Re: Free software for conducting psychoacoustic experiments

[Bob Masta <audio@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My Daqarta for Windows application includes a signal 
generator capable of generating a large variety of signals, 
including standard waveforms, arbitrary waveforms, and 
several types of noise (including band-limited).  The 
generator produces up to 4 "streams" per output channel; 
the streams may be summed, or used as modulation sources 
for other streams.  Each stream allows independent 
modulation; modulators are Burst, AM, FM, PM (Phase 
Modulation or pulse-width modulation), and frequency Sweep, 
and any or all modulators can be used on the stream.

Besides generating the signals, Daqarta can also show you 
their real-time waveforms, spectra, spectrograms, or 
histograms.  This can be very useful in understanding what 
is going on with complex signals.

The only in-built psychoacoustic experiment is a 
demonstration of the inability to distinguish Gaussian 
noise from uniform noise with the appropriate level.  (See 
Help - Applicaitons - GausWhit.GEN Setup File - Comparing 
Noise Distributions, or view the Web version at
<http://www.daqarta.com/dw_0agg.htm> )   

But you can certainly create a huge assortment of signals, 
and save them as Setup files for later use.  No programming 
is required; you just select the things you want, like wave 
type or modulation type, and adjust the relevant controls 
like frequency or level.  I will be glad to assist in 
creating any specific signals you are interested in.

You don't even need to purchase Daqarta to use the signal 
generator.  When the 30-session / 30-day trial period 
expires, you will no longer be able to analyze live *input* 
signals, but the generator will continue to work forever, 
and you can display the live output signals as well.
(You can also analyze previously-recorded signals.)

Best regards,

Bob Masta

-------------------------------------
On 15 Jan 2009 at 7:43, Fatima Husain wrote:

> Dear List,
> I was wondering if there is a freely available software with some in-built simple psychoacoustic experiments,
> something that the students can easily tweak to run their own experiments?
> I am teaching a psychoacoustics class and roughly half the class has no programming experience (hence Matlab is out.
>  
> Thanks in advance,
> Fatima
> 
> Fatima Husain, Ph.D.
> Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
> Assistant Professor, Speech and Hearing Science and the Beckman Institute
> University of Illinois
> husainf@xxxxxxxxxxxx

-------------------------

Bob Masta
 
            D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
           www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator
    Science with your sound card!