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Version history and changes

Build 6.5 17th January 2025
 

1. Updated to match latest release of Dew Lab Studio with dll versions.
2. Considerably improved the speed of peak marking.
3. Much faster CZT algorithm.
4. A number of smaller bug fixes.

Build 6.3 20th November 2020
 

1. Updated to match latest release of Dew Lab Studio with dll versions.
2. Added ability for recursive peak interpolation of harmonics on the frequency spectrum.
3. Reports can use "tab" charachter as a column delimiter, which is handy when importing/copying to Excel.

Build 6.1 14th November 2017
  1. Bug fix for WASAPI recorder. Greatly increased number of supported hardware devices and Exclusive mode compatibility.
2. Bug fix for marking peaks on averaged spectrum.
3. Bug fix for the chart update of the Surface spectrogram.
4. New "Envelope sampling frequency" parameter in the recording module settings.
5. New smooth playback allows looping of arbitrariliy short sections of a file without skipping.
Build 6.0 25th September 2016
  1. Real-time spectrogram for recorder
2. WASAPI API for recorder
3. Enhanced spectrogram performance and color spectrum
Build 5.5.1.00 1st February 2015
  1. UI cosmetics fixes
2. Installer update
Build 5.5.0.22 1st January 2015
  1. Support for Unicode
2. Many new charting features
3. Native 64bit build removing the 2GB RAM usage limit.
4. Faster execution due to direct support for latest Intel instruction sets.
5. New look and feel
Build 5.0.4.19 9th September 2009
 

1. Enhanced Orbital X-Y chart and several bugs fixed in still field. 
2. New cross-spectrum analyzer.
3. Fixed a bug related to Windows 7 and opening of wav files. 
4. Fixed a bug related to wrong working dir file path which required manual intervention to have Processing menu commands working right.
5. Many people could not find the manual. There is now a link to it from the Help menu.

Build 5.0.4.7 16th June 2009
 

1. Added spectrum measurement tools to normalize any frequency or amplitude to 1 and examine factors between peaks directly. 
2. Orbital X-Y chart. Uses Hilbert transform for 1 channel and requires complex signal on the input for X-Y drawing.
3. Added default audio input checkbox for the Signal Recorder.
4. Added ability to display Phase, Unwrapped phase, Delay in seconds vs Freq and Group Delay for the frequency spectrum.
5. Fixed compatibility issues with older CPU's.
6. The install performs uninstall before installing.
7. The rate conversion now allows also explicitly set target sampling frequency independently from the conversion factor. (changing the speed of the file.)
8. Several minor fixes. 

Build 5.0.4 1st May 2009
 

1. New signal generator. Support for playback, live signal control and multiple channels. 
2. Several improvements made for txt file import file filter. 

Build 5.0.3.38 31st March 2009
 

1. New Digital filter designer.
2. New Cross correlation analysis.
3. Several minor fixes for multi-file analysis.
4. Updated the users manual with instructions for using the "Signal processing" routines and batch file analysis. 

Build 5.0.3.28 4th March 2009
 

1. Multi-core processing enabled for digital filtering and FFT. 
2. Overview (peak) files are now stored in the working directory which can easily be purged. 
3. Several minor fixes when it comes to navigating multiple files. 
4. The app license key has changed and registered users need to obtain an updated one(free of charge) to use versions from this onward.
5. Whenever upgrading, uninstall the previous version. Old configuration files will not be compatible with the new version. 

Build 5.0.3 5th January 2009
 

1. Fix to overview chart in the signal recorder. A graphical error caused lock ups. 
2. Fix to one zoom spectrum configuration giving an error message.
3. The linked channel will now work also while editing the settings for the spectrum analyzer. 
4. Signal analyzer now allows selection of multiple channels and concurrent operations on them. (Hold shift to select more than one). 
5. Channel color is now specified in the channel configuration and matches in the overview chart and the analysis charts.

Build 5.0.2.90 9th December 2008
 

1. Added ability to compare spectrograms and surface charts by optionaly freezing the color scale.
2. Improved memory management allows much larger and faster spectrograms. 
3. Fixed a bug when an error was reported at startup on Vista OS.

Build 5.0.2.71 10th November 2008
 

1.Another fix to the peak marking feature 
2.Fixed the surface chart.
3.Filtering peaks from the spectrum will also update the associated time signal chart.
4.Signal recorder now has a reset averaging button.
5.Peak marking has been speeded up.

Build 5.0.2.57 30th April 2008
 


1.Fixed the peak marking feature 
2.Added ability to load, display and analyze complex/analytical signals.
3.Raw/pcm/txt file format support improved.

