wrel3.1.doc

speech signal process tools

waves+ Version 3.1 Release Notes                      page 6


# Put the "source sample frequency" in the header so the sample numbers
# can (optionally) be used to determine time by programs using the data.

addgen -g src_sf -t DOUBLE -v $freq $output

# clean up

rm -f $output.bak
rm -f $fmtfile
exit 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


The initial adjustments for the spectrogram threshold  level
and displayed dynamic range may now be set on both color and
monochrome systems using the image_clip and image_range glo-
bals.  These are established in the .wave_pro profile or via
an xwaves set command.  When the color map is adjusted using
the  middle mouse button in the spectrogtram display window,
the values of image_clip and image_range are updated accord-
ingly.   The current value of them may be retrieved with the
get attributes command.  Image_range  is  identical  to  the
range  variable  settable  via  the colormap and spectrogram
commands.  Image_clip is related to threshold via  the  for-
mula:
             threshold = 105 - image_clip - image_range
This somewhat convoluted variable set was devised  to  main-
tain backward compatability while providing a degree of con-
trol needed by many users.


2.2.  Auxiliary Programs

All Entropic D/A conversion (play) programs, when used  with
xwaves,  support  the  feature  that  repositions the signal
display centered on the point at which the  playback  opera-
tion  is  interrupted  by a left button press in the display
window.  A simple modification to non-Entropic D/A programs,
documented  in  the  splay  manual  page,  will provide this
interrupt-and-reposition function for them as well.  To  use
this  feature  on  a  long file, only a fraction of which is
displayed in a xwaves window: Select a play  function,  like
"play  entire  file",  from the data window menu.  Allow the
playback to proceed until you hear the  point  of  interest.
Immediately  press  the left button in the data window.  D/A
will stop and the window will jump  to  roughly  center  the
point of interest in the display.

Send_xwaves will now wait for a command to  complete  before
proceeding.   The utility of send_xwaves was previously lim-
ited by its completely asynchronous  coupling  with  xwaves.
Commands  via  send_xwaves are now executed and completed in
the order in which they are given.  This feature extends  to










waves+ Version 3.1 Release Notes                      page 7


commands that involve other processes external to xwaves and
to the attachments.  If  the  old  asynchronous  send_xwaves
behavior  is desired, the interlock may be disabled with the
-B send-xwaves command-line option.  See the new send_xwaves
manual page.

All Entropic A/D (record) programs  optionally  can  send  a
display  message  to  xwaves  to  display  the  signal  just
recorded.  This simplifies recording followed immediately by
analysis  or editing.  To use this feature: Have xwaves run-
ning in the server mode (e.g. start it with the -s  option).
Issue a record command, like "srecord -S output.sd".  If the
record operation is then interrupted or allowed  to  run  to
completion,  the  data  just  collected  will  be  displayed
immediately in an xwaves window.  See the srecord manual for
more details.


2.3.  Attachments

There is a new attachment called xchart.  This  has  all  of
the features present in the xlabel program, plus the ability
to handle segment lattice displays.  These displays  consist
of  multiple,  possibly overlapping, segment labels, such as
might be generated by an automatic time-series labeling sys-
tem, or a speech recognizer "front end".  See the new xchart
manual page.

Xspectrum now controls the highest visible  harmonic  cursor
when  harmonic cursors are on.  The mouse cursor keeps jump-
ing to higher and higher harmonics as the frequency  of  the
fundamental is lowered, and to lower harmonics as the funda-
mental is raised.  The maximum number  of  harmonic  cursors
has  been increased to 20.  Thus, it is now possible to make
extremely  accurate  fundamental  frequency   determinations
using xspectrum.

Xspectrum now provides  on/off  control  of  the  horizontal
(magnitude) cursors.  It is often desirable to disable these
when hard copies are being prepared.


3.  ANNOYANCES REMOVED

3.1.  xwaves

Xwaves now has only one name: xwaves.  We no longer put  the
names   waves,   xvwaves,   xwaves+,   waves+,  ...  in  the
$ESPS_BASE/bin directory.  We also no longer supply a cover-
ing  script  that attempts to determine the window system in
use.  When you run xwaves, you will be  running  the  target
binary  file  designed  for the window system named X.  Some
installations may wish to  continue  to  link  the  multiple










waves+ Version 3.1 Release Notes                      page 8


names  to  xwaves, but Entropic has decided to cut the cord!
We are sorry if this causes temporary inconvenience, but  it
will simplify all our lives in the long run.  We were conti-
nally finding that, through our fault or  theirs,  customers
were  actually  running  the  wrong  version of our software
because links had turned into copies, etc.  We suggest  uni-
formly  changing  all  references in scripts, etc to xwaves.
(Note, however, that command  files  interpreted  by  xwaves
should continue to send messages to "waves" as before.)

Xwaves now recognizes any homogeneous ESPS FEA file  with  a
field called "F0" as a file containing fundamental-frequency
(pitch) information.  These are now displayed using the  F0-
specific  method, appropriate for such signals.  If the file
also has a field called  "P(voice)"  or  "prob_voice",  this
signal  element  will  be  used  to  enable the the waveform
display of the F0 data.  Data records in which prob_voice is
>  .5,  will  have F0 displayed.  This behavior was formerly
only available when the pitch information was stored in  the
AT&T SIGnal format.  The formant program now only optionally
emits the extra SIGnal version of the pitch data  (i.e.  the
.f0.sig file).

