Welcome

Welcome to the SpectrumView program help system. This help system describes the controls and menu options to allow the program to respond to your operational requirements.


About SpectrumView

SpectrumView is an audio spectrum analyzer program that allows display

of audio data captured from the PC's sound card or from a WAVE file in either a spectrum graphical format or in a waterfall display. The data will be displayed in the frequency domain, i.e., each data point on the graph will represent a frequency point in the audio spectrum.


Setting up the Sound Board

In order for this program to display graphical data an audio source must

be connected to the Microphone, Left Line, or Right Line inputs on the PC sound card. After connecting the audio source to your computer use the "Channel" menu pick to configure the SpectrumView program for the selected audio source.

The PC volume control panel must also be used to select the audio source

for the PC. Use the "Volume Control" menu pick under "File" or go to the START menu, then Programs, then Accessories, then Entertainment, then Volume Control. Under Options, select Properties, then click Recording. Under Recording Control be sure to check the input recording source that matches the input to the sound board. For the SpectrumView program to operate correctly the input sound source, the Volume Control recording setup, and the input menu pick in the program must all be synchronized to the same option.

Insure that there are no other applications using the sound board such as audible keyboard entries. These may interfere with the programs ability to process sound data.


START Button

The START button launches the program in a continuous

audio capture mode. The graphical display will update at a rate that

is consistent with the sampling rate and the size of the transform

data.


SINGLE Button

The SINGLE button launches the program for capture of

a single block of audio data. The amount of data captured is set by

the size of the transform. The amount of spectrum data for display is

one-half of the transform size.


  STOP Button

The STOP button terminates the capture and display of audio

data in either the continuous or single capture modes. The program must

be stopped before SpectrumView can be closed (with the close X icon on

the upper right side of the form).


NORMAL Button

This button determines if the displayed data is unprocessed, averaged (3 samples together), or peak held. Clicking the button will transition the averaging mode between the three options.


LINE Button

This button determines whether the data on the display (in the frequency display mode) is shown in a bar or line format. Clicking the LINE button will toggle the format between line and bar displays.


QUIT Button

The QUIT button will terminate the program unconditionally whether the program is in either the START or STOP state. If there is a WAVE file that has been opened it will be closed.


Marker1 Button

The MARKER1 button enables the display of a vertical line

on the display in both graph and waterfall modes. This line can be moved

across the display by using the slider control under the MARKER1 button.

If the MARKER2 button is enabled the MARKER1 upper frequency is limited

to the MARKER2 position. The frequency display of the marker frequency is

approximate and the resolution is determined by the transform size, the

sample rate, and the zoom level.


Marker2 Button

The MARKER2 button enables the display of a vertical line

on the display in both graph and waterfall modes. This line can be moved

across the display by using the slider control under the MARKER2 button.

If the MARKER1 button is enabled the MARKER2 lower frequency is limited

to the MARKER1 position. The frequency display of the marker frequency is

approximate and the resolution is determined by the transform size, the

sample rate, and the zoom level.


Marker Lock Button

When the MARKER LOCK button is enabled (red text will be shown) the MARKER2 position will move with the MARKER1 position. The MARKER2 position can still be moved independently with the MAKER2 slider.


Reference Plot Save

The SAVE button stores the current displayed data points into a temporary memory buffer. The program may be stopped or running during the save operation.


Retrieve Button

The RETRIEVE button displays the data points on the graph

with a white background. The data will be super-imposed upon the current

plot. The display mode must be in the LINE mode of operation. The retrieved

data points will be refreshed during each display update until the RETRIEVE

button is pressed again at which time the next update cycle will erase

the data points. Pressing the RETRIEVE button again will start displaying

the last saved data points.


Horizontal Button

This button will set the horizontal scale to be either

linear frequency display or to a log (base 10) display. The lower frequencies

will be more blocked due to discrete sampling of the data. Pressing the

button will toggle between the two modes.


Sample Rate

The sample rate can be set to 44100, 22050, 11025, and 8000 samples per second. The sample rate is the speed at which the sound card captures the audio data. The up/down arrows allow selection between the different sampling rates. Be sure to select a sample rate that is high enough to process the highest sound frequency being analyzed. A rule of thumb is to select a sample rate that is twice the highest audio frequency.


Transform Size

The number of points that can be captured at a time is set by the Transform Size control. The greater the number of points captured per display interval, the longer the time between display updates. Setting the number of points to a higher number allows finer resolution of the displayed data at the expense of the display update rate. The up/down arrows allows selection of the different transform sizes.


Vertical Display

The vertical display control sets the vertical display to be either a Log10, Natural Log (Log2.7), or Linear type. The graphical display vertical scale is calibrated only when the Log10 option is selected.


Process Gain

The data may be processed at different gain settings. Each division of the gain control amplifies/attenuates the input signal by a factor of 10 (10 dB). Use higher gain settings to obtain a brighter waterfall display.


