Spect&Gen 2.5
Spect&Gen is an audio measurement environment which combines an Audio Spectrum Analyzer, an Audio Generator and an Oscilloscope.
The Generator and the Analyzer can be used simultaneously when your Audio peripheral supports simultaneous Input and Output streams.
The purpose of Spect&Gen is to perform Audio measurements: distortion, signal to noise ratio, bandwidth... on audio amplifiers and players.
On most laptop PCs the Audio interface is very limited and on some desktop PCs too... To get the best of Spect&Gen you should use a dedicated sound board or an external Audio box connected to a USB port. For example: the Creative Sound Blaster X-FI HD.
The Spectrum Analyzer
The Spectrum Sheet shows the Audio spectrum, with a linear frequency scale in abscissa and a logarithmic ordinate in "dB" (decibels) for the signal Amplitude. The frequency scale depends on the Sampling Frequency of the Input or Output signal, and on the Upper Frequency chosen by the user.
The display is very precise with a dynamic range of 130 dB when the hardware allows such a precision.
The main spectral peaks receive labels which precisely display their level and frequency.
The Wave Generator
Four wave generators are available. Each can generate Sine, Square, Triangular and Sawtooth waves.
The non sinusoidal waves are 'spectrally optimized', this means that only the harmonic contained within the Nyquist band are generated.
The frequency can be adjusted between 20 Hz and 44000 Hz, depending on the Audio Output Sampling rate and on the chosen Frequency scale.
An auxiliary white or pink noise generator is also implmented.
The output of the signal generator can also be recorded in a "WAV" file that can be transferred to a USB key or a CD for testing the quality of a CD or a DVD player.
The Oscilloscope
A very simple oscilloscope is available to observe the signal over time.
The Y ordinate gives the signal amplitude. This is a linear scale (1 = 0dB = maximum level). The gain can be adjusted from x1 to x20."
A precice signal interpolation can be activated to improve the the display smoothness especially at fast sweeping rates.
The X ordinate is the Time scale, in units of time per major graticule division. The time unit depends on the selected speed and also on the signal sampling rate.
Documentation
The documentation is available in PDF format (120KB): SpectGen.pdf
Download
Spect&Gen 'zipped' Setup executable file (1.09MB): SpectGen_2.5_Setup.zip
Partner websites
Spect&Gen is reviewed and available on Softpedia:
Spect&Gen is available on Download.com: