Re: tapping hardware & software

[andrewr <andrew.robertson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Daniele

I have made a MaxMSP patch I happened to have that does this job. You drag a folder of files to be tapped, then tap as the file plays. At the end, it will automatically store the tapped times relative to the start of the file in a text file, named the same as the song file (with .txt) in the same folder as where the program file is. These should be moved before re-doing it or they will wipe over the last one. You can stop, switch tracks, etc. You can also choose between audio input and MIDI. I think audio would be more accurate for this (?) - a piezo would be good. It uses the bonk~ onset detector on microphone input. I have yet to test the MIDI option but should be fine. There is, of course, the phenomenon of tapping asychrony that would need to be taken into account (see e.g. http://www.springerlink.com/content/g364uq8371230270/) so maybe tapping to a metronome would give a good indication of the mean tap offset and variation.

The patch is here:

http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~andrewr/software/BeatAnnotator.zip

It was originally intended as a tool so for making beat annotations (always useful for beat tracking evaluation etc). If anyone has feedback or would like tweaks / fixes, please fell free to get in touch.

Regards,
Andrew
andrew.robertson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


________________________________________
From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception [AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of daniele schon [schon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 8:32 AM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: tapping hardware & software

Dear all,
I am trying to think to a simple and cheap solution to record children
in a tapping task (eg along with a metronome or a piece of music).
I have up to now found several solutions commonly used, but none of them
is cheap. For instance, using a software such as Presentation to send
the auditory stimulus and record with the space bar (requires
Presentation/E-Prime license), or using Cakewalk and a tapping pad
(requires Cakewalk license and a tapping pad).
So I would be glad if you could share your advice on the "optimal"
solution, optimizing the real cost (in euros), the precision (in
milliseconds) and the other cost (the hours I'll spend analyzing data,
for instance recording the tapping on a microphone ...).

my warmest regards
daniele

--
Daniele Schön
Equipe Langage, Musique et Motricité
Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Méditerranée
C.N.R.S, 31, Chemin Joseph-Aiguier
13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France
Tel: 0033 (0) 4 91 16 41 30
Fax: 0033 (0) 4 91 16 44 98

http://www.incm.cnrs-mrs.fr/pperso/danieleschon.php

I CHOOSE PEACE