Signal Analyzer

[Music Engineer]

Hi man, I like this plugin alot. But your new version is quite pc hungry.

more so than the old?

Anyway as much as i find this plugin useful, could you implement something like a slow motion knob in a new version? Because it's quite difficult to follow the waves sometimes

are you talking about the oscilloscope here? if this is the case, then how would such a slow-motion mode be supposed to work? i mean, the waveform must somehow stay in sync with the input - or not? frozen frames every so-or-so fraction of a second? that would probably look like a game on a too slow computer. maybe i misunderstand your request? btw.: for monophonic, pitched signals, the waveform-sync actually works rather well but for chords and stuff the display can become a bit erratic, i know.

[gts]

Yeah at the size 32768 i can't use more than 2 plugins. My pc starts to lag. I didn't have this problem with v.1


I was talking about oscilloscope and a spectrum analyzer. In voxengo span you can adjust the speed of spectrum from 6 to 64. Its quite handy when you do a real time adjustments. I think it's not in sync with imput and it's not a bad thing.
The same goes for osciloscope

Anyway what i like in your plugin is the small size of it and that you can have size of 32768 and watch spectrum in detail. The zoom is very nice as well

[Music Engineer]

if everything is alright, i'll address some minor cosmetic modifications...

...as is often the case when i actually plan to do some 'minor modifications', i ended up doing some major rewrite. this time it is about the handling of colorschemes in the user interface. there's now a 'Setup' button in the top-right corner where the user can adjust the colorscheme to taste. let me know what you think. i'm considering to reverse the operation of the 'Gamma' slider (thereby turning it into an anti-gamma or gamma-correction slider) - would that be better?

In voxengo span you can adjust the speed of spectrum from 6 to 64. Its quite handy when you do a real time adjustments. I think it's not in sync with imput and it's not a bad thing.
The same goes for osciloscope ?

i just checked it out. span seems to always have some kind of inertia and implements some kind of afterglow schlieren. inertia could be realized by using a first order filter on the bin-magnitudes - the problem is that i poll the magnitudes asynchronously which would have to be changed for such an inertia-filter. for the oscilloscope, on the other hand, i can't think of a sensible way to implement inertia (but ideas are welcome). but...mmm...actually i happen to prefer the more direct response. with those higher frequency resolutions, you actually have some kind of inertia already built in anyway due to the time averaging of the longer windows (aka uncertainty principle).

i will now see if i can figure out what increased the CPU usage...

[sinkmusic]

Hi
The name "multi analyzer" seems to imply that it can work on several channels (like Schope or the BlueCat's one) : is it the case (if so, i haven't found how to route and configure it) ? If not, i mighthave been misleaded by the name, sorry

[Music Engineer]

Hi
The name "multi analyzer" seems to imply that it can work on several channels (like Schope or the BlueCat's one) : is it the case (if so, i haven't found how to route and configure it) ? If not, i mighthave been misleaded by the name, sorry

ohh - what i actually wanted to express, is that it analyzes the signal in multiple ways (O.K.: currently only 2, but i hope that to grow - maybe sonagram, vector-scope, etc. at some stage). but i'm not entirely happy with that name anyway, so suggestions are welcome.

[MWSOS]

Hi Robin,

I'm loving this SignalAnalyzer plug-in of yours, because it makes it so easy to switch between frequency and time domains It will hopefully be getting a plug from me in a future PC Notes column as well

The CPU overheads in Spectrum mode are indeed mich higher than other similar plug-ins I have (such as Nugen's excellent Visualizer), although they remain manageable with the FFT window size set to 8192.

However, as you're being so proactive, can I please ask for a couple of minor tweaks to streamline general operation?

It would be much easier if the Display and Sync controls were buttons like Freeze, so you could toggle their setting with a single mouse click rather than the current click, move your mouse, click again

Many thanks if this is possible!


Martin

[Music Engineer]

Hi Robin,

I'm loving this SignalAnalyzer plug-in of yours, because it makes it so easy to switch between frequency and time domains It will hopefully be getting a plug from me in a future PC Notes column as well

PC Notes? is that a magazine you work as editor for? if so, i'd certainly be very happy about being mentioned. thx in advance.

The CPU overheads in Spectrum mode are indeed mich higher than other similar plug-ins I have (such as Nugen's excellent Visualizer), although they remain manageable with the FFT window size set to 8192.

thanks for the heads up for nugens visualizer. i just visited their website and the plugin seems to be indeed a fine one and will probably serve me well for inspiration. i just checked my code (for the newer version posted here) and might have found a reson for the high CPU usage: i have an update-interval of 20 ms (corresponding to a framerate of 50 frames/second) - that's probably overkill. half of that would be enough. maybe i should offer the framerate as user parameter?

It would be much easier if the Display and Sync controls were buttons like Freeze, so you could toggle their setting with a single mouse click rather than the current click, move your mouse, click again

Many thanks if this is possible!

yeah you are right - the new beta has buttons for the display (should feel almost like a tabbed interface). the reason for providing sync as a menu was that i was considering different modes for syncing - but you are right - as long there is only one option (besides off), it makes more sense to have a button. ...and since i'm actually happy with the way it syncs and therefore see no need anymore for other sync-modes, i will change this into a button

[MWSOS]

Hi Robin,

I'm loving this SignalAnalyzer plug-in of yours, because it makes it so easy to switch between frequency and time domains It will hopefully be getting a plug from me in a future PC Notes column as well

PC Notes? is that a magazine you work as editor for? if so, i'd certainly be very happy about being mentioned. thx in advance.

