Spectrum Analyzer Pro Live 3.5.11
Wan Cabiness
The spectrum analyzer above gives us a graph of all the frequencies that are present in a sound recording at a given time.The resulting graph is known as a spectrogram. The darker areas are those where the frequencies have very low intensities, and the orange and yellowareas represent frequencies that have high intensities in the sound. You can toggle between a linear or logarithmic frequency scale by ticking or unticking the logarithmic frequency checkbox.
In many ways, this demo is similar to the Virtual Oscilloscope demo, but there is a crucial and very important difference. In the oscilloscope demo, the plot shows the displacement of an audio signal versus the time, which is called the time-domain signal. This demo shows the signal represented in a different way: the frequency domain. The frequency spectrum is generated by applying a Fourier transform to the time-domain signal.
The demo above allows you to select a number of preset audio files, such as whale/dolphin clicks, police sirens, bird songs, whistling, musical instruments and even an old 56k dial-up modem. Each of these has unique and interesting patterns for you to observe. Additionally, you can upload your own audio files. To view the spectrogram, choose your sound input, then click the play button and the graph will appear on the screen, moving from right to left. You can stop the motion by clicking the pause button on the audio player.
The violin recording in particular clearly demonstrates the rich harmonic content for each note played (this appears on the spectrogram as multiple higher frequencies being generated for each fundamental frequency). This is in contrast to the whistling recording which has a very strong fundamental component,and has only one additional harmonic, indicating that a human whistle is very close to a pure sine wave.
Please note, we are aware of an issue with the Safari browser which stops the spectrogram from appearing. In addition to this, Internet Explorer does notyet have the features to support the demo. Therefore, for best results, please use Chrome or Firefox. Thank you.
Henrik , If you just want to see the EQ curve of an instrument you are fixing to record - Arm your track and turn the input echo on. Open the pro channel for the track you are using. Use the flyout button (>>) on the EQ module to extend it onto your main screen. It will become quite large and useable. Play your instrument and it will show you input in real time without actually having to record it. You can use the "pin" looking icon to lock the EQ module in place. If you want to play along with your other tracks , when you press "play" the module will disappear unless pinned . mark
You beat me to it I was going to say insert Voxingo Span or a similar spectral analyzer in the effects bin. but the Pro Channel Eq is a great idea as it's built in. As said when ever you need to hear or see any effects while tracking you have to always turn on input echo. You will here a small delay caused by your systems latency. If that bothers you just turn down the tracks fader and use your interfaces direct monitoring system. This is of course for what your doing which is just Looking at a Plug in. If your wishing to hear any effects then the fader needs to be up.
I was trying to identify some parts of the spectrum that was bugging me in a live situation where feedback frequently happened. That is: (ab)using cakewalk as a live spectrum analyzer. Then trying to fix it in the analog mixer.
ah. ebay - feedback destroyer pro. ? should be reasonable price (got mine for $50) and it (being a powerful parametric eq) can be used for a number of things besides feedback. i use mine for simulating the Bose 901 EQ box curve and sometimes a room response EQ'ing (where i need to tweak some peaks down a bit).
When testing radar, electronic warfare, or signal intelligence systems, it is important that you find and measure signals of interest in complex and dynamic environments. Using the real-time spectrum analyzer (RTSA), you can trigger on signals with a mask and even view signals in the time domain. Quickly link cause and effect with the X-Series signal analyzers equipped with the RTSA option.
I noticed the same issue in Reaper. Is there something I could try on my own to make Pro Q3 naming adapt to the track's names within Reaper automatically, or is there no other way than naming the Q3 instances manually right now?
Other than that Q3 works perfectly for me. :)
Any update on this? Im sure you guys know it can be really a time consuming task to manually rename every instance when you have a 20+ stem import project ;)
Do you know if its on Ableton's side (Im using Ableton 10.1b20 build, and im happy to open a request if this is the case) or is it a bug in Ff Q3?
its the only flaw in Q3 which is a shame since it is a brilliant product!
