Functions in matlab and the groove station

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn about MATLAB function files, which we will refer to as m-files and have the file extension *.m , the same as script files. You will create a number of functions for manipulating sound signals to create a groove (a short song).

The difference between a function and a script is that functions can return values and take parameters, while scripts are simply a collection of commands. Unlike script files, any variables created in the function are not available after the function has run, that is, the variables are active inside the scope of the function, and the variables cannot be accessed out-of-scope. The MATLAB on-line help system has a nice write-up about functions and how to handle various things like returning more than one value, checking the number of arguments, etc. To learn more, type the following commands and read the online help:

You need to use a text editor to create function files. MATLAB has an internal editor that you can start by clicking "File" and then "New" "m-file". You can also use other editors such as Notepad on the PC's, and pico , emacs , or vi on Unix machines.

Sound in matlab

Download the sound samples from the sound resources page and save them to your working directory. Use wavread to load .wav files, and use load to load .mat files. Plot each one in turn, and try to guess what it will sound like (the name might help).

On a computer, sounds are represented digitally, which means that only samples of the signal at fixed time intervals are stored. We'll learn more about this later. For now you just need to know that the time interval Ts (or equivalently the sampling rate Fs=1/Ts) is something you need to keep track of for playing sounds.

Now play each sound. The goal is to learn how the time domain signal sounds. Use the sound command to play a sound signal. You must specify the playback sample rate (Fs), which will be the same as the sample rate of the sound samples on the web site (they are 8000 Hz). For example, if you wanted to play a sound called bell and its sample rate was 8000 Hz, then you would enter the following command, >>Fs=8000;>>sound(bell, Fs); If you use a different value for Fs, you will effectively be doing time scaling.

When working with sound in MATLAB, it is important to remember that the values of the audio signals are in the range [-1, 1].Keep this in mind when you are writing your functions. Your functions should expect inputs with values in the range [-1, 1] and anything out of that range will be clipped when you play the sound.

Function files

Before we can create our groove, we need to make functions that will allow us to modify the sound signals in various ways. After all, wouldn't it be boring to make a groove out of the same note over and over again? Let's create some functions that will let us time scale, reverse, delay, fade, and repeat a sound, and mix two sounds together.