In addition to the standard keyboard shortcuts every application has, Signalyze has several built-in methods for automating signal analysis:

• shortcut playback buttons
• keyclick combinations
• Signalyze's macro function

keyboard shortcuts

In general, typing a key combination is faster and less work (i.e. less wear-and-tear on your joints and muscles) than using the mouse.

Everyone knows in Mac applications Command-n means New, and that we Quit with a Command-q. Most other commands in Signalyze have a similar command key shortcut (see the figure on the right for some of Signalyze's).

You can find Signalyze's keyboard shortcuts by looking at the Signalyze menus, or check the Signalyze User Reference document (for those with manuals, the shortcuts are in the User Reference section).

menu playback buttons

The buttons numbered 1 to 5 across the top of the Signalyze window are the menu playback buttons.

You can set these buttons to whatever command you wish (the one exception is the Play Sequential Macro command). Use them to:

• make (almost) any command available with one click
• assign or change the keyboard shortcut setting for (almost) any command
• add (almost) any command to the Sequential Macro Setup... dialog

Again, the one exception is the Play Sequential Macro command

Since the setting of these buttons is often difficult for first-time users, setting the menu playback commands for these functions will be discussed here.

set a menu playback button to a particular command

To set a menu playback button to a particular command, follow the prompts that are given in the Edit Window (the text edit field in the upper left of the main Signal Window). As an example, we will set menu playback button 1 to Show Whole Signal in the Signal menu; this command will then be available with a single click.

Begin by clicking on the arrow button on the left of the menu playback buttons, as circled in blue below:

A message will appear in the Edit window, telling you to click on the menu playback button you want to store a menu item in. For this example, click on button 1 as circled in blue in the figure below.

Another message will then tell you to select a menu item to store in this button ("record into macro"):

For the purposes of this example, select the Show Whole Signal command from the Signal menu. The message "Menu has been stored in button." in the Edit window area (not shown) lets you know that the setting of the command was successful. As long as this button has been set to this command, you can access it with one click on the button.

assigning or changing keyboard shortcuts

You can also assign a keyboard shortcut for each of the 5 menu playback buttons. The keyboard shortcut you assign the button can be used to call the menu command stored in that button. This is particularly useful if a command does not have a keyboard shortcut assigned to it by default (e.g. Edit>Preferences...), but it can also be used to change a default keyboard shortcut assignment you don't like. For example, not many people have hands big enough to comfortably reach the shortcut Command-7 for Pitch Extraction Setup...--I can reach it, but it causes strain on my left hand's tendons (something I have too much of already).

Keyboard shortcuts are set via the Edit>Preferences... dialog. On the bottom left of the dialog you will see "Store letter for menu playback button" button:

The keyboard stroke ("letter", although letters or numbers work fine) will be the key you type along with Command to call the menu command stored at the respective menu playback button. In the example above, the key "i" has been stored for menu playback button 1; typing Command-i will cause the menu command stored in menu playback button 1 to be called.

As an example, let's change the keyboard shortcut for menu playback button 1 to "e":

• Open the Edit>Preferences... dialog, if it isn't open already
• Click on the radio button corresponding to the menu playback button you wish to set a shortcut for (in this example button 1):

• Click on the long Store letter... button.

• When the message prompt appears at the bottom of the window, press a key to assign it to that play back menu button (numbers or letters).

• After the keystroke has been assigned to the menu playback button, the new keystroke will be visible in to the right of the menu playback radio buttons:

I prefer to assign the command Signal>Play Signal to button 1, and then assign the keystroke "e" to button 1. I find it much easier on the hand to type Command-e to play a signal than Command-y, and I don't miss the Find Again in Signal key shortcut that I lost by doing so.

Note: As suggested above, assigning a keyboard shortcut using this method overrides any default keyboard assignments. As long as I have the keystroke "e" assigned to menu playback button 1, typing Command-e will call the command Play Signal, not the command Find Again in Signal.

In addition, the keystrokes assigned with this procedure are checked in order from 1 to 5. If the same keystroke is assigned to more than one menu playback button (e.g. 1 and 3), typing the shortcut (e.g. command-e) will call the command associated with the first menu playback button in the series (e.g. the lower-numbered button, in this case menu playback button 1).

adding a command to the Sequential Macro Setup... dialog

Finally, when you assign a menu command to the menu playback buttons, that command is also added to the Sequential Macro Setup... You can take advantage of this fact to add any command (except Play Sequential Macro) to the Sequential Macro Setup... dialog, and then use that command in a macro.

