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File Options

File options allow you to control how .WAV files are stored and accessed.  

Access modes:
  • RAM - All Wave data must fit in the available RAM.  
  • Hard Disk - Wave data is recorded and played back directly from your hard disk.  This allows much greater recording times.   You can specify the maximum recording size in megabytes (wave files can store up to 2 GB of data in a single file - the corresponding time depends upon the sampling format).

    Make Backup:
    This option applies to hard disk access mode only.  When this option is checked, a temporary backup file will be created so that original file contents can be restored if necessary.  Use the <File><Set Paths> menu command to specify the directory to be used for these temporary files.  All backup files are removed when the application closes.

    Include Calibration Data in Wave file
    If this option is enabled, the calibration parameters will be included in the WAV file and reloaded when the file is opened again.  This is enabled by default.  The calibration parameters will not add significantly to the file size.  Most applications that work with WAV files wil not have a problem with this additional data but many will not preserve the cal data when saving the file.  The only reason you should need to disable this option is if you encounter an application that has problems reading WAV files with the calibration data. 

    Include Time Stamp Wave file
    If this option is enabled, time stamp information is stored in the file.  This is based on the PC time when the recording was started.

    Apply Time Stamp to Plots
    If enabled, the time stamp information will be used on the time axis of the Time Series, Spectrogram and 3-D Surface plots.

    Include Metadata in Wave file
    If this option is enabled, user supplied metadata is stored in the file.  Click the <Edit><Metadata> menu to enter or view the metadata.

    Prompt for Metadata when saving file
    If enabled, the <Edit><Metadata> dialog box will be displayed when saving a wave file for the first time.

    Automatically reopen Wave files when program launches
    If enabled, the analyzer will reopen any wave files that were left open when the program exits.

    Real Time Mode Data Buffering
    This option allows you to control whether data is buffered in the real time mode or not.  Data buffering will allow the spectrogram or 3-D surface views to be redrawn to correspond to changes in scaling parameters or plot size and allows you to use the right click action menus to perform additional processing.  In addition, you can convert this data buffer to a WAV file for further processing in the post-processing or recorder modes.  This option is enabled by default and should prove useful in most situations.  Turning this option off will result in a slight performance gain but this gain is minimal with adequate memory and hard disk space.  The data buffering will use the same file access method (RAM or Hard Disk) as selected above..  The default buffer length is 60 seconds but can be changed as necessary.

    Continuous Recording Capability
    When Hard Disk recording is used and the maximum file size limit is reached, the program will momentarily stop recording, save the file and then start recording again in a new file.  If the file is does not yet have a name, the program will give it a name using the computer date and time.  The file will be stored in the \wave folder as specified in the <File><Set Paths> dialog.  This feature applies to the hard disk recording mode only.

    Example: c:\speclab\wave\recording_2002_11_26_102011.wav                     
    (in this example the date and time were 10:20:11 Nov, 26 2002 when the file was saved)

    Notes:
  • When working with small files, RAM access will provide faster performance.  Hard Disk access is preferred for larger files.  
  • During hard disk recording sessions, do not perform other disk intensive operations (such as opening a major application).  Although Windows is a multitasking operating system, it relies on the cooperation of individual applications and cannot guarantee immediate access to system resources.

    See also:  Working with audio files, Recorder Mode