The experiment consisted of the following steps: recording of the mantra with the help of asensitive microphone, digitizing the analog waveforms with the help of acomputer with a sampling rate of 44100 per second, analysing the digitized data to extract information about the frequency and the energy spectra from thewaveform, and to identify the predominant frequencies.

It was decided as afirst step to concentrate on the study of the mantra Om, with its components A,U and Ma. The system configuration used consisted of a microphone, a computerfitted with the Sound Blaster software and the necessary software for spectralanalysis.

In the first trial,an ordinary microphone was used, fitted to a computer with vocal response. Itwas seen that the noise level was rather high, affecting the signal-to-noiseratio, even though the recording had been done in a room with a quiet ambience.Subsequent trials showed that the noise in the signal was due to the poorquality of the microphone.

A more sophisticated microphone was then fitted to the system. Trials showed that the noise level was considerably reduced. Thequality of the signal was then vetted by two experts in the field of Acoustics,one from the Indian Institute of Science and the other from Datalogic Pvt.Ltd., both from Bangalore.

Four recordings were then made, two with malevoices and the other two with female voices. The recordings were restricted toA-kara, U-kara, Ma-kara and Om-kara. After a few repeated recordings, the oneswith the best quality of reproduction were chosen for analysis. The results ofthe analysis are presented in the next section.