Generates a script for extracting formants using FastTrack, for use with processWithPraat

This function generates a Praat script fragment which can be passed as the praat.script parameter of processWithPraat, in order to extract selected formants using the FastTrack Praat plugin.

Usage

praatScriptFastTrack(
  formants = c(1, 2),
  sample.points = c(0.5),
  lowest.analysis.frequency = 5000,
  lowest.analysis.frequency.male = 4500,
  highest.analysis.frequency = 7000,
  highest.analysis.frequency.male = 6500,
  gender.attribute = "participant_gender",
  value.for.male = "M",
  time.step = 0.002,
  tracking.method = "burg",
  number.of.formants = 3,
  maximum.f1.frequency = 1200,
  maximum.f1.bandwidth = NULL,
  maximum.f2.bandwidth = NULL,
  maximum.f3.bandwidth = NULL,
  minimum.f4.frequency = 2900,
  enable.rhotic.heuristic = TRUE,
  enable.f3.f4.proximity.heuristic = TRUE,
  number.of.steps = 20,
  number.of.coefficients = 5
)

Arguments

formants: A vector of integers specifying which formants to extract, e.g c(1,2) for the first and second formant.
sample.points: A vector of numbers (0 <= sample.points <= 1) specifying multiple points at which to take the measurement. The default is a single point at 0.5 - this means one measurement will be taken halfway through the target interval. If, for example, you wanted eleven measurements evenly spaced throughout the interval, you would specify sample.points as being c(0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0).
lowest.analysis.frequency: Lowest analysis frequency (Hz) by default.
lowest.analysis.frequency.male: Lowest analysis frequency (Hz) for male speakers, or NULL to use the same value as lowest.analysis.frequency.
highest.analysis.frequency: Highest analysis frequency (Hz) by default.
highest.analysis.frequency.male: Highest analysis frequency (Hz) for male speakers, or NULL to use the same value as highest.analysis.frequency.
gender.attribute: Name of the LaBB-CAT participant attribute that contains the participant's gender - normally this is "participant_gender".
value.for.male: The value that the gender.attribute has when the participant is male.
time.step: Time step in seconds.
tracking.method: tracking_method parameter for trackAutoselectProcedure; "burg" or "robust".
number.of.formants: Number of formants to track - 3 or 4.
maximum.f1.frequency: Specifying a non-NULL value enables the F1 frequency heuristic: Median F1 frequency should not be higher than this value.
maximum.f1.bandwidth: Specifying a non-NULL value (e.g. 500) enables the F1 bandwidth heuristic: Median F1 bandwidth should not be higher than this value.
maximum.f2.bandwidth: Specifying a non-NULL value (e.g. 600) enables the F2 bandwidth heuristic: Median F2 bandwidth should not be higher than this value.
maximum.f3.bandwidth: Specifying a non-NULL value (e.g. 900) enables the F3 bandwidth heuristic: Median F3 bandwidth should not be higher than this value.
minimum.f4.frequency: Specifying a non-NULL value enables the F4 frequency heuristic: Median F4 frequency should not be lower than this value.
enable.rhotic.heuristic: Whether to enable the rhotic heuristic: If F3 < 2000 Hz, F1 and F2 should be at least 500 Hz apart.
enable.f3.f4.proximity.heuristic: Whether to enable the F3/F4 proximity heuristic: If (F4 - F3) < 500 Hz, F1 and F2 should be at least 1500 Hz apart.
number.of.steps: Number of analyses between low and high analysis limits. More analysis steps may improve results, but will increase analysis time (50 percent more steps = around 50 percent longer to analyze).
number.of.coefficients: Number of coefficients for formant prediction. More coefficients allow for more sudden, and 'wiggly' formant motion.

Value

A script fragment which can be passed as the praat.script parameter of processWithPraat

Details

The FastTrack Praat plugin, developed by Santiago Barreda, automatically runs multiple formant analyses on each segment, selects the best (the smoothest, with optional heuristics), and makes the winning formant object available for measurement. For more information, see https://github.com/santiagobarreda/FastTrack

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
## Get all tokens of the KIT vowel
results <- getMatches(labbcat.url, list(segment="I"))

## Get the first 3 formants at three points during the vowel
formants <- processWithPraat(
              labbcat.url,
              results$MatchId, results$Target.segment.start, results$Target.segment.end,
              window.offset=0.025,
              praatScriptFastTrack(formants=c(1,2,3),
              sample.points=c(0.25,0.5,0.75)))
} # }