of Energy

On the Data Pane, Right-click on Energy. This should open a context menu with options like Add to Sheet, Filter, Create, etc. Hover to Create. Another context menu with options like Calculated Field, Bins, Parameter, etc. should open.

Click on Calculated Field, this pops up the Calculation Editor. Name the calculated field Inverse of Energy. Write the calculation -[Energy]

Click on OK. You should see Inverse of Energy appear on the Data Pane.

2. Drag Name of Soundtrack to Columns and Measure Values to Rows

Drag the Dimension Name of Soundtrack (blue pill) to the Columns Shelf. Drag Measure Values (green pill) to the Rows Shelf.

This action creates a bar chart. The bar chart should have negative and positive y-axis values. Observe closely as a new Measure Values Card also emerges.

3. Remove other pills from Measure Values, leaving just SUM(Energy) and SUM(Inverse of Energy)

On the Measure Values Card, click and drag out the green pill labeled CNT(Sheet 1). After that, Measure Names (blue pill) should appear on the Marks Card and Filters shelf.

4. Change the Mark Type to Line

Click on the dropdown menu in the Marks Card. Then select Line. This action changes the bar chart into two line charts.

5. Drag Measure Names to Path

For the final step, drag Measure Names (blue pill) in the Marks Card to Path. And just like that, you have your very own Soundwave chart. 😉

CONCLUSION

Great work on creating an unconventional chart! Now do not stop here. Feel free to flex your creative muscles by changing the color or size of the chart. Customize your soundwave chart to suit you.