XSPECT: INTRODUCTION

Analysis/Synthesis Team,
IRCAM 4 Janvier 96

5.6 Cursor, Grid, Diphone and Mark

When keys "Num Lock" or "Caps Lock" are ON mouse clicks do not work anymore. If mouse clicks seem to not work, look at "Num Lock" and "Caps Lock".

A cursor is a pointer to a certain location in a buffer, e.g. at a certain time in a sound signal in a sound signal or at a certain frequency in the spectrum signal resulting from a FFT analysis.

But it can as well be a location in amplitude on a sound signal or in amplitude on a spectrum signal.

If the cursor points on a location on the horizontal axis, it appears as a vertical line in the view. If a cursor points to a location on the vertical axis, it appears as a horizontal line in the view.

Several cursors can appear simultaneously in a view. Only one at most is active. A cursor can be de-activated (item "Deactivate selection" in the "Marks"" menu - Note that a cursor is a type of a selection). Then it appears as a dashed line.

Mark, selection, grid, diphone, etc...

Cursors, selections, grids uses vertical and horizontal lines to indicate values in the horizontal and vertical axis. These lines are named marks.

The marks can be saved in files (menu item "Save marks" in the "Marks" menu), restored from files (menu item "Visit mark file" in the "Marks" menu), re-activated, de-activated (menu item "Deactivate active mark" in the "Marks" menu), labeled (menu item "Label active mark" in the "Marks" menu) or suppressed (menu item "Kill active mark" and "Kill all marks" in the "Marks" menu).

The term diphone designates a special group of marks. It is composed of a selection and a cursor, where the selection is supposed to indicate the temporal limits of a diphone (i.e. of a segment of sound) and the cursor the center (or a special point) of the diphone. To create a diphone, draw a selection (on the segment of sound), then deactivate it (acccelerator ALT+d), then place a cursor and then call the menu item "Make diphone" in the "Marks" menu.

A mark file is an ASCII file as follows. 

begin {group type} [label]
{time of 1st mark}
{time of 2nd mark}
   .
   .
   .
end
begin {group type} [label]
{time of 1st mark}
{time of 2nd mark}
   .
   .
   .
end
  etc...
where {group type} can be segment, cursor, diphone or grid. And [label] is the label of the group if it has one.