Same problem here with Pro Q 3 using FL Studio 20, Q 3 is not reading the name of the channel; I have tried both VST3 and AU, neither worked. In an effort to be better organized, it would be nice to have the ability to have them ranked alphabetically, or give us a few options on how to organize the Q3 names that will hopefully soon read the track names given, it will make it easier to find a track from the dozens we typically have in any given session.
unfortunately it is still not working in Ableton 10.1 as a VST3. It is not showing the track names, just the name of the instances (Pro-Q - Pro Q(1) - Pro Q(2)..and so on).
Is there a setting that need to be activated or should it work automatically?
I got the issue that not all other instances of q3 show up as spectrums in one q3 analyzer window. In some instances of q3 i can see the other instances (up to 4 spectrums) . In some i dont see a single one and its stated that there is no other q3 instances active. (which is not the case) Have never been able to see more then 4 instances showing up even thought there were more.
Using Reaper 6.19 latest version with 64Bit on MacBook Pro (late 2013 with 10.14.6) with VST3
Are you sure you are using only VST3 and not a combination of VST3 and VST3? Please note that external spectrums only show up with the VST3 version of Pro-Q 3. I've just tested here on my Reaper system and I can see all 8 channels of my session in the spectrum overview.
Are you sure you are using VST3 on all plug-ins? Please note that you need the same plug-in format for all plug-ins to see the name. If it does not work, please send us a video of the issue to in...@fabfilter.com
Is there any built in feature to see a frequency spectrum graph in real time? I know there is spectrum analyzer, but this only does prerecorded audio files. I would like to see the master out spectrum in real time (as well as individual tracks).
Or do I need a plugin? Any suggestions?
Line Sweep Tools (LST)
Anritsu Line Sweep Tools (LST) is the latest generation of Handheld Software Tools, an industry standard. This PC based post-processing software efficiently manipulates line sweep and PIM traces for reporting purposes.
Master Software Tools (MST)
Master Software Tools (MST) allows Anritsu handheld Spectrum Analyzer users to Capture, Analyze, and Document traces and measurements taken with a wide variety of Anritsu handheld spectrum analyzers.
Built as a Bokeh server application, with periodic callbacks handling the 1) spectrum data generation or live data 2) Scikit-learn calls to train with the new data available and 3) Look for changes to the interactive slider UI which changes the moving window or memory size of the radio data to put into scikit-learn.
Plots for the ML training time in a stacked horizontal graph, the FFT of the data, and the original signal waveform. It is heavily downsampled to save on Javascript rendering behavior. The graph below aligning call signs is still just a random placeholder until the morse code detector is implemented
After the value is entered a confirmation message will be shown, stating the maximum peak and rms input voltages the input can accept before clipping at digital full scale. If any volume control setting along the input path is altered the calibration will need be done again. If the input sensitivity is known (including the effect of any volume control settings) it can be typed directly into the text field below the FS sine Vrms label. Clicking in the triangle in the upper left corner brings up a list of preset values that may be entered, the labels and values can be changed as required. The full scale input level can also be entered by using the Cal data button on the input selection dialog to bring up the cal data settings which has a field labelled FS sine Vrms. The level is saved as part of the calibration data for the input device and will be used whenever that input device is selected on the Soundcard preferences.
The Save current button converts the current display into a measurement in the measurements pane (keyboard shortcut Alt+S). It is converted in the current mode of the analyser, so if the analyser is in Spectrum mode the measurement shows the spectrum, if it is in RTA mode it shows the RTA result. The saved measurements can be used as references for subsequent spectrum/RTA measurements. If distortion data is available it is copied to the comments area of the saved measurement. Peak data can similarly be saved using the Save peak button, or both saved at once using the Save both button. Processing WAV files The RTA can be used to analyse WAV files (singly or in groups) by dragging and dropping them on the RTA window or by clicking the Open WAV button (shortcut Alt+O) to select a WAV file to process. The dialog below appears to determine how each file will be processed, at the end of processing the current, peak or both results will be saved as measurements according to the selection made.
