Algorithms and Interactive Tools for Exploring Music Composition, Analysis, and Interdisciplinary Learning.
This web site has interactive tools that provide a unique learning experience for users, regardless of their musical training. Students of music composition can explore algorithmic composition, while others can create musical representations of models for the purpose of aural interpretation and analysis. Here, the algorithmic process is used in a creative context so that users can convert sequences of numbers into sounds.
Category Archives: Analysis
Spek ~ Acoustic Spectrum Analyzer
Spek (IPA: /spɛk/, ‘bacon’ in Dutch) helps to analyse your audio files by showing their spectrogram. Spek is free software available for Unix, Windows and Mac OS X.
Features:
- Supports all popular lossy and lossless audio file formats thanks to the FFmpeg libraries.
- Ultra-fast signal processing, uses multiple threads to further speed up the analysis.
- Shows the codec name and the audio signal parameters.
- Allows to save the spectrogram as an image file.
- Drag-and-drop support; associates with common audio file formats.
- Auto-fitting time, frequency and spectral density rulers.
- Adjustable spectral density range.
- Translated into 19 languages.

spek.cc
github.com/alexkay/spek
References:
Strawberry ~ Cross-platform Music Player
Strawberry is a music player and music collection organizer. It is a fork of Clementine released in 2018 aimed at music collectors, enthusiasts and audiophiles. The name is inspired by the band Strawbs. It’s based on a heavily modified version of Clementine created in 2012 and 2013. Strawberry is written in C++ and Qt 5.
- Play and organize music
- Supports WAV, FLAC, WavPack, DSF, DSDIFF, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, MPC, TrueAudio, AIFF, MP4, MP3, ASF and Monkey’s Audio
- Audio CD playback
- Native desktop notifications
- Playlists in multiple formats
- Advanced audio output and device configuration for bit-perfect playback on Linux
- Edit tags on music files
- Fetch tags from MusicBrainz
- Album cover art from Last.fm, MusicBrainz, Discogs, Tidal and Deezer
- Song lyrics from AudD
- Support for multiple backends
- Audio analyzer
- Audio equalizer
- Transfer music to iPod, iPhone, MTP or other mass-storage USB player
- Streaming support for Tidal, Qobuz and Subsonic
- Scrobbler with support for Last.fm, Libre.fm and ListenBrainz

www.strawbs.org
github.com/jonaski/strawberry
github.com/strawberrymusicplayer
sourceforge.net/projects/strawberry-music-player.mirror
flathub.org/apps/org.strawberrymusicplayer.strawberry
StereoTool ~ Analysis & Imaging Tool
The Complete Stereo Imaging And Analysis Tool. StereoTool offers ultra-precise control of input gain and individual pan for left and right channels, accurate visual feedback reflecting the signal content with; a vectorscope, PPM meters for inputs/outputs, phase correlation meter permanently monitoring the signal and individual left and right polarity reversal – No dongle or registration required – 100% Freeware!

BRP-PACU ~ Acoustic Analysis Tool
A cross platform dual channel FFT based Acoustic Analysis Tool to help engineers analyze live professional sound systems using the transfer function. One feature is the ability to capture four sample plots, average them, and invert to aid in final EQ.
- Four capture buffers, with auto-save (in case of crash) and save-as ability
- Averages buffers to a separate buffer and flips it for analysis
- Automatic delay calculation
- Impulse response capturing
- Pink Noise generation tool to eliminate need for an external Pink Noise source
- Uses JACK to route and manage audio paths

WaveShop ~ Windows Audio Editor
WaveShop is a free, open-source audio editor for Windows XP/Vista/7/8 32-bit and 64-bit. WaveShop is fast, lightweight, and bit-perfect, meaning samples aren’t altered unless they need to be. Editing a portion of an audio file only affects that portion; the rest of the file is untouched. Blocks of audio can be cut and pasted without changing their contents at all. This is especially useful for patching a finished master without corrupting its dither. Waveshop’s features include peak, RMS and spectral analysis, normalizing, fading, sample rate conversion, audio generation, plug-ins, and more, all with unlimited undo and comprehensive help.

