Analook is software which can be used to examine recordings of bat calls, in both Full Spectrum and Zero-Crossings. It has many complex capabilities and there is no coherent help system or documentation. This page will be developed as needed to fill in some of these gaps. Basic information on how to use Analook can be found in a document you can download from here.
The latest version includes a number of new features, including the ability to look at wav files. This is being developed, but is already very useful. On the other hand, some existing capabiltities have not been checked yet in the latest version. In particular, there is no guarantee that ZCA files can be opened or will display properly. Don't use this version for that purpose. It can be used to record new ZC files via the serial link to an Anabat detector.
The "x' key turns off-dots on and off. Using the shift key with the keys 1 to 9 and 'a' to 'f' will go backwards instead of forwards in moving the display around the screen.
The emphasis in Analook is on using ZC as the main way to view files. While ZC doesn't show you everything, it is by far the easiest way to examine files and to very quickly get the information you need in the vast majority of cases. So in order to see wav files, you need to have ZC files of the same name (except for the extension). If you don't already have these, you can make them from the wav file. You can do this for a whole file tree at once.
First make sure you have the latest
AnalookW.
Go Tools, Options, open the General page and check the Generate .zc
files option. This makes sure you use the much superior .zc naming scheme
for the output files.
Go Tools, Converter, Wave To Anabat.
For most purposes, you can ignore most of the dialog, which is there only
for specific conversion purposes.
Press Auto and choose the folder or folder tree containing
the wav files you want to convert. The resulting zc files will be in a
folder called _ZC alongside the top folder of the tree with the wav files.
For example, if you choose a tree starting at:
c:\data
containing wav files, you will end up with a similarly structured tree starting at:
c:\data_zc
containing only the equivalent zc files derived from the wav files in the original tree.
This should work for most wav files, but if you find your wav files don't convert, contact Titley-Scientific for instructions.
The folder scheme shown above makes it easy for Analook to find the wav file which corresponds to any ZC file in the _zc folder. It will also find corresponding wav files in various other places, such as in the same folder as the ZC files.
Open a ZC file in the usual way. Best is either with File, Open Anabat File, or if you want to open it in an existing BatWindow, just press Shift-L and browse to the desired file.
You can go Window, Fill Window to take up all the space for your BatWindow. But if Analook takes up the whole screen, it is often best to use a smaller BatWindow, for example by using Window, Choose Placement and then clicking on the 1/2 height, 1 option. You can then open another BatWindow and use 1/2 height, 2 to position and size it. That scheme lets you use two windows to directly compare different files.
Best practice screen setup: Use a logarithmic frequency scale showing the range of interest. Many people hate logarithms and everything associated with them. But we naturally think logarithmically, like it or not, and it makes much more sense for all sorts of reasons. Just do it and live with the pain till you get used to it. If you insist on linear, you will ultimately hurt yourself!
Take a pulse you want to view in Full Spectrum, right click on the body of the pulse and click Show FS. In all likelihood, you will only see one pulse, even if the ZC view is compressed. That's because it makes much better sense to look at a compressed view in ZC but a truetime view in FS, making the best of both worlds.
If the pulse was recorded at high amplitude, you might see lots of small bars or patterns which aren't what you expected. For the moment, live with them. They do no harm, but ensure you can see all the detail there is to see in the pulse. There is just one way to control what the spectrogram looks like. Left click above or below the body of the pulse to change the nature of the FFT to best suit the features of the pulse. Steep portions will look sharper if you click higher in the window, and flat portions will look sharper if you click lower in the window. For most purposes just click on the main part of the call which matters the most. This control only really makes much difference when viewing a pulse at high magnification. It is also a bit of a cosmetic kludge of little real value. FFT is inherently blurry, so get used to it!
By right-clicking on the screen you get a context menu which lets you change some other aspects of the display. Osc lets you see an oscillogram while FFT shows the spectrogram. All Screen spreads the display across the whole screen. This takes longer to draw but can sometimes be useful for seeing things the ZC doesn't see. DoubleWide draws a wider FFT display, and is often the best choice, as it is more likely than the alternative SingleWide to cover a whole pulse. Finally, Close stops the FS display.
When the FS display is open, just right click on any pulse to show it. If you change the ZC display in certain ways, the FS will be turned off, but just clicking on a pulse will still show it in FS. In general, if the context menu shows the FS options, just right clicking on a pulse will show the FS display.