On 18 Mar 99, at 18:12, Computer Software Solutions L wrote:
 
> The Apidictor has already been mentioned on this List.
>
> I have received a specification and a wiring diagram of the Apidictor
> which was first built in the 1960s and enjoyed limited success. The broad
> requirement is shown below, which I have translated into how a PC might
> handle the job.
 
> Has anybody any personal experience of sound processing on a PC, or any
> contacts with an engineer involved in sound who may be able to suggest
> software to handle the above. (All of my computer experience is in the
> area of commercial software development, so sound processing is something
> I know nothing about at least not yet.)
 
Some time ago I tried a few searches on the Internet using
something like sound+analysis+software.  I found with little trouble
at least fifteen programs for performing sound analysis.  A little over
half were definitely intended for use by musicians and did not seem
to offer a more 'scientific' approach to sound analysis.  Two that are
intended for 'bio-acoustics'  that I have tried are -
 
SpectraPro FFT (Fast Fourier Analysis) Program.  This is available
for a free 30 day download and I heartily recommend it to try even if
you do not wish to pay for the non-limited version - it is quite
expensive.  It seems to be very capable and would appear to do
everything that would be needed to perform analysis of bee sounds.
 It is a Windows application and produces results which are easy
for a layman like myself to interpret.  This seems to me to be
excellent software for the job.
 
Daqarta.  This is also available to download.  This is a non-
Windows program and seems to hate Windows so much I can only
get it to work on my Win95 machine by restarting it with a clean
boot disk.  The program appears to be very capable but not as
easy to use as SpectraPro.  Has a very extensive help/tutorial
system which I found very informative about all aspects of sound
sampling analysis.  This is the software that I plan to continue to
use.
 
Apart from the software a decent microphone and soundcard are
needed.  Both of the above programs recommend certain
microphones and can be adjusted to compensate for the known
characteristics of these microphones.
 
More time spent on Internet searches would undoubtedly yield
more suitable software.  Let me know if you would like any more
information about downloading or using the above software.
 
Joe Hemmens