waveshop.sourceforge.net/
sourceforge.net/projects/waveshop/
Humdrum Toolkit ~ Music Analysis & Research
David Huron created Humdrum in the 1980s, and it has been used steadily for decades. Humdrum is a set of command-line tools that facilitates musical analysis, as well as a generalized syntax for representing sequential streams of data. Because it’s a set of command-line tools, it’s program-language agnostic. Many have employed Humdrum tools in larger scripts that use PERL, Ruby, Python, Bash, LISP, and C++.
Humdrum Labs ~ wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Humdrum_Lab_1
Humdrum music encoding tutorial ~ doc.verovio.humdrum.org/humdrum/getting_started
Humdrum Resources ~ github.com/humdrum-tools
Friture ~ Real-Time Audio Analyzer
Friture is an application to visualize and analyze live audio data in real-time. Friture displays audio data in several widgets, such as a scope, a spectrum analyzer, or a rolling 2D spectrogram.
This program can be useful to analyze and equalize the audio response of a hall, or for educational purposes, etc.
The name Friture is a french word for frying, also used for noise in a sound.
Friture helps you to understand audio data with several widgets:
- spectrum analyzer
- rolling 2D spectrogram
- fraction-of-octave analyzer
- delay estimator
- etc.

friture.org
github.com/tlecomte/friture
apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PH4BL3F5Q2H
foo_enhanced_spectrum_analyzer ~ Foobar Spectrum Display
Spectralissime ~ Multiband Spectrum Analyzer
Spetralissime is a standalone Spectrum Analyzer application based on high precision band pass filter bank, more adapted to the human audition. Spectralissime gives a more consistent spectrum analysis and allows better understanding of any audio phenomena thanks to its constant precision, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

www.vb-audio.com/Spectralissime
voicemeeter.com/vb-audio-spectralissime-professional-high-definition-multiband-audio-analyzer
Resources:
mp3guessenc ~ Analyze Audio mpeg Files
… a small utility for analysis of audio mpeg files and detection of the encoder used (when layer III).
Further, mp3guessenc can detect many details about the mpeg audio stream and print out lots of useful information.
Supported streams are mpeg 1, mpeg 2 and unofficial mpeg 2.5 – layer I, layer II and layer III of course. Xing tag, lame tag, VBRI tag, Id3 tags (both 1.x and 2.x), APE tags (both v1 and v2), Lyrics3 tags (both v1 and v2) and MusicMatch tag (any version) are detected as well.
Features:
- scan mpeg 1/2/2.5 streams, layer I/II/III
- guess encoder used (lame/gogo/xing/helix/fhg(new, old and ancient)/blade)
- also detects mp3pro and mp3surround streams (even with OFL)
- support for large files (up to 2^60 bytes!)
- free format streams supported
- full statistics for the stream (audio mode, frame histogram, block usage, ancillary data)
- crc16 verification
- vbr tags by xing/lame + VBRI tag by fhg
- detection of ID3 v1/v2 + APE tags + Lyrics3 tags + MusicMatch tag
- verify integrity of lame tag

mp3guessenc.sourceforge.net
sourceforge.net/projects/mp3guessenc
JAMin ~ JACK Mastering Interface
JAMin is the JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK) Audio Mastering interface. JAMin is an open source application designed to perform professional audio mastering of stereo input streams. It uses LADSPA for digital signal processing (DSP). JAMin is licensed under the GPL.
Features:
- Linear filters
- JACK I/O
- 30 band graphic EQ
- 1023 band hand drawn EQ with parametric controls
- Spectrum analyser
- 3 band peak compressor
- Lookahead brickwall limiter
- Multiband stereo processing
- Presets and scenes
- Loudness maximizer