Build 5.0.2.50 21st April 2008
 


1.Added Allow 24bit playback and Amplify to dynamic range check-boxes to the Playback options to allow playback of non-audio files (Signal Analyzer)
2. Substantially improved speed of the overview chart with multiple bug fixes.
3.The time signal and frequency chart series drawing speed is much higher.
4. Added ability to select the recording source in the Signal Recorder.
5. New zoom spectrum capability in Signal Recorder allows monitoring of arbitrarily narrow band signals in real time. 
6. Both Signal Recorder and Signal Analyzer now support allow loading and saving of settings including the configuration of all the charts and file views. 
7. Signal Analyzer now has a new Processing menu, with multithreaded batch file processing functions for scaling, multiplexing, cutting, demultiplexing, filtering, rate conversion, file conversion between wav, text and raw/pcm formats, modulation, demodulation, envelope detection, and very narrow band bandpass digital filters

Build 5.0.0.39 4th December 2007
 


1. Valid error messages no longer halt the app. This gave false impression before that there are more bugs there than there really were. 
2. Added ability to loop the playback and limit the playback to selection.
3. Users manual is now available explaining all the major features. 

Build 5.0.0.35 27. November 2007
 


1. Fixed playback bug in the Signal Analyzer.
2. Analysis windows are now disabled before recording begins in Signal Recording to prevent errors that would happen in case of no data.
3. New channel scale and offset options for the recording settings for signal calibration purposes. 

Version 5 23. November 2007
 

Common new features:

1. Completely new application
2. Support for multi-core CPU's and Intel Penryn. Features CPU specific optimizations for SSE2, SSE3 and SSE4a instruction sets
3. The application has been broken in two pieces: Signal Analyzer and Signal Recorder. This simplifies the user interface greatly.
4.There are now two versions of the program. One is runnnig in single precision floating ponit (32 bit accuracy) and the other in double precision floating point (64bit accuracy). The double precision version is more accurate, and the single precision version uses only half the memory and is about two times faster in nearly all operations. That is the only difference between them. 
5. The application has a very extensive error reporting tool built in, allowing the user to quickly obtain a bug fix, if needed.
6. The most important thing to learn about how the charts work, is the auto scale feature. The charts will maintain its scale about 20% above the highest peak detected until reset. The Peak Scale reset button is on the toolbar above the chart. 
7. Frequency analysis settings require a separate manual to explain in depth. Most usefull for the start are reporting features and ability to compute RMS from any or multiple bands from the spectrum.
8. It makes sense to use FFT Properties v3 to first learn about frequency analysis before starting to use v5. Many of the features used in v5 are explained there. Signal analyzer specific features:

1. After opening a wav file, you will be presented with the file overview. By clicking and dragging the selection box, you can change its size and position and navigate through the file. When the analysis selected is "Averaged" or "Spectrogram" or "Surface", you have to hold down the SHIFT key to make a selection, otherwise you are only zooming. To pan the overview chart, drag it with the right mouse button. To select entire chart, double click it. The spectrogram, averaged spectrum and surface chart can be computed by pressing F9.
2. The new spectrogram has multiple color scale options including rainbow. The color palette can be made from three colors or two colors and each transition can be also mixed with the rainbow. The spectrogram can be recomputed by pressing F9. The spectrogram visualization is pixel accurate and does not allow Windows to make bitmap approximation when resizing. The spectrogram can be panned by dragging the chart with the right mouse button and zoomed in in the usual way: drag with the left mouse button down and right. You can zoom out by dragging the left mouse button up and left. This is true for all the charts except the Surface chart 
3. The new 3D Surface diagram allows full 360 degree rotation in all directions. It shares the color palette options with the spectrogram. It is also possible to adjust the resolution of the grid. The surface is navigated with a selection window on the spectrogram. Use CTRL and SHIFT when resizing and moving the selection window. You can zoom in and out of the surface chart by dragging the right mouse button vertically up and down. Dragging with the left mouse button will rotate the surface.
4. When adding marks to the spectrum chart, they can all be deleted, by simply double clicking on the chart. Clicking on the same mark again, will eraise it.
5. Each spectrum "analysis" has its own settings. Known issues: 
1. Save/Load settings does not work right yet.
2. The status bar does not show correct window count when using Surface, Spectrogram and Averaged analysis.Signal recorder specific features:

1. Shows time signal and frequency analysis of the energy (RMS) and of the envelope of the signal. Energy and envelope allow tracking of very low frequencies in the signal (modulated). 
2. It is possible to record at any sampling frequency supported by the sound card and bit depth of up to 24bit on two channels stereo.
3. The recording can be paused separately from the screens. It is possible to disable monitoring for a while to examine the charts, and allow the recording to continue in the background.
4. The overview chart is not navigatable and can not be zoomed. 
5. It is possible to adjust the averaging method of the frequency spectrums displayed to the type that best suites the purpose. There are many methods available: linear, exponential, peak hold and peak hold exponential. 

