Praat is a powerful speech analysis program created by scientists, but it is available for users of all levels. Once launched, it allows you to analyze, manipulate, and synthesize speech. Additionally, you can create high-quality images that can be easily exported and used for scientific research or creative writing.
It’s worth noting that the application doesn’t have a fancy interface; everything is straightforward and functional. The window is divided into two parts: one for managing your project and the other for generating images after processing the audio file.
Praat is primarily designed for those who understand what a sound wave is, how it should be displayed, and how it can be processed. If you are unfamiliar with these concepts, it might be challenging to use, but you can make use of the detailed help if language is not a barrier for you.
Let me emphasize again that this program only works with audio files. You will have tools to convert audio to other formats to more accurately determine the characteristics of soundtracks. You can export data in WAV, AIFF, AIFC, NIST, or FLAC formats. Additionally, you can convert soundtracks to mono or stereo and work with channels.
The main features of Praat include:
1. Ability to extract specific speech parameters.
2. Voice analysis and synthesis.
3. Marking, segmentation, and filtering functions.
OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.x, 10 (32/64-bit)
Developers: Paul Boersma / David Weenink
Interface: English
Medicine: Free
Latest changes in Praat.
6.3.12 (24 July 2023)
• Improvements in manual, including corrections on layout problems introduced in version
6.3.11 (17 July 2023)
• VowelEditor: repaired a bug by which the VowelEditor wouldn’t start up if an incorrect marks file had previously been specified.
• Mac: use a Cherokee font that distinguishes „ka“ and „wo“ well.
• OTMulti: vertical constraint names support newlines and disharmonies.
• Text windows are one tab plus 84.5 characters wide.
• Table: Get all values in column….
• Undocumented alpha support for Praat notebooks.
• Formulas: correlation (vec1#, vec2#), vertical$ (for formatting string arrays).
• Scripting: readFile#, readFile##.
https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/
