User's Manual - Cornell Lab of Ornithology - Cornell University

Chapter 1: Getting StartedMultiple fileformatsCanary can read and write sound files in SoundEdit and AIFF (AudioInterchange File Format) formats, as well as Canary’s own format, which letsyou save a signal with a spectrogram and spectrum in one file. You can alsosave or retrieve sounds, spectrograms, spectra, or correlation arrays in binary,Text, or MATLAB formats.What you need to use CanaryHardwareCanary 1.2 will run on any PowerMacintosh or any 68020 or better Macintoshthat is equipped with a math coprocessor and adequate memory (RAM; seebelow). A separate version with identical features, Canary 1.2 LC, is availableto run on 680x0 that lack a math co-processor. On Macintosh models that arenot equipped with a built-in sound input port, a third-party digitizing devicesuch as MacRecorder is required for sound acquisition.Canary 1.2 requires a minimum of 2.5 megabytes of RAM to run. 1 Thisamount of memory is sufficient to make a medium-resolution spectrogram(resolution = 5.8 mS x 43.5 Hz) of a signal slightly more than 2 seconds long,digitized at 22.3 kHz. The actual amount of memory needed for any particularapplication is roughly linearly dependent on the number and length of signalsthat are to be open at one time, the sampling rate at which the signals aredigitized, and the time and frequency resolution of spectrograms that arecalculated. Although there are hundreds of combinations of spectrogramparameters for a given signal that will require different amounts of memory,the following formulas can serve as a guide to the approximate amount ofmemory needed for signals of different lengths digitized at 22.3 kHz(remember that 1000 Kbytes = 1 Mbyte):Waveform only:≈ 1700 Kbytes + (100 Kbytes/sec * signal duration)Waveform + medium-resolution spectrogram(e.g., resolution = 5.8 mS x 43.5 Hz):≈ 1700 Kbytes + (300 Kbytes/sec * signal duration)Waveform + high-resolution spectrogram(e.g., resolution = 1.4 mS x 10.8 Hz):≈ 1700 Kbytes + (2900 Kbytes/sec * signal duration)These figures should be regarded only as rough indications of memoryrequirements.1 This figure refers to memory available for Canary itself, not the total amountinstalled on your machine. Keep in mind that system software can take up severalmegabytes, depending on what utilities and system extensions are installed.4 Canary 1.2 User’s Manual