Vertical Scale

The vertical scale control sets the vertical scale of the data to be either 10, 5, or 2 dB per division. The up/down arrows allow selection between the different scales. The process gain may need to be adjusted to keep the data within the graphical display. The scale is calibrated only for the Log10 display.


Reference Level

The reference level control allows display of a horizontal reference line on the graphical display. Setting the slider will move the reference line (white line) up and down. Setting the reference to zero (slider all the way to the left) will hide the reference line.


Lower Frequency

The lower frequency control is located under (left center) the graphical display. This control sets the lower frequency of the display. The lower frequency will be modified accordingly when the sampling rate has been changed.  A frequency of interest can be "zoomed in" by using the upper and lower frequency controls. If the frequency is set above the upper frequency the new value of the lower frequency will be just slightly lower than the upper frequency.


Upper Frequency

The lower frequency control is located under (right center) the graphical display. This control sets the upper frequency of the display. The upper frequency will be modified when the sampling rate has been changed.  A frequency of interest can be "zoomed in" by using the upper and lower frequency controls. If the frequency is set below the lower frequency the new value of the upper frequency will be just slightly higher than the lower frequency.


Averages

The number of samples that are averaged for display can be set between two (2) and ten (10) by the Averages slider. This control is active only when the NORMAL/AVRG/PEAK button is set to AVRG. The higher the number of averages the smoother the display looks but the slower will be the response time of the display.


Open Wavefile

This menu pick opens a WAVE file for processing. The file open dialog will allow selection of a wave file from a directory. To process the data for display, be sure to select the data source to be a Wave File and then press the START button. Opening another WAVE file closes the previous WAVE file if one has been opened. The START button must be pressed to continue the display processing.


Close Wavefile

Once a WAVE file has been opened for processing, it will remain open until the program is terminated or closed by this menu pick.


Open Viewfile

The file open ViewFile menu selection will open the file dialog menu so that a saved .grm file can be loaded. The .grm file contains all the form controls and a set of graphical points on the display. Loading the file will set the form controls and menu options to the saved values.


Close Viewfile

The file save ViewFile menu selection will open the file dialog menu so that the forms current settings and display can be saved to a file with a .grm extension. If the program is in the "Frequency" display mode of operation the file size will be about 85K bytes. If the program is in the "Waterfall" mode of operation the file size will be about 625K bytes. These settings (and data) can be loaded at a later date for reference.


Volume Control

The windows volume control panel is display by selecting this menu pick. Use the volume control (recording option) to set the input sound source (Mic or line in) and input channel gain.


Print

The current form with the displayed data can be printed on a printer. The entire SpectrumView form will be printed. To conserve black ink, you may want to set the graphical display to a White background to and the trace to a Black line. The printer dialog box also allows setting up of the printer options for tailoring of the data to the printer.


Exit

The SpectrumView program will be unconditionally terminated by this menu selection. It performs the same operations as the QUIT button.


Soundboard

The data source (soundboard pick) menu option

selects the computer soundboard to be the source for data processing.

Insure that an audio source is connected to the selected channel.


Wavefile

The data source (Wavefile pick) menu option selects a WAVE file to be the source for data processing. A WAVE file must be opened before data can be displayed.


Display Speed

When the data source is a WAVE file, the display update rate is set by this menu option. Selected values are 50 (1/50th second) milliseconds to 1000       (1 second) milliseconds.


EOF Notify
End of File (EOF) Notify

An end of file message will be display when the processed data has played a WAVE file and the end of the file is reached. To turn off the message, select OFF for the EOF notify option. The file can be replayed by pressing the START button or the SINGLE button again.


Frequency

The frequency menu pick will select the displayed data to be in a line/bar graphical format. The display update rate will be dependent on the sample rate and transform sizes selected. The higher the sample rate, the quicker the display updates will be.


Waterfall

The waterfall menu pick will select the displayed data to be in a "waterfall" format. This format has the display scrolling downward with the strength of the frequency bin being display as a color intensity.


Psuedo-color

The intensity of the waterfall data is shown in various false-color shading. The stronger the signal at a given frequency bin the brighter the color type that will be displayed.


Red

The intensity of the data is shown in a continuous red color shading. Use a higher value of process gain to achieve a brighter display.


Green

The intensity of the data is shown in a continuous green color shading. Use a higher value of process gain to achieve a brighter display.


Blue

The intensity of the data is shown in a continuous blue color shading. Use a higher value of process gain to achieve a brighter display.


Red-Green

The intensity of the waterfall data is shown in a continuous red-green color shading. Use a higher value of process gain to achieve a brighter display.


Black-White

The intensity of the waterfall data is shown in a continuous black and white color shading. Use a higher value of process gain to achieve a brighter display.


Mic

The Mic menu pick selects the microphone input on the PC's

sound board to be the source of audio data for processing.


Left

The left channel menu pick selects the left line input on

the PC's sound board to be the source of audio data for processing.


Right

The right channel menu pick selects the right line input

on the PC's sound board to be the source of audio data for processing.


NewTopic 1
Black Trace

This menu option will set the trace color to Black if the

 display mode is set to FREQUENCY. Use this color for the white background.


