Waveform analyzing

[Pier75]

Hi all,

For a small project I would like to do two things for a guitar signal:

• Find the point where the magnetic saturation of a pickup is.

When you move a guitar pickup closer to the strings, the output of the pickup increases. However, at some point, there is a magnetic saturation and the output will not increase anymore. I want to find this spot on my guitar.

• See all the frequencies and their amplitude

The idea is to record a single (dry) note from a guitar string, the low E for instance. The low E is about 82Hz but because of harmonic vibrations, there is a range of frequencies in the audio. I would like to see the active frequencies and their amplitude (like an equalizer graph).

Can anyone point me in the direction of a plugin/plugins that can help me achieve the above?

Thanks!
Pier

[bayswater]

Many parametric EQ plugins will show you a graph of frequency by amplitude. Eg., click the “FET” button in the Masterworks EQ that comes with DP and you’ll see it during playback.

[Pier75]

Thanks! I tried the MW EQ FET button and it shows me the graph during playback. It goes away after stopping but I will try to find other EQ plugins to see if they can show what I need.

[bayswater]

Loop the recording so the graph remains visible. I don’t think you’ll find anything useful that will display a waveform without playback in effect. What would the display show you? The attack? The average? It would only be able to show you the form of a simple wave like a sine wave without playback in effect.

If all you are looking for is the peak, most waveform editors will tell you where the peak is, and its value.

[James Steele]

Thanks! I tried the MW EQ FET button and it shows me the graph during playback. It goes away after stopping but I will try to find other EQ plugins to see if they can show what I need.

Yeah... I think that's true of any EQ plug I can think of: no playback, no display. Sort of makes sense to me.

[stubbsonic]

Yea, the spectrum changes constantly throughout the decay, and the attack has some non-harmonic noise in it as well. So you may want to find either the point (post attack) where tone & pitch are most stable.

The other little oddity is the inharmonicity which makes the decay so complex and relatively unloopable.