Basic Operation

User's Guide > Operation > Basic Operation

Basic operation of spwave is explained here. Control+click and Option+click on Mac OS mean clicking the right buttton and the middle button, respectively.

Execution

Windows and Mac OS version will start with double-clicking on the executable binary. You can run the Linux version with following command.

spwave [options...] [filename...]

spwave accepts some command-line options. For delailed information, see command-line options.

Linux version will display help messages with "-help" option. While the Windows version will not show such help, command-line options have effect on the program. Almost all of these parameters also can be set by the preference dialog. Mac OS version does not support command-line options.

Window

The window of spwave consists of the following areas.

• Menu Bar
  Almost all functions can be accessed from here. Please see Menu Reference for detailed information.
• Tool Bar
  Many functions used frequently can be accessed from here.
• Waveform Area
  Speech waveform will be displayed in this area. When you choose some analysises, this area displays spectrum. Selecting a region can be done in this area.
  The amplitude of waveform is displayed in raw value. Version 0.6.9+ can display the amplitude in percentages.
  You can execute some functions by Popup menu displayed by clicking the right button.
• Cursor
  Moving the mouse in the waveform area displays the cursor indicating the current time location. The time location of the cursor and the waveform amplitude in the location are shown in the waveform area.
  Some edit operations will be executed to this cursor location.
• Overview Area
  The overview area placed above the waveform area shows a whole waveform of the current file. This area is added in version 0.6.8. For more information, see Overview Area.

• Information Area
  This area in current version displays information about labels in the righthand side of the waveform area. You can show/hide this area by checking/unchecking Display Information Area.

Opening Files

If you choose Open... menu in File menu, a dialog box to select file will popup. The data format of the selected file will be autodetected when it is a supported format. Otherwise, a dialog box to select data format will popup, select suitable format.

Version 0.5.2+ supports opening files by drag & drop. Dropping files on spwave icon on Mac OS or dropping files on a waveform window on other platforms can open files. Motif version doesn't support this function.

Saving Files

Saving files can be executed by Save in File menu. If you want save the file with a different file name, use Save As.... The file format in Save As can be chosen by `File Types'. The number of formats displayed in `File Types' depends on the number of plug-ins installed.

When you select `By Extension' in `File Types', the file format is settled by the extension of the file name. For example, the extension `.wav' means WAVE file format, `.aif' means AIFF file format. When spave cannot detect the file format from the file name, use another extension or select the desired file format in `File Types'. You cannot save as the file format that is not displayed in `File Types'. For example, if items such as ``MPEG 1.0 Layer III'' are not in the list, you cannnot save as MP3 format.

File Formats

Currently, spwave supports the following file formats. These formats can be specified by command-line options or Format Dialog. The other file formats supported by spwave such as WAVE, AIFF, etc. can be detected automatically. -format options changes the format setting in command line. In the command-line options, names in the parenthesises can be specified.

Raw (raw)

Binary data with a native byte order. When this value makes the waveform like noise, try Swap Raw.

Swap Raw (swap)

Binary data with a swapped native byte order.

Little Endian (little)

Binary data with a little endian byte order. Linux (i386), DEC Alpha, Windows, etc. uses this byte order.

Bit Endian (big)

Binary data with a big endian byte order. Sun SPARC, Macintosh, etc. uses this byte order.

U-law (ulaw)

u-law binary data. The bits/sample are always 8.

A-law (alaw)

a-law binary data. The bits/sample are always 8.

Text (text)

Text file. The data format is considered that each line has one value. The character `#' means a comment. So, the line follows `#' will be ignored.

The other file formats supported by spwave can be detected automatically. The file that cannot be detected has to be specified the following values.

• Sampling Frequency
  

• Number of Channels
  Indicate how many channels is included in the file. For example, the stereo data is 2 channels.

• Bits/Sample
  Bits per sample of the input file. When the selected file format is u-law or a-law, this value is ignored. spwave converts bits/sample into 16 bits/sample internally when the file has a bits/sample lower than 16 bits.
  Select 64, if the file includes floating point numbers.

Region

Playing Files

Editing Files

Moving View

Overview Area

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User's Guide > Operation > Basic Operation

Last modified: "2004-07-19 17:04:24 hideki"