Aqua
Aqua Trace

This menu option will set the trace color to Aqua if the

display mode is set to FREQUENCY.


Lime
Lime Trace

This menu option will set the trace color to Lime if the

display mode is set to FREQUENCY.


Red Trace

This menu option will set the trace color to Red if the

display mode is set to FREQUENCY.


Yellow Trace

This menu option will set the trace color to Yellow if the

display mode is set to FREQUENCY.


White Trace

This menu option will set the trace color to White if the

display mode is set to FREQUENCY.


NewTopic 2
Black Background

Use this menu pick to set the background screen color

 to black. All other lettering will be set to various colors.


White Background

Use this menu pick to set the background screen color

to white. All other screen displays will be set to black lettering.


Arrow

The cursor->arrow menu selection will set the cursor, when

it is positioned on the graphical display, to an arrow.


Cross

The cursor->cross menu selection will set the cursor, when

it is positioned on the graphical display, to a cross.


Open Cross

The cursor->Open Cross menu selection will set the cursor,

when it is positioned on the graphical display, to a cross with the center

section open.


Help File

The Help File menu pick runs the current help menu system.


About

The about menu pick shows a dialog box with the programmer

and the current version of the SpectrumView software.


Cursor Display

 When the cursor is moved onto the graph the cursor displays a cross/arrow

  showing the cursor position. This position represents the graph frequency

  and amplitude values. The upper left of the application window shows the

  values associated with the cursor position. The left amplitude window

  shows the attenuation value from zero reference at the top of the graph.

  The right amplitude window shows the attenuation from the reference line

  (white horizontal line) position. When the left mouse button is pressed

  the cursor letters turn red in color and the values displayed represent

  the frequency and amplitude relative to the red cursor reference cross.


Mouse Buttons

When the mouse cursor is over the graphical display, left-clicking the

mouse button will set a reference cross-marker. The cursor values will

then display relative amplitude and frequency values to the cross-marker.

Right clicking the mouse button will return the cursor values to absolute

frequency and amplitude values.


NewTopic 3
Feedback

This is a Beta version of the program. If you have problems with controls,

 or operational failures, contact me at wd6cnf@aol.com. If there are features that would enhance the program’s utility, please include them in your comments.

Grant, WD6CNF


Save Form

The Save Form menu option allows saving of the main SpectrumView form to a bitmap (.BMP) file. A file dialog box will be displayed with path options to allow the file to be saved in a designated directory.  The saved windows bitmap file may be inserted in a Microsoft © Word document or a Paint program and scaled to fit corresponding text or graphics. The file size is about 300 kBytes.


Save Graphic

The Save Graphic menu option allows saving of the graphics screen to a bitmap (.BMP) file. A file dialog box will be displayed with path options to allow the file to be saved in a designated directory.  The saved windows bitmap file may be inserted in a Microsoft © Word document or a Paint program and scaled to fit corresponding text or graphics. The file size is about 300 kBytes.


Copy Form

The Copy Form menu option will copy the main Spectrum Form to the Windows Clipboard. The Clipboard data may then be pasted into a Microsoft © Word document or Paint program.


Copy Graphic

The Copy Graphic menu option will copy the graphics screen only to the Windows Clipboard. The Clipboard data may then be pasted into a Microsoft © Word document or Paint program.


Time

The Time menu pick will select the displayed data to be in a line graphical format represent data in the time domain. The graphical display will represent an Oscilloscope type of display. The display update rate will be dependent on the sample rate and transform sizes selected. The higher the sample rate, the quicker the display updates will be.

Use the Reference Level slider to center the waveform vertically about the "0" label on the left side of the display. Once the  waveform is centered press the Trigger button to stabilize the display. The waveform will only be visible when it crossed the center point.

Due to differences within the Sound board inside the computer, the Reference Level must be used to center the display vertically. Use also the Process Gain slider and the Vertical Scale slider to amplify the waveform for optimum viewing.

The upper and lower frequency sliders will allow zooming of the waveform. At a high zoom levels, expect the waveform to be choppy. There are fewer data points for the waveform to be represented.


Trigger Button

The Trigger button will stabilize the waveform on the graphical display. The waveform must cross the center of the display point (use the "0" label on the left side of the display for reference). A center reference line will be visible when the Trigger is OFF. This will also help in centering the waveform. Once the Trigger is set to ON, the center reference line will disappear.


Error Messages

The program can display two types of error messages, file open/save errors and soundboard errors. The file open and save error messages are usually the result of a file not being found or to be opened. These errors usually are recoverable and the program operation can continue. The sound board errors are more complicated. These errors usually are caused by conflicts with other wave devices or buffer management. The current processing terminates the SpectrumView program.


Sound Board Errors

The sound board driver can generate errors upon opening the wave device, allocating data buffers, de-allocating data buffers, and closing the wave device. These errors are fatal and will terminate the SpectrumView program. If an error consistently shows up, look for another application that may be using the sound board as a resource.