Quickstart Guide

This guide will show you how to record and visualize your voice or instrument with Overtone Analyzer. If you have no idea what to do with Overtone Analyzer, this is the place to start. It will also show you how to use the main user interface elements of the program. The quickstart guide focuses on how to use the main elements of the program, and not so much what they mean. You can find more detailed explanations of everything in the Program Reference.

Prerequisites

• You have installed Overtone Analyzer on your computer.
• You have a working microphone connected to the microphone input of your soundcard. If you don't have a microphone yet, please have a look at our microphone guide.

Configuration

Start the program. The splash screen will briefly appear, and then you should see something like this:

Figure 1: startup

Here you can see the empty Timeline on the top, the Staff View and Piano on the left, and the empty Analyzer View in the main section. The red line in the middle is the Overtone Slider.

Select Recording Source

In the Tools Menu, click on Options. This will open the Options Dialog. On the left side, select the entry Audio Settings. Here you should make sure that the Microphone is selected as your Recording Source:

Figure 2: Audio Settings - 1. Select microphone as recording source 2. Disable mic as output line

Depending on your soundcard, you may or may not see a "Microphone Boost" checkbox. This and the recording volume require some experimentation. With a standard PC Microphone, it is probably good to check it.
Adjust the recording volume slider to be in the middle.
Now look at the box "Active Output Lines" and disable the Microphone there. This tells your computer to record the sound received by the microphone, but to not play this sound back through the speakers to prevent feedback.

Analyzer Settings

We won't worry about the Analyzer Settings for now, as the default settings that are active after installing the program should be fine to get started.

Input Level Meter

Click on OK to close the Options Dialog and look at the toolbar. On the toolbar are three sliders. The left one is the Input Level Meter. Here you can monitor and adjust the volume of the recorded sound. The slider that you can move is the same slider as the "Recording Volume" slider on the Audio Settings Dialog. The colored stripes in the background show the strength of the current signal. If you make a noise into your microphone, you should see some activity there.
It is very important to adjust the recording volume correctly to prevent clipping. If the input volume reaches the the red area, reduce the input level, or increase the distance to your microphone. You should aim to keep the maximum volume of the recorded sound just at the upper end of the yellow area:

	Recording Volume too low: Analyzer Display will lack detail.
	Recording Volume too high: Analyzer will show clipping artefacts (this is worse than the volume being too low!).
	Recording Volume optimal: Signal uses most of the available dynamic range without clipping. Analyzer will show best amount of detail.

Make some test sounds into your microphone and adjust the recording level until it is getting a strong signal without clipping.

Recording

Now you are ready to record some sound. Click the "Record" button on the toolbar, or press "Ctrl-Space". During the recording you should keep monitoring the Input Level and make adjustments if necessary.

Make some sounds. For example, sing the vowel 'A', and rise and lower your pitch periodically. Fill up one screen and then press "Space" to stop recording. This should look something like this:

Figure 3: Vowel A with slight pitch rise and fall

The left side of the analyzer view contains the spectrogram, which shows the intensity level of the various frequencies of the sound over time. On the right side is the spectrum. This is a cross-section of the spectrogram at a specific point in time. If you move the mouse over the spectrogram, the spectrum will always show the intensities at the time where the mouse cursor is located.

Adjusting Displayed Dynamic Range (Brightness and Contrast)

You have already adjusted the input volume through the leftmost slider on the toolbar. The other two sliders on the toolbar control the displayed dynamic range. Move both sliders and observe what happens. Notice that the brightness slider shifts the spectrum along the intensity scale, while the contrast slider compresses or expands the intensity range of the spectrum.

Figure 4: Medium brightness and contrast: Many harmonics visible

Figure 5: High brightness and very high contrast: Louder parts stand out

Experiment with the dynamic range sliders until you are comfortable with the settings.

Sing and measure pitch

Now try to sing a specific pitch. Click on the label of the overtone slider to play the tone represented by that slider.

Figure 6: Playing a tone

If you cannot hear a tone, check that the sound on your computer is working, and that the volume is loud enough. If you can hear the tone, start recording and try to sing that tone into the microphone (move the slider up or down to find a pitch that is comfortable to you).

Try to adjust the pitch of your voice so that the fundamental frequency stays exactly on the overtone slider:

Figure 7: Singing a specific pitch

To see how closely you were able to match the pitch, stop the recording and expand the overtone slider so that it shows the first few harmonics. You might notice that some harmonics are stronger than the fundamental. In this image, the second harmonic is much louder than the first one. The fourth harmonic is also fairly loud, while the third and fifth harmonic are barely audible. Move the overtone slider so that it fits all the harmonics as closely as possible. This will allow you to determine the pitch of the fundamental very precisely.

Figure 8: Slider matches all harmonics

In this example, the selected note A3 had a frequency of 220Hz, and the singing in the recording is matching this pitch with a difference of 30 cent (However, when singing the voice usually has a little bit of vibrato, which is a slight fluctuation in the pitch, so you have to make sure that you are measuring the avarage pitch).

Summary

This concludes this quickstart guide. You have learned the basics of how to record and visualize sounds with Overtone Analyzer. The main steps to remember are:

• select the desired input source (such as the microphone) in the Audio Settings
• always monitor the input volume meter during recording to prevent clipping
• adjust the displayed dynamic range to show the desired amount of detail
• use the Overtone Slider to play sounds and to measure frequencies and harmonics