The use of the UNIX environment variable DEF_HEADER and  the
internal  xwaves variable def_header has been made more con-
sistent and more clearly defined: If DEF_HEADER  is  defined
before  xwaves  is  run, its value will be adopted by xwaves
(def_header will be set to its value).  If def_header is set
in  xwaves  AFTER  xwaves  is  started,  all programs run BY
xwaves (i.e. as child processes) will inherit the new defin-
ition.   Thus,  it  is possible to change def_header between
calls to external programs (e.g. calls via D/A play commands
or  add_espsf)  and  have the external ESPS programs use the
new definition.

The limit on the number of files that may  be  specified  on
the  command  line as signals for xwaves to display has been
raised from seven to 50.

The data-display cursor now returns to its  pre-menu-display
position after a window menu selection is performed.

Xwaves now scales signals for D/A playback based on the gen-
eric  header  item  max_val,  if  it is present, rather than
based on only the maximum found in the display  buffer.   If
max_val  is not present, xwaves assumes the maximum value is
32767 and does not scale at all.

It is no longer necessary to have fea_sd_special set to  get
reasonable  behavior  on  non-short-integer  data  with  the
built-in  boards  (or  external  program  calls,  for   that
matter).   Thus,  one  can  display a floating-point file as
floating point and still play it from within xwaves.  (It is










waves+ Version 3.1 Release Notes                      page 9


still necessary to set fea_sd_special to get spectrograms of
non-short-integer data with the built-in boards).


3.2.  Auxiliary Programs

All Entropic play programs now read the input and send  out-
put  to  the D/A simultaneously.  Previously, splay and some
of the others, read the entire file before beginning, a par-
ticularly annoying trait when the file was an hour long!

Similarly,  all  Entropic  record  programs  send  the  data
directly  to  disk  as  the data comes in from the A/D.  All
record programs can write to stdout.

The play programs (splay, sgplay,  s32cplay,  c30play,  ...)
now read ESPS files or headerless files correctly from stan-
dard input.  Thus, command sequences like
                   testsd -C 1000 -s4 - | splay -
will work as expected.

Formant now permits specification of  an  output  directory,
rather  than  requiring  that the output files it creates be
placed in the same directory as the input  file.   This  was
implemented  as an optional command-line argument "-O" where
the directory path may be  specified.   Formant  still  gen-
erates  several  files  with  names ending in .hp, .sd, same
directory with the input file.  if "-O"  is  not  specified,
the old behavior obtains.

Formant now supports the standard  ESPS  range  [-r]  option
making  it  easier  to integrate with xwaves add_espsf func-
tions.  It still requires a covering  script  for  add_espsf
implementation,  but  the operation is more efficient, since
less copying will be required and the use of  copysd  is  no
longer  necessary  to obtain the range limits.  See the for-
mant manual page for examples.  The algorithms  embodied  in
the  formant program will be reimplemented for greater speed
and to provide a more regular I/O syntax in the Spring  1993
release.

Formant no longer forces the creation of a SIGnal file  con-
taining  the F0 information, since xwaves now reads the ESPS
version of this data correctly.  Thus only the  ".f0"  files
are  created by default. These are now read and displayed by
xwaves exactly as the ".f0.sig" files were.  Users requiring
the  SIGnal  files  for  other  reasons  can  use  the  [-S]
command-line option to enable the old behavior.

Formant now uses the standard UNIX getopt() function to pro-
cess  the  command  line,  making  it  insensitive to spaces
between option switches and their arguments, etc.











waves+ Version 3.1 Release Notes                     page 10


Processing of commands sent to xwaves  via  send_xwaves  was
overly  restrictive  about the format of the command string.
Its unnecessary sensitivity to the presence  or  absence  of
whitespace and newlines has now been eliminated.

All xwaves file name specifications are  now  processed  for
possible  UNIX  environment  symbols of the form $NAME.  All
such symbols are now expanded correctly.

Wcheckout has been eliminated.  If  the  user  has  a  valid
waves+  license,  all  of  the  auxiliary programs will run,
whether  xwaves  is  running  or  not.   All  references  to
wcheckout in scripts, etc. may be eliminated.

The program  wplay  has  been  replaced  by  a  new  program
v32play. This new program provides D/A conversion via either
the AT&T FAB2 dsp32 board  or  the  AT&T  or  Heurikon  SURF
dsp32c board.  Unlike wplay, v32play reads its data directly
from disk files (or stdin) during conversion,  and  is  thus
much  faster  in  response.  It may also be used on files of
unlimited length.  V32play behaves like  all  of  the  other
Entropic  D/A  programs,  with respect to command-line argu-
ments and UNIX signals (see eman v32play).   With  the  SURF
board,  v32play  provides both single- and dual-channel out-
put.

The AT&T/Heurikon SURF record  program,  wrecord,  has  been
replaced   by  the  program  v32record  which  performs  A/D
directly to disk (unlike wrecord which  buffered  everything
to  memory first).  V32record also records either single- or
dual-channel signals.


3.3.  Attachments

As with xwaves, we have uniformly singled out names for  all
of  the  attachments.   Thus,  we  retain  the names xlabel,
xspectrum and xmarks.  All references to  these  attachments
must  use  those names.  Optionally, your site may choose to
symbolically link the old names (like xvlabel) to  the  now-
standard  names.   However,  we  encourage  you  to make the
change now.  We promise never to change the names again!

Attachment of an xlabel window to a particular xwaves signal
view  has  now  been correctly implemented.  When the xlabel
display is created by a command like
        send make  name foo   file foo.lab   signal foo.sd
the xlabel window remains connected to the  foo.sd  display,
regardless  of  other signals that may subsequently included
in  the  foo  display  ensemble.   If  several  signals  are
included  in  foo,  and  the original signal (foo.sd in this
case) is removed, xlabel reverts  to  the  old  behavior  of
attaching to the most recently created signal display.