[Clueless in Seattle[_2_]]

I'd like to use my PC to document loud but intermittent noises over
periods of several days.

So it would be very time consuming for me to have to listen to several
days worth of recordings to isolate the sections of the recording
containing the noise.

I'm wondering if there is PC software that, in addition to recording
the the audio, would also produce a horizontal graph showing the date
and time amplitude. That would allow me to visually scroll through
the graph to find the sections where the loud noises occur.

It would also be nice if the software had a search capability so that
I could search for all sounds above a certain amplitude threshold.

Does anything like this exist?

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"

[Clueless in Seattle[_2_]]

On Nov 9, 12:20 pm, "Soundhaspriority" wrote:

Will, every DAW software package does provide a graph. Every single one of
them.

Hi Bob!

Wow! That was a speedy reply! It looks like I've come to the right
place.

I had to Google DAW to figure out what it meant. According to a
Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_workstation

"Besides having high-end sound cards most DAWs also require a large
amount of RAM, fast CPU(s) and sufficient free hard drive space."

I'm an older fellow (65 last August) disabled by chronic health
problems and haven't been able to work for many years, so I try to
scrape by on a small SS disability benefit and have to depend on hand-
me-down computer hardware.

So, I'm wondering if you might be able to recommend a free and easy-to-
learn audio recording program that would work on older equipment, and
which would produce that linear graph of amplitude.

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"

[Richard Crowley]

"Clueless in Seattle" wrote ...
"Soundhaspriority" wrote:
Will, every DAW software package does provide a graph. Every single one
of
them.

Hi Bob!

Wow! That was a speedy reply! It looks like I've come to the right
place.

I had to Google DAW to figure out what it meant. According to a
Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_workstation

"Besides having high-end sound cards most DAWs also require a large
amount of RAM, fast CPU(s) and sufficient free hard drive space."

I'm an older fellow (65 last August) disabled by chronic health
problems and haven't been able to work for many years, so I try to
scrape by on a small SS disability benefit and have to depend on hand-
me-down computer hardware.

So, I'm wondering if you might be able to recommend a free and easy-to-
learn audio recording program that would work on older equipment, and
which would produce that linear graph of amplitude.

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is frequently mentioned as a
popular free audio recording application. It is free, likely works on your
older computer, but not necessarily "easy-to-learn". You can't have it all
for free. If you have a lot of time on your hands, maybe you have the
patience to figure out how to use it. Note, however, that it wasn't
exactly designed for day-long recordings.

Not clear if you objective is to *record* the noise, or to *view* the noise,
or to *log when* it happens?

Just as there is software that records video from a webcam if movement is
detected, it's not unlikely that there is (or could easily be) similar
applications
for audio, where sound is recorded (and logged) when it exceeds some
preset threshold. I don't know of any such software, but some Google
searching might turn up something.

[Geoff]

Richard Crowley wrote:

Not clear if you objective is to *record* the noise, or to *view* the
noise, or to *log when* it happens?

Just as there is software that records video from a webcam if
movement is detected, it's not unlikely that there is (or could
easily be) similar applications
for audio, where sound is recorded (and logged) when it exceeds some
preset threshold. I don't know of any such software, but some Google
searching might turn up something.

Sound Forge has a 'threshold' recording option. I would imagine most other
editors would too ...

geoff

[Richard Crowley]

"geoff" wrote ...
Richard Crowley wrote:

Not clear if you objective is to *record* the noise, or to *view* the
noise, or to *log when* it happens?

Just as there is software that records video from a webcam if
movement is detected, it's not unlikely that there is (or could
easily be) similar applications
for audio, where sound is recorded (and logged) when it exceeds some
preset threshold. I don't know of any such software, but some Google
searching might turn up something.

Sound Forge has a 'threshold' recording option. I would imagine most other
editors would too ...

Right, but dunno if ANY of then also *log* the time/date.
It is a rather specialized requirement, not a "normal" audio
recording application. Certainly any competent programmer
could easily cobble together an audio version of a webcam
"motion detection". Dunno what the market for it would be,
though.

[Geoff]

Richard Crowley wrote:
"geoff" wrote ...
Richard Crowley wrote:

Not clear if you objective is to *record* the noise, or to *view*
the noise, or to *log when* it happens?

Just as there is software that records video from a webcam if
movement is detected, it's not unlikely that there is (or could
easily be) similar applications
for audio, where sound is recorded (and logged) when it exceeds some
preset threshold. I don't know of any such software, but some
Google searching might turn up something.

Sound Forge has a 'threshold' recording option. I would imagine most
other editors would too ...

Right, but dunno if ANY of then also *log* the time/date.
It is a rather specialized requirement, not a "normal" audio
recording application. Certainly any competent programmer
could easily cobble together an audio version of a webcam
"motion detection". Dunno what the market for it would be,
though.


In SF you can get it to record each thresholded segment to a separate file,
but that file is not time-stamped until saved.

However with SF's scripting, implementing a save each time the recording
stops should be a doddle.

geoff

[Gareth Magennis]

"Richard Crowley" wrote in message
...
"geoff" wrote ...
Richard Crowley wrote:

Not clear if you objective is to *record* the noise, or to *view* the
noise, or to *log when* it happens?

Just as there is software that records video from a webcam if
movement is detected, it's not unlikely that there is (or could
easily be) similar applications
for audio, where sound is recorded (and logged) when it exceeds some
preset threshold. I don't know of any such software, but some Google
searching might turn up something.

Sound Forge has a 'threshold' recording option. I would imagine most
other editors would too ...

Right, but dunno if ANY of then also *log* the time/date.
It is a rather specialized requirement, not a "normal" audio
recording application. Certainly any competent programmer
could easily cobble together an audio version of a webcam
"motion detection". Dunno what the market for it would be,
though.



I just had a quick Google to see if there are any online Speaking Clocks.
Didn't find anything. If there is one, or there is speaking clock software
that will constantly output the time, you could record that on a separate
track to the audio every time the threshold was exceeded.



Gareth.