Spectrum/RTA controls The controls for the plot are shown below. The Mode can be set to Spectrum for a spectrum analyser plot or to various RTA resolutions from 1 octave to 1/48 octave. The difference between spectrum and RTA modes is how the information is presented. In spectrum mode the frequency content of the signal is split up into bins that are all the same width in Hz. For example, with a 64k FFT length and 48 kHz sample rate the bins are 0.732 Hz wide. The plot shows the energy in each of those bins. In RTA mode the bin widths are an octave fraction, so their width in Hz varies with the frequency. For example, a 1 octave RTA plot has bins that are 70.7 Hz wide at 100 Hz (from 70.7 Hz to 141.4 Hz) and 707 Hz wide at 1 kHz (from 707 Hz to 1.414 kHz). The plot shows the combined energy at each frequency within each bin. This is closer to how our ears perceive sound. The different presentations mean signals with a spread of frequency content will look different on the plot. The best known examples are white noise and pink noise. White noise has the same energy at each frequency. On a spectrum plot, which shows the energy at each frequency, the white noise plots as a horizontal line. On an RTA plot it appears as a line that rises with increasing frequency, as each RTA bin gets wider it covers more frequencies and so has more energy. The bin widths double with each doubling of frequency so the energy also doubles, which adds 3 dB on the logarithmic plots we use to show level. White noise sounds quite 'hissy', we perceive it as having more energy at higher frequencies. Pink noise has energy that falls 3 dB with each doubling of frequency. On a spectrum plot it is a line that falls at that 3 dB per octave rate, on an RTA plot it is a horizontal line as the energy in the signal is falling at the same rate as the bins are widening. We perceive pink noise as having a uniform distribution of energy with frequency. Single tones are a special case, they will appear at the same level on either style of plot as their energy is all at one frequency, so on a spectrum plot they show as a vertical line, on an RTA plot they show (typically) as a bar of the width of the bin at their frequency, but the height of the bar is the same as the height of the line on the spectrum as all the energy is at that one frequency. Smoothing can be applied to the trace according to the setting of the Smoothing box. FFT Length The FFT Length determines the basic frequency resolution of the analyser, which is sample rate divided by FFT length. The shortest FFT is 8,192 (often abbreviated as 8k) which is also the length of the blocks of input data that are fed to the analyser. An 8k FFT has a frequency resolution of approximately 6Hz for data sampled at 48kHz. As the FFT length is increased the analyser starts to overlap its FFTs, calculating a new FFT for every block of input data. The degree of overlap is 50% for 16k, 75% for 32k, 87.5% for 64k and 93.75% for 128k. The overlap ensures that spectral details are not missed when a Window is applied to the data. The maximum overlap allowed can be limited using the Max Overlap control below to reduce processor loading at higher FFT lengths. Averaging The plot can be set to show the live input as it is analysed or to show the result of averaging measurements, according to the selection in the Averaging control. Selecting a number for averages results in that many measurements being averaged to produce the result, with the oldest measurement being removed from the average as each new measurement is added. There are several Exponential averaging modes, which give greater weighting to more recent inputs. The figure shown in the selection box is the proportion of the old value which is retained when a new measurement is added, the higher the figure the more heavily averaged the display becomes. There is also a Forever averaging mode which averages all measurements with equal weight since the last averaging reset. In Forever averaging the Stop at option allows the RTA to be stopped when a configured number of averages is reached. After starting the RTA or changing the FFT length averaging does not begin until a full FFT length of data has been received, plus the lengths of the input and output buffers. The Reset averaging button above the graph restarts the averaging process (keyboard shortcut Alt+R). If the signal generator is started or is running and its settings are changed while using the RTA the averaging will be automatically reset. Averaging is needed when measuring with pink noise or when there is noise in the signal being measured. Note that if measuring a response using pink noise the best results are obtained using REW's periodic noise signals, which can be exported as wave files from the signal generator to produce a test disc for the system to be measured if direct connection to the PC running REW is not possible. Window The FFT resolution is also affected by the Window setting. Rectangular windows give the best frequency resolution but are only suitable when the signal being analysed is periodic within the FFT length or if a periodic noise signal is being measured. The Rectangular window should always be used with the REW periodic noise signals. Most other signals, e.g. sine waves from the REW generator or test tones on a CD or random noise, typically would not be periodic in the FFT length. Using a rectangular window when analysing such a tone would generate spectral leakage, making it difficult to resolve the frequency details - the plot below shows an example of a 1kHz tone from an external generator with a Rectangular window.
