My book on the practical analysis and processing of sound, is an attempt to explain the theory from a practical viewpoint, using a common-sense way of thinking.
As an electronics engineer having worked at the language department of the University of Amsterdam for many years, I assisted researchers and students in many aspects of processing of sound, such as various signal analysis methods and automation of analysis and manipulation handling procedures.
To support the text, the book comes with a number of demo scripts that can be run in the PRAAT program, to download them: klick here
A great deal of their needs for assistance fell into the category spectral analysis, a field which most language researchers experienced as ‘difficult’. Generally, people with a background in linguistics have not had much training in mathematical and technical subjects.
This lack of technical background might cause serious errors in the interpretation of the results of the analyses.
There are numerous books about signal analysis, varying from simple introductions to highly advanced mathematical works. Why then this book when there are so many already? It seems that the books available are either highly theoretical and technical and thus only suited for people skilled in mathematics, or oversimplified so that the background is not explained clearly and cannot be understood sufficiently. This applies especially to researchers in the humanities who have not had an extensive training in mathematics, which limits a person’s ability to understand most books on signal analysis.
In this book, therefore, I will try to explain the principles of manipulations, analyses and productions of sound that researchers who work in this area generally come across, rather than to try to cover all aspects of signal processing. The tools that will be used are first of all, the reader’s own common sense, and secondly, the versatile free program “PRAAT” (see the Introduction for accessing and using PRAAT).
You can purchase a hard copy of my book in various bookstores, for instance Bol.com
But you are also welcome to download a digital version of my book for free
