Computing and Lab Facilities

The SoundLab shares its facilities with those of other sound-related researchers in the Linguistics Department. A full description of the facilities open to the entire department can be found here. Below is a catalog of some of the items used most frequently by the SoundLab.

Acoustic analysis (e.g., Praat), statistical processing (e.g., R), simulation studies (e.g., Lens), as well as routine computing applications (e.g., Office) are supported by KITT, a dual 3.06 GHz iMac, and the aging (but still mighty!) Dalek, a dual 1.8GHz PowerMac G5.
Experiments are run using SuperLab and Max/MSP on Cylon, a quad core 2.66GHz Mac Pro. A button box and voice key are attached to Cylon for use in reaction time studies. Cylon is used to control two independent flat screen monitors for multi-talker experimental studies.
In our lab facilities, a large single-walled IAC booth is used for recording. In the booth an AKG C420 Headset Cardioid Condenser Mic is used for recording speech. Speech is recorded directly onto Rosie, a 2.0GHz iMac.
Marvin, an aging PowerBook G4 (1.25 GHz, 512 MB RAM) hangs around the lab looking for interesting data to analyze.
Gort is the workhorse printer of the soundlab.

In the field, sound samples are recorded using a Shure WH20 dynamic headmounted mic on a Marantz PMD670 flash memory recorder. These files can be directly transferred to the computers above for analysis or presentation to research participants.

Several sets of Sony headphones are used for transcription analysis of speech, as well as for perceptual experiments.

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