Main setup

Main setup dialog

Configuration

Save / restore a user-defined configuration to and from disk, including all the settings in this panel, as well as IO Configuration 6 and UI Setup 4.1.2.

SampleGrabber

SampleGrabber password

The password entered in this field should match the one used by the SampleGrabber you wish to use as a source. This provides a reasonable level a security and prevents unauthorized access to your audio material broadcast over the network. Please take into consideration the encryption used only provides moderate protection, and is not intended to replace other security guards such as firewalls etc.

Graphic engine

Note

Available graphic engine frame rates

Here you can specify the rate at which the display should be refreshed. Please note higher frame rates place higher demands on the GPU, and to a lesser extent, on the CPU.

The effective frame rate can be displayed by typing SetRenderStats(1) in the console.

Time code

Display frame rate

Sets the frame-rate used for time display in various parts of the program. Set it to match the frame-rate of your source material to facilitate locating time events, when working with film, TV or other time-stamped material.

Absolute Timecode

This setting toggles between absolute and relative time-code display formats. Absolute Timecode is taken from the time the application was started. Relative Timecode is the time-elapsed since the Timecode offset position. See metering history usage 20.1 for information on working with Timecode.

Main

RTA block size

Defines the size of the blocks, in samples, fed to the main spectrum analyzer engine, which is used by the spectrum magnitude, Nebula and spectrogram views.

Pure spectrum Toggles between optimized frequency analysis (default) and standard FFT.

TF/Sweep Block size

Block size used for the transfer function and snapshot performed with sine-sweep. The default is 32768, which is appropriate for most cases.

Increasing this value gives better frequency resolution, at the expense of CPU load. Lower values can be employed if you’re only interested in the overall response of the analyzed system.

Overlap Mode

The overlap mode setting determines how much incoming audio frames overlap each-other. A higher overlap results in a smoother display update, at the expense of increased CPU usage. The available settings are: * Full: highest overlap * Auto: optimized overlap depending on available CPU resources (Default). * Less: minimized overlap for minimal CPU usage (useful for slow machines)

Analysis window

Selects the analysis window applied to the incoming blocks.

Available choices are:

Rectangular (None).
Bartlett.
Blackmann standard (default).
Blackmann optimized.
Hamming.
Hann.

There is no reason to change this setting unless you have a specific reason to do so and fully understand the implications.

Normalization

Selects the normalization mode used to normalize the global gain of the spectrum display.

Available choices are:

Coherent (sinus): 0dB peak sine gives 0dB amplitude.
Incoherent (noise/music): 0dB RMS noise or music gives 0dB power.

Scaling

This setting controls the frequency dependent amplitude spectrum correction curve.

Available choices are:

Amplitude: equivalent to no scaling. Amplitude of pure tones at different frequencies register at the same value. Incoming white noise is displayed as a (quasi) flat curve.
Power (default): scaling inversely proportional to frequency (1/f). Incoming pink noise is displayed as a flat curve.

Averaging

Time 16.4.4 averaging: engages averaging of spectrum magnitudes over time. Default is off.

Mode

Running: the average display is updated as soon as a new incoming block arrives. This is the default.
Fill-freeze: the display is only updated when a fresh batch of N new incoming blocks has arrived. The display is frozen until the next batch of N blocks arrive, and so on. N corresponds to the length setting defined below.

Length

The number of incoming blocks over which the resulting average spectrum is computed. Lower values lead to faster apparent display update rates, while higher values smooth-out any time-variations more. Default is 32.

Running average employs a weighting window that gives more importance to the last incoming blocks of samples. This type of time averaging is also called moving average, rolling average or running average, and is good for smoothing out abrupt variations in time and still be able to monitor in a continuous fashion. Fill-freeze mode is useful for stabilizing a flickering display while still following long-term variations, which permits a more detailed study of the curve(s). This mode is therefore useful to get a very steady picture of the spectrum while still monitoring some of the mid-term changes, and saves you from holding and resetting the display manually again and again.

Various

Auto-pause threshold

Analysis is paused whenever the level of any channel of the incoming audio falls below this level. Set this a tad above the acoustic and electronic noise floor of your input signal chain to retain measurements even though the audio (music program or test signal) has stopped.

Metric system

Toggle displayed units between:

Metric system (default): distance expressed in meters, temperature in degrees Celsius.
Imperial units: distance expressed in inches and feet, temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperature

This should be set to the ambient temperature at the current location in order to get the most accurate time to distance conversions in the delay finder and impulse response panels. The following table gives an idea of how much the speed of sound varies with temperature.

Temperature (°C)	Speed of sound (m/s)
0	331.3
15	340.31
25	346.18
35	351.96

Preferences reset

Resets “Default” application configuration settings to their default initial value. Please note the changes are only effective after restarting the application.