My name should have given the game away

Apart from all the reviews and features, I've written the monthly PC Notes column for Sound On Sound magazine since 1997:

www.soundonsound.com/search?Section=8&Subject=62


Martin

[Music Engineer]

My name should have given the game away

Apart from all the reviews and features, I've written the monthly PC Notes column for Sound On Sound magazine since 1997:

www.soundonsound.com/search?Section=8&Subject=62

aaahhh! i see! sound on sound. in this case, i'm especially happy that you like my pluggy.

[tranceglobal]

ohh - what i actually wanted to express, is that it analyzes the signal in multiple ways (O.K.: currently only 2, but i hope that to grow - maybe sonagram, vector-scope, etc. at some stage). but i'm not entirely happy with that name anyway, so suggestions are welcome.

Hi Robin,

I am new to your forum, but I recently purchased EchoLab, which has to be the finest delay I have used in terms of interface and options. EQ and Scope are very useful too. I am really digging your well thought out plugins, although the interfaces are a bit brightly colored (white background) and could be larger. Still it really is some of the best stuff around, thanks!

Now regarding a Multi Analyzer plugin: I have long wished for an analyzer plugin with all of the following in one:

1. Scope / Waveform
2. Spectum Analyzer
3. Vector / stereo-gram (waterfall view option like the Blue Cat plug would be nice)
4. Sonogram
5. Tuner
6. Bit Meter

MicroSchope already does 4 of these, but is so small I can hardly use it. There are a couple other companies with similar plugins, but their price to feature ratio is not the best. I found the Nugen Audio product limited and expensive, personally - and its interface is fairly small also. Monitors are big these days - no shortage of space!

Interested to see where you decide to take this! I think with some additions and improvements your O-Scope could become another product I would be willing to buy at the right price point. Thanks for listening.

D.

[Music Engineer]

Hi Robin,

I am new to your forum, but I recently purchased EchoLab, which has to be the finest delay I have used in terms of interface and options. EQ and Scope are very useful too. I am really digging your well thought out plugins, although the interfaces are a bit brightly colored (white background) and could be larger. Still it really is some of the best stuff around, thanks!.

hi and welcome then. and thanks for your purchase and the kind words. as for the colors: have a look at the fresh beta of the analyzer - the colors are customizable there (within limits) - i'm planning to include this feature into all other plugins as well ...one by one (next probably into straightliner which is due for an update anyway)

as for the other analysis options - i have this in the back of my head anyway (as said), but i currently have some other higher priorities, so i can't give a time-schedule. i recently experimented a bit with a resizable GUI - alas, it seems like the drawing becomes considerably more cpu-intensive when making the GUI bigger. maybe i can optimize this a bit but i wouldn't expect miracles. a full-screen analyzer would certainly be an awesome, cool and desirable thing, but currently, this seems not feasible cpu-wise.

[Music Engineer]

6. Bit Meter

mmhhh...Bit Meter? what is that? how is it supposed to work?

[tranceglobal]

6. Bit Meter

mmhhh...Bit Meter? what is that? how is it supposed to work?

Rather than me messing up the explanation, I will offer this link - in the thread, one of Cakewalk's programmers comments on some of the uses of their BitMeter plugin:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?high= ... e=1#956957

I must admit that such a feature would not be useful to everyone. I have always just imagined one analyzer that does everything from one interface, rather than having to load up and open so many different plugins to get picture of whats going on.

D.

[MWSOS]

There are a couple other companies with similar plugins, but their price to feature ratio is not the best. I found the Nugen Audio product limited and expensive, personally - and its interface is fairly small also. Monitors are big these days - no shortage of space!

D.

Hi D!

At the risk of going off-topic here, like Robin I'm impressed with Nugen Audio's Visualizer, and find it one of the most comprehensive of its kind available. It also has two interface sizes that you can switch between at any time, and I personally find the larger one more than adequate

However, it lacks a scope, which is why I'm so impressed with Robin's freebie

Martin

[Music Engineer]

one of Cakewalk's programmers comments on some of the uses of their BitMeter plugin...

O.K. but somehow i still don't get what it actually shows - the bit pattern of ....what? of one particular (pseudo-randomly chosen) sample inside some time window? or maybe the bit pattern of the maximum sample inside a window? the latter would probably make more sense but still i can't really see why this should be more useful than a simple peak level-meter (except being flickering erraticaly, if that's what one likes ). information content wise, showing such bit patterns would amount to a level-meter with a resolution of 6 dB. or am i missing something here?

edit: but what could be interesting instead would be a kind of running histogram of the amplitudes. i think, i have seen something like that in izotope ozone

...hah, yes:

http://www.izotope.com/support/help/ozone/index.html

certainly a good source for inspiration as well. they also describe the bit-meter operation there, but i'm still a bit sceptical. need to think about it.