Here is the same tone analysed with a Hann window.
The window allows the harmonics of the tone to be resolved. However, the tradeoff is that windows cause some spreading of the signal they are analysing, which reduces the frequency resolution. To use a rectangular window with the REW signal generator use the generator's Lock frequency to FFT option. The Hann window is well suited to most measurements, offering a good tradeoff between resolution and shoulder height. If very high dynamic range needs to be resolved (very small signals close to very large signals) use the 4-term or 7-term Blackman-Harris windows. If the spectral peak amplitudes must be accurately measured use the Flat Top window, this will provide amplitude accuracy of 0.01 dB regardless of where the tone being measured falls relative to the bins of the FFT. The other windows only show the spectral amplitude accurately if the tone is exactly on the centre of an FFT bin, if the tone falls between two bins the amplitude is lower, with the maximum error occurring exactly between two bins. This maximum error is 3.92dB for the Rectangular window, 1.42dB for Hann, 0.83dB for the 4-term Blackman-Harris and 0.4dB for the 7-term Blackman-Harris. Max Overlap The spectrum/RTA plot can be updated for every block of audio data that is captured from the input, overlapping sequences of the chosen FFT length. This can present a significant processor load for large FFT lengths. The processor loading can be reduced by limiting the overlap allowed using this control. Generator changes If Generator changes restart capture is selected RTA capture will restart if the signal generator is started or is running and its settings are changed while using the RTA. Fundamental from generator If Get fundamental from generator is selected the fundamental frequency will be obtained from the generator if the generator is playing a sine tone, otherwise it will be determined from the largest peak in the input. Getting the fundamental frequency from the generator ensures accurate determination of harmonic frequencies even if heavy distortion causes the fundamental to have an asymmetric spectrum. It is also required if an external notch filter is used to remove the fundamental. On the other hand, if the system DAC and ADC have different clock sources (e.g. if they are different devices) the received frequency (based on the ADC clock) may differ sufficiently from the generated frequency (based on the DAC clock) to misidentify harmonics, particularly for very long FFTs. In that case the option should not be selected and the RTA will show a warning. Distortion settings Distortion High Pass and Low Pass The Distortion High Pass and Low Pass are used to set the lowest and highest frequencies that will contribute to the calculation of THD, THD+N and, for dual, triple and multitone signals, TD+N. They are only applied when the Use distortion high pass and Use distortion low pass boxes are selected. Either can be enabled individually. When they are active the region of the plot which is excluded from the calculations will be greyed out and the THD, THD+N and TD+N figures will show the range over which they have been calculated. Manual fundamental A value for the fundamental level may be entered for use in harmonic distortion calculations when the fundamental is attenuated by a notch filter. The level is in Vrms and should take account of any gain introduced after the notch. That ensures REW uses the correct fundamental level when calculating distortion. To compensate for the effect of the notch filter on harmonic levels its response can be loaded as a calibration file. For example, make a sweep measurement of a loopback connection firstly with the notch filter in place, then another without it, then use the Trace arithmetic feature of the All SPL graph to generate (notch response)/(no notch response) and export that result as a text file to be loaded as a mic cal file. Alternatively just measure the notch response, offset the measurement so that the dB values correctly reflect the notch filter loss at the harmonics (the fundamental is not critical since Manual fundamental deals with that) and export that offset notch response as text and load it as the mic cal file. The harmonic levels will then be corrected to allow for the filter's attenuation. The fundamental levels shown by the graph trace will typically be in error due to shifts in the centre frequency of the notch, but they will not be used if Manual fundamental is selected. Units for distortion display Distortion ratios may be shown as either percentages or in dB according to the selection made. Harmonic data The Highest harmonic in THD setting controls which harmonics are used for the calculated THD figure. The THD figure in the distortion panel will show which harmonics are included. Note that this has no effect on THD+N, only on THD. If the Show harmonics up to option is selected the distortion data panel shows the levels of harmonics up to the figure in the adjacent box. If the Show phase of harmonics option is selected the distortion data panel includes the phase of each harmonic relative to the fundamental. If Show higher harmonic distortion is selected a figure is shown for harmonics from the tenth up to the highest within the measurement bandwidth, with an upper limit of the 50th.
