| Home > Support > Signalyze FAQ's | last updated Tuesday, December 4, 2001 |
top Q: What do I need to run Signalyze? A: You should have at least the following:
Hardware Signalyze requires at least a Macintoshª Plus to run, but it will run quite slowly on machines with the old 68k processors (anything that does not say PowerPC on the front of the machine; generally those with 3-digit model numbers like the Quadra 950). If you are on a tight budget, 1st and 2nd generation PowerMacs (4-digit names; e.g. PowerMac 9500) can still be found for very reasonable prices and provide a great speed boost over the 68k machines. G3 and G4 machines give us real computational power and speed, but make sure you are aware of the incompatibilites between newer machines/OS's and the latest version of Signalyze. These and suggested work-arounds are documented in the Known Issues page. If you don't have at least 4Mb of free RAM to give to Signalyze, you will need to somehow get more memory:
See the memory management section of this site for more detailed help. Sound Manager Sound Manager 3.0 was incorporated into the System file in version 7.5.3; if you are using an older System version, make sure that the Sound Manager 3.0 extension is in your System Folder (p. 36 in the manual). It is also incorporated into QuickTime 2.5 and later versions, although the QT extensions must be active on startup. Signalyze If you have purchased Signalyze 3.x but you don't have the latest version (3.12), the updater is available at this site.
top Q: Is there a Windows/Unix/DOS version of Signalyze? A: No, unfortunately there isn't. There are long-range plans to work on a Java version of Signalyze, but there is no development timeline set as of yet.
top Q: Where can I get help with Signalyze? A: You have several resources available to you:
The manual contains almost everything you will ever need to know about Signalyze and much about speech analysis. It is worth taking the time to become familiar with it. The tutorials are especially worth working through. The on-line help is extensive, and is available in English, German, French or Italian. Becoming familiar with its organization will save you time in the long run. The information documents discuss issues related to using Signalyze on the Macintoshª. Please see the support section of this site. The SigList discussion list is open to all registered users of Signalyze. The SigList archives will also soon be made available from the SigList page.
top Q: How do I subscribe to the SigList? A: Send a message to siglist@signalyze.com, along with the details of your Signalyze license purchase. Once it has been verified that you are a registered user of Signalyze, your name will be added to the distribution list. (See the SigList page for more information.)
top Q: How do I set up Signalyze? I've followed the instructions in the Installation Guide document, but I can't get it to run properly. What should I do? A: If the memory setup instructions that came with your purchase of Signalyze don't make sense to you, there is an on-line setup guide available here. If you still are having problems after going through the on-line setup guide, please contact support@linguistplus.com for individual assistance. Make sure you include your Signalyze registration information, details about your machine (model & system version), and exactly what you have done so far.
top Q: How can I stop the program and/or my machine from crashing? A: The two most likely causes of the program or your machine crashing are extension conflicts and/or insufficient memory, in particular insufficient calculation memory.
top Q: How can I save my files as System 7 sounds (16-bit Snd resources)? A: Although the Save As Snd Resource dialog has a System 7 Sound button, changes in the Macintosh hardware and software have made this function unworkable. Signalyze will open Snd resources just fine, but you cannot save them in this format from within Signalyze. However, you can easily convert saved AIFF files into System 7 Snd resources or suitcases by using the freeware SoundAppª (thank you, Norman Franke!) or a similar program. (If you have signals saved in the Signalyze format, you can easily convert a folder full of them at a time using the FileConverterª utility that came with your Signalyze package.) SoundAppª is available at the SoundAppª home page: SoundAppª has the additional benefit of letting you listen to AIFF and other files via drop-and-drag in System 7 (as well as many other nice features).
top Q: What are those vertical lines in my pitch displays and how do I get rid of them? A: Those are lines connecting the last valid pitch contour value with a missing value (numerical value 32767) or a 0 value. Try selecting Dots toward the bottom of the Spectral>Pitch Extraction SetupÉ dialog to generate a pitch contour that doesn't have any vertical lines in it. If you saved a pitch contour and then reopened it later, you will also see these vertical lines (the pitch file format is saved as Lines by default). You can get rid of them by using the Signal>Display SetupÉ dialog.
