Acoustic Analyzer

Psychoacoustic Activation Analysis Plugin

The Acoustic Analyzer is designed around perceptual measurement rather than raw readouts. It calculates an Acoustic Activation Index (0–100) that represents how stimulating or calming an audio signal is likely to feel to a listener. This page keeps the technical heart of the project but presents it in the same visual template used by EchoPsychFX for consistency across the portfolio.

🧠 Perception-First Metrics

Brightness, harshness, dynamic variability and temporal unpredictability are combined using research-weighted coefficients to produce an interpretable activation score that maps to colour-coded UI feedback (green = calm → red = activating).

Analysis Metrics

Spectral Centroid (Brightness): perceptual centre of gravity (0–8kHz normalization).
Spectral Harshness: high-frequency energy ratio (>2kHz) scaled to perceptual impact.
Dynamic Variability: RMS variance over a moving window to capture loudness unpredictability.
Temporal Unpredictability: successive RMS-change statistics to detect sudden transients.

Acoustic Activation Index

Component weights used for the composite score:

Harshness: 35%
Brightness: 25%
Dynamic Variability: 20%
Temporal Unpredictability: 20%

Research & Export

📊 Real-Time Recording

Start/stop recording with live timestamped frames (~23–30Hz depending on UI).
Per-frame metrics captured and made thread-safe for export.

💾 CSV Export

Session exports include precise timestamps, activation score, and component metrics.
Format ready for statistical tools (R, Python, Excel).

Media Gallery

Interface screenshots, visualizations and demo clips.

🎛️

Main Interface

Color-coded Activation Score + metric bars

📈

Metric Visualization

Real-time graphs and historic traces for post-analysis

🔴

Recording Session

Timestamps, sample counts and CSV-ready output

🧪

Research App

Correlate activation with questionnaires or biomarkers

Tip: Replace placeholders with <img> or <video> tags to show real assets.

Download

Beta builds will be posted during testing phases.

VST3 (Windows)

64-bit Windows build — coming soon

VST3 (macOS)

Universal binary for Intel & Apple Silicon — coming soon

AU (macOS)

AudioUnit for Logic/ GarageBand — coming soon

Standalone

Standalone app for quick tests — coming soon

Technical Specs

Engine: C++ / JUCE
FFT: 2048-point Hann-windowed FFT
Processing: 64-bit floats, thread-safe metrics
Sample Rates: 44.1–192 kHz
UI: 30Hz refresh recommended for smooth visuals

Planned Improvements

🔬 Future Enhancements

Planned additions include A-weighting, ISO-compliant sharpness/roughness metrics, Bark/ERB conversions, SPL calibration and expanded visualization modes for publication-ready figures.

Interested in collaboration or testing?

Contact for beta access, data-sharing, or research partnerships.

📧 Get in Touch