** PURPOSE OF MANAUTON ** The purpose of Manauton is to provide digitally recording of sound in either a manual or autonomous mode, hence the name Manauton. When in manual mode, recording can be paused and un-paused with a key-press or remote control. This is similar to a tape recorder, but with a difference, there is no latency! As a matter of fact, Manauton works with negative latency. This negative latency cancels out the effect of the human latency associated with hearing a sound interpreting it and reacting to the sound. Negative latency is accomplished by buffering the sound in memory prior to recording to disk. When operating in autonomous mode, Manauton starts and stops the recording automatically based on the sound ** RUNNING MANAUTON LIKE A STANDARD RECORDER ** manauton filename.wav Will cause Manauton to function similar to a standard tape recorder. To start recording hit the r key to pause recording hit p. You can quit recording use the q key, Manauton allows you to quit in when in pause or record modes. ** THE CLICK-BEEP ** By default whenever you start record a section of sound the section is preceded with a click-beep. This goes for the first section of sound along with all subsequent sections. The click-beep is a artifact that will allow you to distinguish sections that were recorded separately. Using a digital sound editor the shape of the click-beep should easy distinguished. The click-beep also includes the encoded time and date when the section started at. A click-beep interpreter should be released shortly that will display all times and dates embedded within a sound sample. If you wish to disable the click-beep use the --tag-off option. ** CHAINED or UNCHAINED ** By default all sections of sound you record in a single session of Manauton will be chained into a single wave file. If you would like Manauton to place each section in a separate file use the --unchained option. ** RUNNING MANAUTON WITH NEGATIVE LATENCY ** manauton --latency=2.0 filename.wav This command causes Manauton to run with two seconds of negative latency. The 2.0 can of course be any positive floating point number. The amount of negative latency should should be limited by computers RAM (approximately 11 seconds per megabyte). Once Manauton has been started in this way, it will record sounds from two seconds before you hit r to the time you hit p or q. This is beneficial because when you hear a sound it will take time for your brain to interpret the sound and tell your finger to press the button. Negative latency allows you time to consider the sound and decide whether or not to capture it. Manauton can't record anything that happened before the program has started. In the event that r is pressed before the latency time has passed, Manauton will record from time that it was started until you press q or p. In the event that you pause the recording then restart recording before latency time has expired, Manauton will join the sound in a single continuous stream without the inclusion of a click-beep. ** CHANGING SAMPLE RATE AND FORMAT OF SAMPLE ** The default format for the sample is 44.1K samples/second 16 bit signed. use --rate=# to change rate. the option -8 will cause the sample to be stored in 8-bit unsigned format (use --help to see if this feature has been implemented yet). ** USING AN EXTERNAL CONTROLLER ** manauton --controller=smsmouse filename This command will allow you to use an external controller with Manauton. In this case the controller is a Microsoft mouse in serial port known to Linux as /dev/ttyS0. The right button is record, left is pause and middle is quit. It should be noted that this will not work if the same mouse is used for the X-window system or GSM, these must either be disabled or a second mouse must be attached. If you wish to use the other serial port you can use "--controller=smsmouse1". If you wish to re-map the function of the mouse buttons you can use the command "--controller=smsmouse#,r,p,q" where # is replaced by the serial port ether 0 or 1. The letters r,p,q are replaced each by the button values for record,pause,quit. Key values are 0-none, 1-left, 2-middle, 4-right, 8-wheel_down, 16-Wheel_up. By adding the values together you can signify a button combination. In the future new controllers may be added. Use the command "manauton --controller" to get a list of available controllers. Example 1 : --controller=smsmouse0,1,4,2 /dev/ttys0, record on left, pause on right, quit on middle Example 2 : --controller=smsmouse1,4,0,1 /dev/ttys1, record on right , pause on release, quit on left Example 3 : --controller=smsmouse0,1,4,5 /dev/ttys0, record on left, pause on right, hold both to quit ** USING AUTONOMOUS MODE ** manauton --criteria=sspike --pdelay==2.0 filename.wav This command in used to put Manauton in autonomous mode using the single spike algorithm. Manauton will start recording when a single sound peek reaches 50% of the maximum value (or greater ). As long as sound spikes reach 50% (or greater) Manauton will continue recording. Once the sound spikes no longer reach the 50% mark Manauton will wait 2.0 seconds then go into pause mode, where it will wait to be re-triggering. With the option "--criteria=sspikex,y", x and y can each be a number from 0 to 100, where x in the percentage to start recording and y is the percentages to continue recording. If only a single number is given it will represent both the percentage to start and continue recording. In the future new autonomous algorithms may be added. Use the command "manauton --criteria" to get a list of available algorithms. The "--pdelay" option can be left off, however this will result in a choppy sample. When the option "--latency=" is used Manauton will record sound prior to the trigger. The option "--pdelay" can also be used in manual mode, it will cause Manauton to continue to record after you hit pause. A new trigger mode with the form "--criteria=hitcountx,y" has been added to manauton. The purpose of this new option is to avoid triggering due to extremely brief sounds, such as pops or clicks. The number y is the target amplitude which is expressed as a percentage of the maximum obtainable value. The value x indicates the percentage of samples within the frame which must have an amplitude exceeding or matching the target value. I have found that a value of 10,30 works best value to begin an experiment with. If you wish to adjust sound discrimination based on time length, you should adjust the first value. If you wish to adjust sound discrimination based on volume, you should adjust the second value. When used with feedback (see next section), the master trigger level indicates the relative number of times per frame in which the sample exceeds the target amplitude. Level 2 indicates the maximum amplitude of all samples within the frame relative to the target amplitude. When level 2 reaches the middle level there is at least one sample that has reached the target amplitude. Triggering will only take place if the Master level reaches the center mark. ** VIEWING SOUND LEVEL FEEDBACK ** If you wish to use the curses feedback mode you will need to use the two options "--feedback=curses" and "--controller=curses" unless you wish to use an external controller. If you do use an external controller, then substitute "--controller=curses" with the appropriate controller mode. Because of the architecture of Manauton it is necessary to use the controller command when in curses mode. Future versions may not require it. The meter labeled channel 1 is proportional to the amplitude of the sound being recorded. A full meter indicates that the sound level has "maxed out". ** FEEDBACK DURING AUTONOMOUS MODE ** The meter labeled level 1 is the master trigger level. The center of the meter is marked by a carrot symbol "^". When the level bar reaches or exceeds the center mark the trigger has been activated. Some activation modes may have multiple trigger level indicators. In this case, only the master trigger level will indicate that triggering has taken place. It is possible that one or more of the sub-triggers reach the center without the master trigger reaching the center, in which case the Manauton auto recording will not be triggered. As a rule of thumb when the master trigger or sub-trigger reaches the center it indicates that it has obtained 100% of the quantity needed for triggering. When the bar within the (sub)trigger indicator is full it indicates that 200% of the triggering value has been reached. LocalWords: manauton filename wav pdelay smsmouse sspike sspikex hitcountx LocalWords: GSM