Subject: Re: Trasients when playing silence with Matlab From: Bob Masta <audio@xxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 13:23:17 -0500 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Enrique: I assume that you are talking about playing the _silence_ signal as a separate event, not as part of a larger stream. The problem then has to do with turn-on transients in the sound card. This is likely related to the fact that sound cards typically run from a 0-12V supply. The card has a "zero" voltage at the middle of this range. An output capacitor blocks the DC value and only allows the AC portions of the signal to pass. But when the outputs are initially activated, this capacitor passes a transient until it is charged to the DC value. In addition to the advice Mathieu has provided, one solution would be to have the sound card output *something* all the time. I'm not a Matlab user so I can't advise on the methods used there, but typically this involves a large circular buffer (or chain of buffers) that the software updates in the background. The buffer would be filled with zeroes (silence) normally, and sound data would be created as needed. (Of course, you still have to control the envelope of the sound to prevent onset and offset transients.) Best regards, Bob Masta ------------------------------------------- On 7 Feb 2008 at 17:00, Lopez-Poveda, Enrique A. wrote: > Dear friends, > > Here is a technical question on a problem that is driving us crazy. > > We want to play sounds from Matlab through an RME > Fireface 400 sound card. The problem is that when > we play a "silence" interval (array of zeros) we > can hear (and even record) a clear transient at > the onset of the _silence_ signal. We would very > much like to get rid of that onset transient. Any > cues as to how to get rid of it? > > Thank you so much in advance. > > - Enrique > > Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda, Ph.D. > Instituto de Neurociencias de Castilla y León > Universidad de Salamanca > Av. Alfonso X El Sabio S/N, 37007 Salamanca, Spain. > Phone: (+34) 923 294 500 ext. 1957 > Fax: (+34) 923 294 750 > E-mail: ealopezpoveda@xxxxxxxx > http://web.usal.es/~ealopezpoveda/ -----------------------------------------------------Bob Masta D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis www.daqarta.com Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator Science with your sound card!