Repack 22. September 2005
 


1. Updated documentation
2. Updated dlls with support for SSE2 and P4

Build 233 12. December 1999
 


1. Added support for floating point number format when saving to text files. (.asc and .sgr)
2. Save spectrum from the File menu now works correctly.
3. Documentation is now in Adobe Acrobat format.

 

Build 232 11. September 1999
 
1. Printing did not advance signal automatically. (down the signal and across records).
2. Sampling frequency info did not change after decimation.
3. Improved source button switching.
4. On some computers (NT) CPU load indicator does not work. This causes memory leak. (not fixed).
5. Default templates with printing colors set to B/W are now included in the distribution.
 (You must save the template immediately after starting FFTProp).
6. Saving .wav and .bin files. Improved save options dialog behavior.
7. Added support for 32 bit integer wav files.
8. Added support for 96kHz, 88.2kHz and 48kHz wav files.
9. Zero padding of more then 2 causes memory leak, when streaming from the sound card. (not fixed).
Version: 3.5 Changes from ver 3.01 to 3.5 (August 1999)
 

1. Real time record and play monitoring.
2. CPU load indicator.
3. User definable screen update frequency.
4. Double precision allows phase angle measurement with 0.000001 degree accuracy.
5. Auto and single trigger.
6. Trigger on peak, border pass, (post/pre trigger).
7. Trigger channel can be different from data channel.
8. Bode plots: Amplitude - Frequency, Phase - frequency.
9. Peak hold averaging.
10. Write on trigger.
11. User definable sine sweep speed.
12. On-line wavelet analysis.

Version: 3.01 Changes from ver 3.0 to 3.01 (June 1999)
 

1. Peak filtering
2. Totally accurate phase measurement for all non-periodic signals. (with a reference at the begining of the time window).
3. SNR, SINAD, SFDR, Noise-floor statistics.

Version: 3.0   Changes from ver 2.5 to 3.0 (April 1999)
  1. Real spectrum
2. Imaginary spectrum
3. Cross-correlation
4. Auto-correlation
5 .Discrete cosine trasform
6. Real cepstrum
7. Cross spectrum
8. Transfer function
9. Coherence.
10. Total harmonic distortion % and Noise %
11. Two new text files.
12. Reads windows PCM (*.wav) support.
13. Signal overlapping. (samples and %).
14. Hilbert transformer generator and filtering
15. Kaiser parametric window
16. Chebyshev parametric window
17. Zero padder.
19. Higher order spectra: Bispectra and Bicoherence
20. Periodogram.
21. RMS, Mean, Crest, Peak, StDev - Time charts.
22. Peak Amplitude, Phase, frequency - time charts.
23. Wavelets decomposition.
24. Multirate Decimation/Interpolation.
25. Chart cloning.
26. Parametric printing (down/across) (sequential /mulitplexed) of files.
27. Automatic detection of multiplicative components (sidebands and modes)
28. Automatic marking of harmonic components.
29. Interpolation of marked peaks achieving up to 500 times better frequency estimation
+/- 0.1 phase degree estimation, and 1000 times better amplitude estimation then with standard 
FFT resolution and considerably better time-frequency resolution (obsoletes Cohens general type of time-frequency distributions).
30. Traces peaks: current or largest.
31. Automatically finds largest peaks.
32. Prints while tracing peaks.
33. Each chart can save: marks, picture, values.
34. Fully configurable marks (color, shape, size...)
35. Single line bispectra/bicoherence analysis.
36. Real time emulator.
37. Last used file list.
38. Drag and drop file capabiliy.
39. Intel Pentium, Pentium II and Pentium III optimized.
Version: 2.5   Changes from ver 2.0 to 2.5 (November 1998)
   1. Multichanneling. (8 parallel channels.)
2. FIR filter with Designer and speed profiler.
3. Multi-series charts with legend. 
4. A new product support: The basic Delphi signal processing package. The package mirrors the main features of FFT Properties with three Delphi components.
Version: 2.0   Changes from ver 1.0 to 2.0 (September 1998)
   1. Two displays: Time signal, Frequency Spectrum.
2. Power Spectrum
3. RMS Spectrum
4. Phase Spectrum
5. Three input signals support.
6. Separate adjustment of DC, Phase, Frequency and Amplitude.
7. Real time emulation. (Smooth animation)
8. Log/Lin Scale.
9. Static/Dynamic Scale.
10. Single/dual screen display.
11. Import of signals from files.
12 Export of signals to files.
13. Export of charts to: BMP, WMF, JPG, to clipboard and Files.
14. Zoom and panning.
15. Logarithmic amplitude and frequency.
16. Put picture behind the chart.
17. Background of chart can have gradient.
18. 3D free space Waterfall.
19. Three ways of scaling.
20. Averaging: linear and exponential infinite.
21. Separate configuration of charts for screen and paper.
22. Serial printing and page layout. Put 1,2,3,4 charts on signal page.
23. Tutorial on basics of frequency spectrum interpretation.
24. Configurable sample time and samples number (Sampling frequency)
25. Marking of peaks.
26. Completely serialized and automatic signal processing and printing.
27. Chart templates.
Version: 1.0   Initial capabilities (March 1998)
  Signal generator:* Sinus
* Impulse
* Triangle
* Square
* Transient
* Multiplication
* Delta function
* Gaussian noise
* Random noiseFFT Windows* Rectangular
* Hamming
* Hanning
* Blackman
* Exponent Down.The following phenomena can be observed in combination with the build in signal generator:* FFT and signal type.
* FFT and Window type. 
* Amplitude accuracy at different Windows.
* Frequency accuracy at different Windows.
* Power and RMS Amplitude towards normal.
* Phase spectrum and Windows.
* Beating of Amplitude in real time.
* The effect of DC and relation of DC towards signal average.
* FFT aliasing.
* Time signal aliasing. (Sampling)
* The effect of convolution: time signal and rectangular window. 
* The effect of non-integer number of periods per Window. (In amplitude and Phase)
* Higher harmonics and aliasing.
* Sum and difference frequencies.

