Resources

More About Parallel Port Hardware

Parallel Port Output - We used a modified version of the circuits listed on this page - the "Safer New Design" including the Zener diode. We modified it by separating it into head-end and tail-end, and including a switch in-line with VDC to allow the system to be disabled.

More About Audio File Processing and Beat Detection

GameDev.net - Beat Detection Algorithms - The song analysis software implements algorithm #2 with improvements, and will implement #3 for enhanced beat detection.
GameDev.net - Loading Wave Files - The basic structure of the wave file loading procedures comes from this article. The code was changed to standard object-oriented C++ and separated into functions.
GStreamer - The song analysis/light track generation software uses this framework to decode compressed music files prior to beat detection, percentile analysis, or other methods of light track generation.
SoX - Sound Exchange - The song analysis/light track generation software calls this program to apply the digital filters to the music before light command extraction.
sox(1) - Universal Sound Sampler - Manual Page - This page lists the filters available in SoX and their parameters, useable by the sound track generation software.
Rhythmbox - This is the music library software for which the playback (dispatcher front-end) software is written as a plugin.

More About Digital Signal Processing

Wikipedia: Band-pass filter
Wikipedia: High-pass filter
Wikipedia: Low-pass filter
Bores Signal Processing - An Introduction - This thorough web site explains many details about digital filters for a variety of uses.
Digital Filters - An Introduction (2) - This web page explains some of the advantages of digital filters over analog circuits performing a similar role.

Content copyright 2006 Ryan Pavlik and Nicole O'Connell. Portions of web design 2005-2006 Ryan Pavlik. This is not an official St. Norbert College web page - opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and St. Norbert College offers no warranty or indemnity for the instructions contained here. Do not attempt to follow these instructions to duplicate the experimentation of the authors: this may expose you to dangerous electrical currents. The steps listed here are for documentation only.