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PC sound card as sig-gen, sa, & o-scope?

G

gwhite

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,

I'm looking for opinions on folk's favorite (but under $100) software to be used
with a computer's sound card. I'd like to use my computer as test equipment for
audio signals. I'd like signal generation, spectrum analysis, and a two channel
scope.

Thanks.
 
I

Ian Stirling

Jan 1, 1970
0
gwhite said:
Hi,

I'm looking for opinions on folk's favorite (but under $100) software to be used
with a computer's sound card. I'd like to use my computer as test equipment for
audio signals. I'd like signal generation, spectrum analysis, and a two channel
scope.

Signal generation - under linux, the program "siggen".
Free, and basic.
Works for me.
 
G

gwhite

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ian said:
Signal generation - under linux, the program "siggen".
Free, and basic.
Works for me.

Thanks. Unfortunately I have an investment in Windows (and all the associated
software) and won't in the near term be going to Linux.

I did some more searching and found a reasonably priced package:

http://www.goldwave.com/features.php

It can create tones and waveshapes, and some are built in:


"The Expression Evaluator allows sound to be generated from almost any equation.
For example, to generate a simple sine wave, the following can be entered:

sin(2*pi*f*t)

General expressions for sine, triangle, and square waves are already provided,
plus expressions for dial tones, effects, and noises."

It looks to do most of the other things I care about too. The price is
apparently around $45 US. That doesn't seem bad--even a starving EE student
could almost afford that. I think I'm on my way to having a garage audio lab.
LOL
 
C

Chaos Master

Jan 1, 1970
0
gwhite said:
Thanks. Unfortunately I have an investment in Windows (and all the associated
software) and won't in the near term be going to Linux.

I did some more searching and found a reasonably priced package:

I use DaqGen for generating signals in the audio range (the program can
do up to 64KHz... but depends on limits of soundcard).
http://www.daqarta.com . Freeware.

[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Canoas, Brazil - 29.55° S / 51.11° W

"Now: the 2-bit processor, with instructions:
1. NOP - does nothing, increase PC.
2. HLT - does nothing, doesn't increase PC
3. MMX - enter Pentium(r) emulation mode; increase PC
4. LCK - before MMX: NOP ; after MMX: executes F0 0F C7 C8 "
 
B

Ben Bradley

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thanks. Unfortunately I have an investment in Windows (and all the associated
software) and won't in the near term be going to Linux.

I did some more searching and found a reasonably priced package:

http://www.goldwave.com/features.php

It can create tones and waveshapes, and some are built in:


"The Expression Evaluator allows sound to be generated from almost any equation.
For example, to generate a simple sine wave, the following can be entered:

sin(2*pi*f*t)

General expressions for sine, triangle, and square waves are already provided,
plus expressions for dial tones, effects, and noises."

It looks to do most of the other things I care about too. The price is
apparently around $45 US. That doesn't seem bad--even a starving EE student
could almost afford that. I think I'm on my way to having a garage audio lab.
LOL

There was something similar and in the same ballpark pricewise
named Cool Edit 2000, it was a regular stereo wave editor with pretty
much the features of Goldwave (and a better UI, IMHO), and there was
Cool Edit Pro which was a multitrack recorder/editor for several
hundred dollars. Adobe bought the Cool Edit products, dropped the
lower-end 2000 product (too bad), and renamed the Pro product Adobe
Audiotion and kept the several-hundred-dollar pricetag.
If you can find earlier 'trial'/shareware versions of Goldwave or
Cool Edit 96, maybe on a shareware download site, these are 99 percent
fully functional and very useful as they are.
If what you want is to do audio analysis, there's a free program
named Rightmark that does lots frequency response and distortion
tests, and can give precise measurements even with cheap soundcards
(all consumer/game soundcards are less-than-great quality), since it
tests the card and subtracts its contribution to the test results.

If you're using this for audio-band signals all this will work
okay, but outside of the 20Hz to 20kHz band you'll need a 'real' A/D
card that goes from DC to your upper frequency of interest, and these
aren't so cheap. You might as well get a 'real' oscilloscope. I've got
a Velleman digitizing two-channel scope, it goes to 60MHz, is powered
by a wallwart, plugs into a parallel port, and cost about $300 a few
years back. The Pentium computer and monitor it's plugged into cost a
lot less than that at the thrift store.
 
M

martin griffith

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,

I'm looking for opinions on folk's favorite (but under $100) software to be used
with a computer's sound card. I'd like to use my computer as test equipment for
audio signals. I'd like signal generation, spectrum analysis, and a two channel
scope.

Thanks.
http://audio.rightmark.org/index_new.shtml
and
DazyWeb Laboratories, a bit buggy, but has a lot of potential. (groan
the site is down)




martin

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
 
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