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New acoustics experiments on an old NeXT computer

1999; Acoustical Society of America; Volume: 106; Issue: 4_Supplement Linguagem: Inglês

10.1121/1.427318

1520-9024

Daniel A. Russell,

Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies

The manufacture of NeXT computer hardware was discontinued in 1993. However, the operating system (now known as OPENSTEP and Macintosh OS-X) is still alive and kicking, and refurbished NeXT systems are still available at greatly reduced cost. Coupled with an A/D converter, the NeXT computer is a powerful, and relatively inexpensive, tool for an undergraduate acoustics laboratory. There is a fairly wide selection of free acoustics software available over the internet, including applications for digital sound recording, mixing, and editing; oscilloscopes; FFT analysis; spectrum analysis; MIDI sequencing; sound file conversion; and signal generation. In addition, there are some excellent new commercial software packages which allow the NeXT to act as a professional quality digital function generator and audiometer. This paper will summarize how NeXT computers are used at Kettering University for undergraduate acoustics laboratory experiments involving digital sound recording and manipulation, signal analysis, Fourier synthesis, principles of digital audio, noise, and human hearing.