The pitch contour will be redrawn without the vertical lines.
top Q: Does my Apple A/V card give me 16-bit sound capabilities? A: Yes, it does. The Macintoshª Audio/Visual card gives you true 16-bit sound capture and sound output. The microphone input jack of all recent PowerMacs is also 16-bit. Signalyze will set the bitwidth to the highest possible for your machine: if the machine has 16-bit capabilities, Signalyze will set the sound input port for 16 bits; if it doesn't, Signalyze will set the sound input port for 8 bits.
top Q: Does Signalyze change the bitwidth of my signals? The sampling frequency/bitwidth button on the Information Bar tells me that the bitwidth of signals I have loaded are less than 16-bit. A: No. The bitwidth information available by clicking the sampling frequency button on the Information Bar is the bitwidth of the signal value range, not the sampling bitwidth. Unless you tell it not to, Signalyze adjusts the signal display (actually, the range of values in the signal) to fit the 16-bit range. If the signal only uses 12 bits (a range of =< 2^12, or 4096), then Signalyze will 'magnify' the signal so that the 12-bit range fills up the signal display track. If you want to open up a signal using the full possible 16-bit width in the display window, use the Force 16-bit option in File Setup dialog (File>File Setup>Force 16 bits) (p. 229-230 in the manual).
top Q: What kind of sound board should I buy to use with Signalyze? A: If you have a newer PowerBook or PowerMac and you don't have any special needs (multi-channel recordings, video-sound integration, etc.), you're most likely better off staying with the built-in 16-bit sound capabilities already found in your machine. If you have an old machine with only 8-bit input, you probably will be better off spending your money on a new machine than on a sound board since the entry-level machines have come down in price so much. If that is not an option, you can ask the members of the SigList what boards they would recommend using on your machine; you can also check the Software Registry for more information. Note: If you can, check some recordings made on any machine that you are thinking of buying. It is sad to say so, but occasionally quite inferior-quality sound input has been found in some machines, particularly in 603/603e desktop and tower machines (the various Performa models, PowerMac 4400, 6400), and in some cases, the PowerMac 6100, 7100 and 8100 series. If you have any doubt, record some signals and ensure that they are high enough quality for your research needs.
top Q: Why do I get no sound input when I try to record with my microphone plugged into the sound input port? A: First verify that your Macintoshª is recording correctly by trying to record an Alert sound using your System's Sound Control Panel. Open up the Sound Control Panel, select Alert Sounds if you have the pop-up menu, click on the Add button, and then talk into the microphone. If there are no sound waves coming out of the little speaker when you talk, then the problem is with the sound input into the machine. Verify that you have selected Microphone as the input and that the Playthrough box is also checked by selecting Sound In from the pop-up menu. Also check to make sure that the microphone is plugged in all the way. In addition, the sound input ports on the newer Macs (PowerBook 500 series and up; PowerMacs) require a line-level input. You must input your signals using a line-level microphone, an amplifier, or an output jack that has a volume control. A good way to achieve this is with the adapter available from Griffin Technology (http://www.griffintechnology.com/); it will let you use any inexpensive unamplified mic with the newer Macs. Another option is Apple's PlainTalkª microphone, which sells for about U.S.$40 in the States. It has a built-in amplifier that gets its power from your Mac; that's why it has the longer miniplug. A used stereo or video mixing board is a very good way to go, since it will give you an output (and possibly input) volume control, as well as a headphone jack to listen to the sounds as you input them. If you are inputting from a tape deck or a mini-CD player, try using the headphone jack and its volume control instead of the line out jack for input level control. After you have sound going in to the Sound Control Panel, Signalyze should be able to record correctly.
top Q: What's the best way to print out images? I keep getting error messages or no response when I try to print. A: The best way to print out spectrograms or any other image produced by Signalyze is to use the NIH Imageª program that came with your Signalyze package. It is specifically designed to handle image files, offers many options for improving the look of your spectrograms (see pp. 96~98 in the manual), and is much faster. See also the Printing with Signalyze information doc for tips on using screen capture utilities to create images that can be opened with Imageª.
top Q: How can I draw and/or print spectrograms faster? A: If you have a first or second generation PowerMac (beige models), try using SpeedDoublerª from Connectix. If you are using background printing (enabled in the Chooser--in Japanese, the selekuta--in the Apple Menu Items folder), you can improve performance by increasing the memory of the PrintMonitor extension: Go into your System Folder; open the Extensions folder; click once on the PrintMonitor to select it; select "Get Info" from the File menu; and type in a larger number in the Preferred Size and/or Minimum Size boxes. Close the Info window to save the changes. The PrintMonitor will now be able to process large files much faster. Handy tip: if you have enabled background printing, and a printing job crashes for some reason, the file is most likely still in tact in the PrintMonitor Documents folder in your system folder. Double-clicking on it most likely will start it printing again.) Also, see the manual p. 100 and the Printing with Signalyze information doc for printing tips.
top Q: Is Signalyze scriptable? Can I control it via AppleScriptª or FrontierScriptª? A: Signalyze 3.12 itself is not scriptable; you cannot directly tell it what to do with scripts. (Be sure to check out Signalyze's shortcut & macro functions, though, where we can program more than one command to a keystroke.) However, with the aid of PreFab Playerª, Signalyze (and any other application) can be controlled just as if the user were clicking the mouse and typing on the keyboard. More information will be available at a future date.
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