Product features

FFT Properties - Features

Signal Analyzer and Recoreder for Windows

FFT Properties is a time series and frequency spectrum analyzer optimized for handling of long signals (Big Data). Designed for scientists, engineers and hobbyists in need of detailed signal content information (vibration, audio, seismic, speech...)

1. Educational features

FFT Properties can demonstrate what is the property of the signal itself and what is the property of FFT transformation. With the the signal generator built-in the user can gain insight in to the relation between the displayed signal and the actual formula used to generate it. For those reasons a FFT tutorial is included with FFT Properties with some of the signal processing basics the can be demonstrated in FFT Properties.

The user can also listen to what he is looking at. Although many sophisticated methods have been developed to analyze signals, human ear is still an analyzer beyond compare.

FFT Properties also comes with an interesting interpretation of the DFT formula. Included is also a very compact introduction to wavelet based signal analysis. Together with the The DSP for MtxVec, the user has the option to design his/hers own frequency analyzer.

2. Productivity features

FFT Properties offers a simple interface with high level of automatization for frequency analysis of real world signals. It enables the user to quickly browse through the frequency spectrums of the signal records, without the need to worry about chart scaling or axis labeling, with or without logarithmic axis.The output in high quality enhanced metafile format is just a click away. Very good printing capabilities allow the user to quickly print large amounts of processed signal records. Separate chart templates for screen and printer make allow different colors and formatting for the screen and paper. The features were designed for pattern recognition applications, where a huge number of samples must be examined to find some rules of behavior. The application will be continuously updated towards handling huge amounts of data and support for the most well known DAQ hardware.

3. Advanced FFT control

A comprehensive set window functions also include two parametric windows. Kaiser and Chebyshev. They allow an increased control over spectral leakage behavior. High zero padding factors result in smooth peak approximations and in higher frequency and amplitude accuracy. The user can interpolate selected peaks in frequency, amplitude and phase and achieve substantialy better accuracy without the need to change the spectral resolution and without zero padding. Such high frequency accuracy also allows phase measurement directly from the spectrum. To further enhance this feature a special set of peak tracing functions has been used. The accuracy of time-frequency tracing of a single peak is also very high. Each of these features can be tested with the signal generator build in to FFT Properties.

4. Built-in on-line FIR filter

Allows multirate decimation and interpolation in single pass. Generates hilbert transformers. Low-pass, band pass, high pass, Band stop.

