Instead of working with hundred thousend of soundfiles use Soundfile-Segments

The most fundamental feature of S_TOOLs-STx has to be made aware to the user. STx processes the audio signals in soundfile documents as a whole, such as originally recorded. The soundfiles are frozen as originals, in the sense of a secure database, whereas the associated metadata are treated dynamically and therefore free to be updated if necessary.

In order to access and process individual sound events conveniently, such as phonemes, words, traffic noise evets, animal sounds etc. on a soundfile basis, an open concept of Soundfile segment definition and annotation on the metadata level has been implemented. It imposes no restrictions in access to the sound whatever, but opens the option of multiple annotations to the same sounds if necessary, preserves the original context of the recordings, enables relative addressing and avoids the cumbersome management of hundreds of thousands of individual sound files in dedicated data bases.

The Concept of Soundfile-Segments

• the original soundfile (essence) remains frozen in as an original document
• segmentation on a metadata level can be organised according to tailored cirteria, depending on the questions to be posted to the material
• dynamic and multiple segmentation and annotations can be realized without duplicating the essence
• the original context (the signal before and/or after the segmented region) remains accessible by relative addressing
• segment lists can be compiled using arbitrary metadata elements for comparative listening, parameter statistics and evaluation test procedures.

Sample address specifications for segment definition in S_TOOLS-STx 

User-defined Attribute

You can add attributes to any DataSet element by editing the properties of the selected element. Attributes not automatically set by S_TOOLS-STx are called 'user-defined' attributes. Set an attribute in the bottom edit box with the format songLyric=God save our gracious Queen; and delete it by assigning no value (e.g. songLyric=;).

In order to see user-defined attributes in the Detail, press the Attr button [] to search for element attributes.

If you need to edit the user-defined attributes often, you might like to try developing a segment template to facilitate data entry.

You can copy a DataSet element's attributes by right-clicking on the attribute and selecting Copy Attributes. A selection of the following will be available, depending the element type:

• Reference - the path from the root of the DataSet to this element. This can be used in macros to reference this element.
• ID - the ID of this element. The ID is unique on this level of the DataSet.
• Segment - the name of the selected segment
• AudioRef - the Reference and the segment name separated by a semicolon (e.g. /AFiles/70_ba_da_ga_m.wav; Signal.All;)
• Filename - the absolute path of the file associated with this element.
• More - click for the Attributes -> Clipboard dialog box, where you can select multiple attributes as well as formatting options.


A segment in a soundfile is defined by an unique identifier ("name")  in the current soundfile, by a start address (in samples, s, ms, or  numerical expressions of them), by an end address  and optional taggings or annotations (such as textual transcriptions)  manual classifications or other metadata associatet to the sound segment.  The
metadata are stored in soundfile.name.xml text files, which can be accessed inside or outside of S_TOOLS-STx.
Note: The user is responsible for the administration of wave-files and their associated metadata files, especially in case of migration procedures.