Coherent averaging This option is only applicable to harmonic distortion measurements and only when capturing a single input. If it is selected the FFT data is phase aligned according to the phase of the fundamental before averaging, this can lower the noise floor substantially compared to magnitude averaging without needing very long FFTs - in fact shorter FFTs (e.g. 64k) will allow faster averaging and more quickly lower the noise floor. The noise level drops by about 3 dB for each doubling of the number of averages. Mains frequency components will be suppressed along with any other noise not harmonically related to the fundamental, so this option is only suitable for examining harmonic levels. Note that if the harmonic levels are varying coherent averaging will converge to their average level whilst magnitude averaging will converge to their rms level. The various noise-related values in the distortion panel (THD+N, N, N+D) continue to be calculated from magnitude-averaged data and remain valid. If the Use AES17-2015 standard notch option is selected the fundamental power for THD and THD+N calculations will be the power within a one octave span around the fundamental frequency. If that option is not selected it will be the power in the main lobe of the fundamental. When the fundamental level is not well above the noise floor using the standard notch will produce a higher figure than the fundamental main lobe, in those cases it is better not to use the standard notch setting. If the Monitor clock match option is selected REW will check for differences between the replay and record clock rates when using a multitone test signal or an FFT-locked sine signal and warn if the clock rates do not match and a rectangular window should not be used. If the window is not rectangular and the clock rates do match it will suggest using a rectangular window for greatest accuracy in the results. If the Highlight fundamental option is selected the portion of the response which contributes to the fundamental power for THD and THD+N calculations will be highlighted. The response outside the highlighted region is used for the noise and noise+distortion calculations. Appearance controls Update Interval The spectrum/RTA plot is updated by default for every block of audio data that is captured from the input. This can cause a significant processor load, particularly if the RTA window is very large or for large FFT lengths. The processor loading can be reduced by updating the plot less often, which is set by the Update Interval control. An update interval of 1 redraws the trace for every block, an interval of 4 (for example) only updates the trace on every 4th block. Peak Hold and Peak Decay The Peak Hold and Peak Decay controls set how long, in seconds, a peak value is held and how quickly, in dB per second, the peak values decay. If Peak Hold is set to 0 the peak values are not held at all. If Peak Decay is set to 0 the peak trace does not decay. Show noise curves If the Show noise curves option is selected when capturing a single input the chosen noise curves will be drawn on the graph when the RTA is in 1 octave mode and the Y axis is showing dB. The options are Preferred Noise Criterion (PNC), Balanced Noise Criterion (NCB), Noise Criterion (NC) and Noise Rating (NR). Note that if Adjust RTA levels is selected the curves will be offset by the same amount as the RTA trace, but this will not alter the noise criteria results. Ref resistance for dBW The watt and dBW values are calculated from the voltages assuming a reference load resistance, this control sets the value of that resistance. CEA2010 max SPL limit The thresholds for distortion plus noise when using the CEA2010 burst test signal can be selected as those used for the ANSI/CTA-2010-B R-2020 Standard Method of Measurement for Powered Subwoofers or the ANSI/CTA-2034-A Standard Method of Measurement for In-Home Loudspeakers. The colour of the threshold overlay reflects the corresponding band chosen according to the fundamental frequency, per the standards. Lines or bars In Spectrum or RTA modes the plot can either draw lines between the centres of the FFT bins or draw horizontal bars whose width matches the FFT bin or RTA octave fraction width, this is controlled by the Use bars on spectrum and Use bars on RTA check boxes. RTA fill In RTA mode the plot will be filled if Fill the