Again, a menu command is assigned to a menu playback button and the corresponding button in the Sequential Macro Setup... dialog as follows:

• click on the arrow to the left of the menu playback buttons
• click on the playback button of your choice
• select the menu command to be stored in that button

For example, in the discussion of the Sequential Macros below, button 1 is set to the command Show Whole Signal. You can see toward the bottom of the figure below that this command has also been added to the Sequential Macro Setup dialog via button 1:

In this way any Signalyze command (except Play Sequential Macro--no recursion allowed) can be assigned to a sequential macro. See the discussion below for more details.

key-click combinations

Just as worth learning are Signalyze's key-click combinations. For example, when using the Scales Button at the top of the screen:

• a click toggles scales & gridlines on and off
• a Shift-click opens the scales & gridlines dialog box
• an Option-click toggles the scales for the x-axis
• a Command-click toggles the scales for the y-axis
• a Shift-Option-click toggles the gridlines for the x-axis
• a Shift-Command-click toggles the gridlines for the y-axis

There are many more combinations than can be learned in one sitting, but you owe it to yourself to learn the key-click combinations for tasks you repeat many times.

For those with a paper manual, check it starting on p. 110 for the complete run-down on keyclick combinations. There is also a downloadable pdf file containing a condensed summary of all keyclick combinations suitable for printing available from this site.

Signalyze's macro function

Do yourself a big favor: learn to use Signalyze's macro function. This will enable you to be able to perform several processes on a signal with one keystroke, or by selecting one menu item.

Using the macro function is fairly straightforward, as long as you take it step by step. The general outline of setting up a macro is:

1. Assign any necessary commands to the shortcut (play back menu) buttons, as described above. "Necessary commands" includes any menu commands not available in the macro setup dialog, or any commands that you wish to repeat with one macro.
2. Select your settings for any filtering, pitch extraction, etc. that you want to do within the macro in that command's setup dialog.
3. Set the steps of the macro in the macro setup dialog.

As an example, the following steps for performing a pitch extraction will be set up as a macro:

1. show the entire signal in the signal track
2. low-pass filter it
3. downsample it to 10k
4. save a copy of the derived signal
5. perform a pitch extraction
6. save a copy of the pitch trace

Selecting Play Sequential Macro from the Macro menu (or typing the shortcut command-4) will then perform all of the above steps on a selected signal. (One caveat: make sure you have placed the signal toward the top of the signal window so there is room for all the generated signals: in this case 3, the original signal, the filtered and downsampled signal, and the pitch trace.)

To set up this macro, do the following:

• Using the instructions above for the menu playback buttons, assign the menu command Signal>Show Whole Signal to button 1. This menu command must be stored in a button, since it is not available in the macro setup dialog.
• Now set the menu command File>Save Signal to both buttons 2 and 3. This is necessary so that this step can be repeated within the macro.
  (To do this, you will need to have a signal that you have not yet saved active in a signal track: open any signal you like, and filter it. The unsaved, filtered file will then make the Save Signal menu item available.)
• Make the necessary settings in the Filter Setup..., Complex Transformation Setup..., and Pitch Extraction Setup... dialogs. Recommended settings:
  • Filter setup
    • Butterworth
    • low pass
    • cutoff = 1000
    • filter order 5
  • Complex transformation
    • Complex transformation:
    • Sampling frequency = 10,000
    • Bitwidth = 16
    • Bias = 0
    • + & +/- set to +/-
  • Pitch extraction
    • according to the characteristics of the signal you are generating a pitch trace for--see the on-line help for more information if you need it
      
      
• Open the Sequential Macro Setup... dialog:

• Select the desired steps in order from the default menu items and the shortcut buttons (Btn1, etc. at the bottom of the dialog). See the figure below for the items to select, and the order to select them. (If you make a mistake in the order of selecting an item, click on the Reset button at the top right and try again.)

  

• Click Save to save the macro, or Do to save & perform the macro.

Now any time you select Play Sequential Macro from the Macro menu (or type the shortcut command-4), this macro will automatically filter & downsample the signal, save the derived signal, give a first pitch extraction at whatever pitch settings you guess will be good for that speaker, and save a copy of that as well.

Again, notice how assigning commands to the playback menu buttons allows them to be repeated within the same macro, greatly increasing the flexibility of what you can accomplish.

Also, some steps can be collapsed as you become more familiar with their options. For example, notice that the Complex Transformation Setup... dialog contains a Filter First option toward the bottom of the dialog. If you select this option, the above macro would then reduce to 5 steps:

1. Btn 1: Signal>Show Whole Signal
2. Complex transformation
3. Btn 2: File>Save Signal
4. Pitch extraction
5. Btn 3: File>Save Signal