What is FFTExplorer?
FFTExplorer is a free (GPL) Linux (Xwindows GUI-based) utility that performs spectral analysis on real-time data from a sound card or other source, and can analyze the spectra of various sound file types. It can also accept data from many kinds of applications in plain-text form by way of the "named pipe" feature of Linux (example code provided in the documentation).
FFTExplorer can display time-domain and frequency-domain data in a number of ways and is an easy-to-use introduction to the topic of spectrum analysis. Beyond performing a fast Fourier transform on arbitrary data sources, FFTExplorer can also perform moving average noise reduction for the treatment of signals accompanied by noise.
FFTExplorer contains a comprehensive essay/help file on the various topics the program covers, plus some step-by-step examples using its own internal signal source and a detailed example using an external source.
FFTExplorer is © Copyright 2007, P. Lutus. All rights reserved.
FFTExplorer is released under the General Public License.
FFTExplorer is also Careware (http://arachnoid.com/careware),
unless this kind of idea makes you crazy, in which case FFTExplorer is free (e.g. GPL).
Educators Take Note
For educational purposes, I have written an unbundled, command-line embodiment of Fast Fourier technology that may be more suitable for tutorial applications on small systems. Go to Signal Processing to pick up the software.
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Downloads
Installation
- If you have downloaded the binary, just put it in /usr/local/bin, give it executable permissions and run it like this:
$ fftexplorer
You can make a desktop shortcut with this as its executable target.
- If you have downloaded the source package:
- Put it in any convenient location.
- $ tar -xjf fftexplorer.tar.bz2
- $ cd fftexplorer.dist
- $ ./auto_install.sh
If you don't want the automatic installation or you want to fine-tune the process, instead of running "auto_install.sh", after the unpacking step above, do this:
- $ ./configure
- $ make
- $ sudo make install
- $ sudo cp -p src/fftexplorer /usr/local/bin
Obviously you may want to modify some of these steps to suit your platform.
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Version History
- 09/05/2007 Version 2.0. Rewrote Fast Fourier Transform code for greater speed and efficiency.
- 09/14/2006 Version 1.16. Updated source to conform to gcc 4.1 requirements.
- 02/23/2005 Version 1.15. Fixed a bug that caused compilation to fail on some systems due to an ambiguous variable promotion.
- 12/15/2004 Version 1.1. Further tuned the signal processing code to balance acquisition speed and graceful error recovery.
- 12/13/2004 Version 1.0. Initial public release.