RTA is selected. Adjust RTA Levels The RTA plot shows the energy within each octave fraction bandwidth. As the RTA resolution increases, from 1 octave through to 1/48 octave, the octave fraction bandwidths decrease and, for broadband test signals such as pink noise, the energy in each octave fraction decreases correspondingly. Whilst the RTA is correctly showing the actual level within each octave fraction, this variation of trace level with RTA resolution can be awkward when using the RTA with a pink PN noise signal to adjust speaker positions or equaliser settings. The Adjust RTA Levels option offsets the levels shown on the RTA plot to compensate for both the bandwidth variation as resolution is changed and the difference between a sweep measurement at a given sweep level and a full range pink PN RTA measurement at the same level, allowing direct comparison between RTA and sweep plots. Whilst the levels shown are not the true SPL in each octave fraction, they are more convenient to work with. N.B. This option should only be used with broadband test signals, such as pink noise or pink PN. Use 64-bit FFT If this option is selected the RTA uses a 64-bit FFT to process the incoming data instead of 32-bit. This is useful when analysing purely digital 24-bit data paths to view behaviour below -160 dBFS. It has no visible effect when analysing signals that have an analog connection at any point along the data path or when dealing with 16-bit data, as in those cases noise and quantisation effects far exceed any numerical limitations of 32-bit processing. Here are some examples showing the difference the 64-bit FFT makes when analysing undithered and dithered 24-bit data over an S/PDIF loopback connection from REW's signal generator producing a 1 kHz sine wave at -20 dBFS. The vertical divisions are at 20 dB intervals, the bottom of the plot is at -220 dBFS.
Show tone burst peak SPL If this option is selected, the generator is playing a tone burst and the graph is in spectrum mode the peak SPL in the input data will be shown on the plot. This is similar to the CEA-2010 peak SPL but without 1/3 octave filtering around the fundamental frequency. Trace options The Trace options button brings up a dialog that allows the colour and line type of the graph traces to be changed. If a change is made to a measurement trace it will be used for all measurements shown on this graph, overriding the measurement colour. Traces can also be hidden, which will remove them from the graph and from the graph legend. Distortion measurements When the Distortion Panel button (keyboard shortcut Alt+D) is selected the analyser calculates and displays harmonic or intermodulation distortion figures for the input, including THD, N+D (A-weighted noise plus distortion), N (noise and non-harmonic distortion), THD+N, SNR (where N excludes harmonic distortion), ENOB, HHD (higher harmonic distortion for harmonics from the 10th up to at most the 50th) and the relative levels of the 2nd to 9th harmonics. N and N+D are displayed in the current Y axis units, harmonic distortion can be displayed as percentages or dB relative to the fundamental depending on the Distortion settings. If only two inputs are selected for a multi-input RTA measurement distortion figures will be shown individually for each. Harmonic distortion Harmonic distortion results are only valid when the system being monitored is driven by a tone or tone burst at a single frequency. If the REW signal generator is playing a sine signal and Fundamental from generator is selected or if the generator is playing a tone burst the generator frequency is used as the fundamental frequency of the input, otherwise the highest peak is used to determine the fundamental. The fundamental and its level are displayed, along with the voltage gain if the signal generator is playing a sine signal. If the Use AES17-2015 standard notch option is selected in the Distortion settings the fundamental figure will be the power within a one octave span around the fundamental frequency. If that option is not selected it will be the power in the main lobe of the fundamental. When the stimulus is a tone burst the tone burst envelope has a strong spectral spreading effect, which (depending on the envelope shape) means only relatively high levels of distortion can be measured. The distortion calculations use the level from the FFT