This dialog sets the default values for newly generated Frequency Maps. When preparing to create new Frequency Maps, these settings are easily customized from the New Audio Objects dialog.
| Colors
Frequency Map colors are determined when the Frequency Map is generated, and while the graphic elements surrounding the Frequency Map in the Frequency Map window are customizable at any time, the colors of the Frequency Map itself cannot be changed except by regenerating the Frequency Map.
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| Hot Color | Select a color corresponding to "hot" signals, or frequencies with very strong signals. |
| Cold Color | Select a color corresponding to background signal. |
| Color Depth | Selecting a larger color depth will enhance the visibility of weak signals. |
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| Frequency Scale
Frequency Maps can be generated using either linear or logarithmic scaling of the frequency axis. The relationship between frequency and pitch lends itself most naturally to logarithmic scaling, as successive notes in the chromatic scale are evenly spaced when frequency is scaled logarithmically. Linear scaling causes severe compression of information in the bass region. But please, experiment with the settings - you may discover something interesting.
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| Linear | Select to apply linear scaling to the frequency axis. |
| Logarithmic | Select to apply logarithmic scaling to the frequency axis. |
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| Signal
Scale
When Frequency Maps are generated, AudioExplorer first determines the maximum and minimum signals at all frequencies for the entire audio sample. Then, for each frequency in each spectrum, AudioExplorer calculates a color intermediate between the "cold" color and "hot" color, where the cold color corresponds to the global minimum signal, and the hot color to the global maximum signal. The algorithm used to calculate colors can either scale linearly or logarithmically. While logarithmic scaling is probably most often preferred, there may be special types of music or sounds for which linear scaling exposes more detail. AudioExplorer's signal histogram can be used to examine the distribution of frequency signal strengths in the audio file. |
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| Linear | Select to apply linear scaling to the signal strength color. |
| Logarithmic | Select to apply logarithmic scaling to the signal strength color. |
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| Maximum Dimensions
Depending on the length of the audio file and the Power Spectrum Analyzer settings for generating the Spectral File, AudioExplorer will examine (typically) thousands or tens-of-thousands of frequency spectra, each corresponding to a particular time in the audio file. Each frequency spectrum contains signals for hundreds or thousands of frequencies. A bitmap large enough to represent every frequency at every sampled time of a typical audio recording could be quite large, leading to large physical storage size, slow load times, and high memory requirements once loaded. AudioExplorer allows you to place an upper limit on the size of the Frequency Map, causing the generated Frequency Map to be compressed so as to stay within the desired size limits. While in theory this leads to loss of information, in practice the resolution of the compressed Frequency Maps is quite sufficient. Remember that it is easy to override the default Frequency Map settings and generate, for example, an extremely high resolution Frequency Map, if desired.
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| Width | Enter the desired maximum width of newly generated Frequency Maps. |
| Height | Enter the desired maximum height of newly generated Frequency Maps. |