Monitoring dB of frequent 'pings'

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hello,

I am using Audacity because I would like to periodically monitor the frequency and amplitude of pings (I’m not sure if they can be referred to a clippings) that occur in a sea of background noise. Could someone please advise on how to do this? Ideally i would like to monitor the frequency and amplitude of these peaks that are clearly visible above the background noise, with the aim to see if the frequency or the amplitude increase or decrease over time.

Many thanks.

2

Monitor how exactly?

As in “I want to look at the graph and see if I can make out the pings”?

Or as in “I want to count isolated pings”?

The first could be a case for Audacity. The second seems to call for Pure Data, Python or some other programming environment.

So, please tell us a bit more about you project. What is the source of the pings?

3

Thanks for your reply,

We are testing a specimen, and we are hearing some knocking sounds coming from the specimen as it is being moved back and forth. As seen on the attached image, what I would like to do is over time as we continue testing is to see if the frequency or the amplitude (dB) of is knocking changes. Ideally just i would like to get the average dB and the max dB of a selected period of testing (when the knocking occurs) and then maybe a more analytical method of monitoring the frequency rather than counting manually over a given period of time.

Thanks again
Audacity_Knocking.jpg

4

What sort of “specimen”?
The image that you posted looks like music. Where did it come from? Is it something that you recorded? If so, how was it recorded?


What sort of knocking sounds? Perhaps you could post a short audio sample (just a few seconds in WAV format - see: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1)


What is moving back and forth? Why is “it” (whatever “the specimen” is) being moved back and forth?


Sorry, but I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to be looking for. I just see a waveform in a mono audio track that looks like music.


What is the job? What are you trying to do?

5

That waveform doesn’t tell us a thing. We can’t even see the scale…