5. Linear signal processing

Auto-correlation, Cross-correlation, Network functions (cross spectral analysis). Phase, Real, Imaginary, Power, Amplitude spectrum, THD, Noise THD, Cepstral analyis, Discrete cosinetransform.

6. Non-linear signal processing

FFT Properties feature higher order spectral analysis. This includes the calculation of bispectra and bicoherence. This two methods allow the detection of quadratic phase coupling. Single line based analysis of the surface is also included. The HOS methods are especially useful in testing the hypothesis of single peaks being higher harmonics, general type multiplication based or stand alone. This information allows much deeper analysis of the contents of the frequency spectrum. In order to help detect and test for higher harmonics and multiplicative components three special peak marking modes are used, that can also make use of interpolation. And because of direct phase information the guesses about interaction of spectral components can also be made directly from the frequency spectrum.

7. General purpose wavelet based signal analysis

FFT Properties include full wavelet decomposition scheme. This is not wavelet packet analysis, but general purpose signal analysis with wavelets has been made very user friendly. Wavelets can be used without any special preknowlidge of the extensive math behind them.

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FFT Properties

FFT Properties

Stand-alone Signal Analyzer and Recorder for Windows

FFT Properties - Stand-alone Signal Analyzer and Recoreder for Windows

Overview

Time series and frequency spectrum analyzer optimized for handling of long signals (Big Data). Designed for scientists, engineers and hobbyists in need of detailed signal content information (vibration, audio, seismic, speech..)

FFT Properties v6 - Spectrum analyzer

Time series and frequency spectrum analyzer optimized for handling of long signals (Big Data). Designed for scientists, engineers and hobbyists in need of detailed signal content information (vibration, audio, seismic, speech..) It features:
  • Recording and playback with arbitrary sampling frequency by using the fastest sample rate converter.
  • Real time envelope and energy computation during recording with history overview and frequency analysis.
  • 24-bit/96kHz and 24-bit/192kHz recording and playback support.
  • Ability to monitor and record output of arbitrary playback device.
  • High-resolution real-time spectrogram during recording.
  • Open arbitrary audio/video file with the Signal Analyzer. Take an in-depth look at the frequency content of the multi-channel DTS or AC3 audio tracks of movie files.
  • Direct support for text files, raw/pcm (arbitrary format) files and wav file format.
  • Ability to compare multiple averaged spectrums.
  • Excellent 3D Surface chart with unique navigation capability.
  • Multithreaded batch file processing for rate conversion, digital filtering, signal generation, signal modulation, demodulation, envelope detection and signal conversion.
  • Zoom-spectrum feature. Select higher resolution and narrower bands with any sampling frequency.
  • Arbitrary real number factor rate conversion with great speed and accuracy.
  • Real-time high speed narrow bandpass filter, can have any bandwidth limited only with the length of the signal.
  • Basic digital filter designer support with a wide range of optimal FIR and IIR filtering.
  • Math expression evaluator for scaling of signals.
  • HP Calculator style signal generator.
  • Save and load settings of all processing pipes and charts.
  • All signal processing is streamable via audio processing pipes.
  • Frequency analyzer features non-parametric phase angle measurement of non-periodic signals and linear-phase peak filtering.
  • Analytical spectrogram with highest accuracy imaging in an FFT analyzer with time-frequency analysis.
  • Support for real time analysis of largest file sizes.
  • Read/write and analyze complex/analytical signals.
  • Runs with Windows Vista, Windows 7,8 and 10.
The Spectrum Analyzer features many unique frequency analysis methods which can not be found in any other frequency analysis software.

FFT Properties v3.5 - Spectrum analyzer

The predecessor to v6 is ideal for studying fast Fourier transformation as well as for practical spectrum analysis, or to FFT Excel spreadsheet data. The FFT code is very fast and optimized for Pentium 4 CPU's.

FFT Frequency Analyzer Software - DSP Code Discrete Fast Fourier TransformFFT Properties is a report-oriented, real-time Scope/ Spectrum analyzer. It features:
- Parametric windows
- Peak interpolation
- A rich set of peak marking features
- Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)
- On-line wavelets decomposition
- Higher order spectral analysis
- Cross- and auto-correlation
- Cepstral analysis
- Cross-spectral analysis
- FIR filter designer
- Decimation and interpolation
- Built-in signal generator
- Advanced printing
- High quality charts
In other words, with FFT Properties you can evaluate your sound card for frequency response and non-linearities, tune your guitar, whistle and look at the frequency, make your own car tire balancer, take a close look at your amplifier etc.

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