List of Bioacoustics Software
From Help Wiki
Here is a listing of the most referenced bioacoustics software.
Two great resources on the topic of bioacoustics:
| Name | License | Platform | Details | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audacity | GNU GPL v.2 | {Linux, Macintosh, Windows} | All around audio editing tool. | To extend the analysis capabilities within Audacity, look at VAMP plugins. |
| Luscinia | GNU GPL v.2 | {Linux, Macintosh, Windows} | Can record, edit, and manage files. Spectrograms of sound; database archiving of wildlife sound recordings; computational comparison of sounds, using dynamic time warping; clustering analysis; syntactical analysis of animal vocal signals; visual comparison of spectrograms. | Written in JAVA. Since Luscinia can be configured with a database, it's well suited for large projects where file management can be an issue. |
| Pratt | GNU GPL v.2 | {Linux, Macintosh, Windows} | For analyses only | Though it is focused on phonetics, it is considered to be the best and most powerful acoustic analysis software in the bioacoustic community. |
| Raven | Proprietary | {Linux, Macintosh, Windows} | program for the acquisition, visualization, measurement, and analysis of sounds. | Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. JAVA application. Ironic that the software is proprietary considering that Cornell received an NSF grant to directly develop the software. |
| Sonobat | Proprietary | {Macintosh, Windows} | software provides a comprehensive tool for analyzing and comparing high-resolution full-spectrum Sonograms of Bat echolocation calls recorded from time-expansion bat detectors. | Customized for bat songrams. Can identify species based on sonogram. |
| Sound Analysis Pro 2011 | GNU GPL v.2 | {Windows} | Performs automated recording and analysis of animal vocalization. It can record, analyze and manage sound data over prolonged periods. | Windows only. Has great documentation on how to use the program. |
| SoundRuler | GNU GPL v.2 | {Linux, Macintosh, Windows} | focused on teaching acoustics. Can record and edit. | |
| Spek | GNU GPL v.3 | {Linux, Macintosh, Windows} | Show a spectrogram for simple analyses. Can export as [PNG] image file. | Very simple tool to get quick information about an audio file. Nice export feature to image file. |
| Syrinx-PC | Freeware | {Windows} | Program is specifically designed for field use for recording bioacoustics. Has basic analysis capabilities. Can be used to record/edit/analyze/manage. | The software is no longer under active development --which shouldn’t necessarily deter it’s use. License isn't clear. |
| VAMP | GNU GPL | {Linux, Macintosh, Windows} | Vamp is an audio processing plugin system for plugins that extract descriptive information from audio data — typically referred to as audio analysis plugins or audio feature extraction plugins. | Used with Audacity. |
Notes
- For general information about General Public License on Wikipedia: GNU GPL
See Also
External Links
- Steven L. Hopp bioacoustics listing of sound analysis software --this is out of date, but might still be of some value.
- A Biologist’s Introduction to Spectrum Analysis
- Digital Representation of Sound
- Audacity Digital Audio
