Except for all the times someone fed the output of a mic amplifier into a scope and watched a Lissajous figure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve Not to mention Duddell's photo oscillograph over 100 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope_history#Photograph...
There are descriptions of this process in ancient Arab and Indian texts, and the results match images drawn in sacred spaces around the world.
The simple way to see these images is to place fine sand or similar medium on a tight drum skin, and play an instrument (or even sing a sustained note) loudly near the drum. The sand will 'dance' to various set patterns, widely differing for each note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtiSCBXbHAg [please do watch this video, it's easy to imagine that this could have been seen through history by drummers - and give it a try at home, it's really easy to do, and blows kids/friends/spouses minds!]
The cryptic symbols in Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland may be musical instructions, copied down from the shapes formed during the processes described above, before written music was mainstream, and used to decorate the ceiling of the chapel: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_rosslyn_code/2011/05/...
Still it's not clear what they are doing with the sound, and how they're plotting it
>Any complex tone "can be described as a combination of many simple periodic waves (i.e., sine waves) or partials, each with its own frequency of vibration, amplitude, and phase." A partial is any of the sine waves by which a complex tone is described.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_%28music%29#Par...
Though I do notice that crucial bit was dropped in the headline...
I can't add much more about what they're doing; I can't bring myself to read about God's vibrations of the universe etc..