Overview
The spectrogram and waveform display window combines an advanced spectrogram with a transparency feature to allow you to view both the frequency content and amplitude of a file simultaneously.
Transparency
The transparency of the waveform and spectrogram can be adjusted with the transparency slider to the lower left of the display.
Zoom
To the lower right of the display, you will find horizontal and vertical sliders. The horizontal slider will affect how much of the time ruler is represented on the screen. The vertical slider controls the frequency range shown in the spectrogram.
You can also zoom by clicking on a ruler and moving your mouse wheel.
Selection Modes
The spectrogram display features selection tools that allow you to precisely select both by time and frequency. The selection tools can be found to the lower right of the spectrogram window.
Time Selection - Select a range of time within the file (horizontally within the spectrogram).
Time and Frequency Selection - Lets you select a range of time within specific frequencies (vertically and horizontally within the spectrogram), for example to process intermittent noise which falls only in a certain frequency range.
Frequency Selection - Lets you select an area of the file by frequency only (vertically in the spectrogram).
Zoom Button - Toggles zooming mode. When in zooming mode, you can zoom in to time, time/frequency, and frequency areas. Hold the alt key and click to zoom out.
Grab and Drag - Allows you to move around your view of the spectrogram when zoomed in.
Selection Modifiers
Shift + Click - Extend Selection. By Shift-clicking the borders of a selection you can change the size of the selection.
Alt + Drag - Move Selection. By Alt-dragging a selected area, you can move the selection box to a new region in the spectrogram.
Amplitude Scale
You can right-click on the spectral amplitude ruler to reveal a selection of amplitude scales.
dB - shows waveform levels in decibels, relative to digital full scale (it is the most common type of scale used for spectrum analyzers)
Normalized - shows waveform levels relative to the full scale level of 1.0
16 bit - shows waveform levels as quantization steps of a 16-bit audio format (-32768 to +32767)
Percent - shows waveform levels as percentage from full scale
Frequency Scale
You can also right-click on the frequency ruler to reveal a selection of different frequency scales.
Linear - Linear scale means that Hertz are linearly spaced on a screen.
Mel and Bark - Mel and Bark scale are frequency scales commonly found in psychoacoustics, i.e. they reflect how our ear detects pitch. They are approximately linear below 0.5 kHz and approximately logarithmic above that. Mel scale is reflecting our perception of pitch: equal subjective pitch increments produce equal increments in screen coordinate. Bark scale is reflecting our subjective loudness perception and energy integration. It is similar to Mel scale, but puts more emphasis on low frequencies.
Log - In this mode, different octaves occupy equal screen space. The screen coordinates are proportional to the logarithm of Hertz down to 100 Hz.
Extended Log - This extends the logarithmic scale down to 10 Hz, so that it puts even more attention on lower frequencies.
Advanced Spectrogram Settings
Our spectrogram has been designed to provide more sharpness and detail than other spectrograms. To adjust advanced settings like FFT size (frequency resolution), window and colors, go to View/Spectrogram Settings .