Software tools for acoustic database management

Abstract

Digital archiving of bioacoustic data provides both curatorial and scientific benefits. To realize these benefits, key system requirements must be satisfied. This report discusses these requirements, and describes the software tools developed by the WHOI bioacoustic laboratory to maintain and utilize an archive of digitized biological sounds. These tools are written in standard C code, and are designed to run on PC-compatible microcomputers. Both the usage and structure of these programs are described in relation to the SOUND database of marine animal sounds. These tools include software for analog-to-digital conversion, text header maintenance, data verification and interactive spectrographic review. Source code listings are supplied.