Below is a list of some of the features of Raven. The User's Manual has a more complete description of these features. You can also see a feature comparison between Raven Pro and Raven Lite at the bottom of this page.

Selection Review and Annotation

New in version 1.5, Raven Pro includes a new Review interface that allows users to view multiple rows and columns of zoomed selections on the screen to be able to review and annotate them more quickly. An optional context window allows users to see the selection in the context of the longer recording. Users can add single-key annotations to annotation cells or can set up key mappings to map a single keystroke to annotation values in multiple columns, classifying to species and call type with a single keystroke.

Selection Review. Raven's selection review feature allows users to view zoomed in views of multiple selections that are separated in time.

Clock Times for Recordings

Raven's time axis can now display the time at which a sound occurred, not just the offset into the recording. Raven can read from a filename template to allow it to display times for all files in a file sequence, even those recorded on a duty cycle with gaps in the recording. Raven has new measurements called Begin Date, End Date, Begin Clock Time, End Clock Time, and Begin Hour that work alongside this new feature.

Clock times. Raven's time axis is now able to show the clock time when an event occurred, not just the offset into the sound.

Compare Selection Tables

Raven allows you to compare the results of a detector run against a truth table created by a human. This allows you to see the true positives (TP) that the detector found, the false positives (FP) that the detector found but should not have, and the false negatives (FN) that the detector missed. This new feature will allow users to quantitatively assess the performance of their detectors.

Detection

New in version 1.3, Raven Pro includes multiple detectors that can detect target signals within a sound. It is able to process detections within the real-time recorder, within large data sets, and on an interactive level for parameter testing. New in version 1.4 is batch detection.

The result of a detector run. The Band Limited Energy Detector was configured to detect specific segments of a Black-Capped Vireo's call.

Correlation

New in version 1.3, Raven Pro's correlation features allow the user to quantitatively compare multiple waveforms or spectrograms. The correlation process results in a plot that maps the similarity of two signals versus time. Version 1.4 introduced improvements in correlation functionality and performance.

Three windows of the same correlation plot. The first shows a lesser peak to the left of the highest peak, the second shows the main peak (the time position at which the signals are the most highly correlated), and the third shows a lesser peak to the right of the highest peak. In the first and third, two of the three calls in each signal are aligned; in the second, all three calls are aligned.

NI-DAQ and ASIO support

New in version 1.3, Raven Pro supports multi-channel recording using NI-DAQ (National Instruments Data Aquisition hardware) and ASIO (Audio Stream In/Out) audio input devices. NI-DAQ devices provide input capabilities of up to 32 channels with an adjustable voltage range, and ASIO devices provide 24-bit audio sample size capabilities.

Multiple simultaneous sound windows

Raven Pro can display any number of sound files simultaneously, with each file in its own window.

Multiple simultaneous signal views

Raven Pro sound windows can display any number of waveform, spectrogram, spectrogram slice, and selection (average) spectrum views. Raven Lite supports one view each for the waveform and spectrogram views.

Waveform, spectrogram, and spectrogram slice views of calls from a red-breasted nuthatch. The spectrogram slice shows a cross section of the spectrogram at the point in time indicated by the magenta position marker (4.646 seconds).

Multiple audio formats supported

Sound file formats supported are AIFF, WAV, MP3, AIFC, and any sound format supported by Apple QuickTime. Raven Lite can also open and visualize tracks from your favorite music or bird song audio CDs.

To enable Raven to open MP3 files and other formats of audio files on Windows, you need to download and install a custom version of the QuickTime Player. To download and install QuickTime, proceed through the steps listed here. On Mac OS X, QuickTime should already be installed. If you already have QuickTime or iTunes installed on your computer, you can run the QuickTimeUpdater.exe program to update your QuickTime installation to add the necessary components that Raven needs, especially "QuickTime for Java.

Linked views

Views can be linked to each other or unlinked by shared properties such as time scale and position. For example, you can simultaneously see two spectrograms showing a signal at different time scales.

Real-time displays during signal acquisition

During signal acquisition, Raven Pro can display any combination of spectrogram, waveform, and spectrogram slice views in a recorder window. Views in recorder windows are continuously updated in real-time, and can be configured and manipulated in exactly the same way as views in any other sound window. Raven Pro can acquire data to memory, to a single disk file, or to a file sequence. Raven Lite displays a waveform and spectrogram during signal acquisition and can acquire to memory or to a single disk file containing approximately one minute of sound.

Support for multi-channel signals

Raven Pro allows you to selectively display and hide data from any number of different channels. Raven Lite allows only a single channel to be opened in each window.

Support for signals larger than available memory

Raven Pro allows you to specify how much of a signal you want to have in memory at one time. When you want to view part of a signal beyond the limits of the data presently in memory, Raven Pro will automatically and seamlessly load and display the data. For example, you can easily work with sequence of hundreds of files representing 24 hours of continuous recording, viewing any portion of the data without needing to specify which file to open. Raven Lite will read up to a minute of a standard audio file and store it in memory at one time. The rest of the file is still available for you when you want to view and hear it by merely scrolling to that part of the file. For example, you can work with a song from a music CD spanning five minutes, but you'll look at it in pages that are one minute in length.

File sequences

Open a sequence of files as a single, continuous signal. You can either select a sequence of files individually or use a file sequence list generated by Raven Pro during signal acquisition. Raven Lite does not support file sequences.

Selection, measurement, and annotation tools

In Raven Pro, multiple selection tables can be displayed in each sound window showing configurable sets of measurements and annotations in spreadsheet-like format. Annotations are user-defined columns (for example “Note Type”) that can be displayed in the selection tables. Annotation values can be entered manually by the user for each selection. Selection tables can be saved as text files for easy import into statistics, spreadsheet, or other programs. Saved selection tables can also be re-opened in Raven Pro to restore selections to a signal. Raven Lite supports a single selection for playback and no measurements or annotations other than simple measurements pertaining to the location of the mouse pointer.

Signal editing, filtering, and amplifying

Cut, copy, and paste data within or between sound windows. Filter out or filter around a selected time-frequency region in audio signals. Amplify a selection portion of a signal or the entire signal. Raven Pro can also batch filter and/or amplify large groups of files simultaneously.

Multi-line views

Any view can be configured to span multiple lines, allowing display of more data in a window:

Color schemes

A color scheme consists of a spectrogram colormap relating power values to display colors, and color specifications for elements within each view (such as selections, axes, backgrounds, title text, etc.). You can choose from eight predefined colormaps, and edit the color for each element in a view. Raven Lite allows colormap selection but no color editing.

Saved workspaces

Raven Pro allows you to save and retrieve workspaces. When you save a workspace, all information about Raven's state is saved, including what signals are open, the size and placement of their windows, what views exist for each signal, selections in each signal, and linkages among views within and between signals. You can later retrieve a workspace to continue your work exactly where you left off when the workspace was saved. Raven Lite does not support workspaces.

Configuration presets

You can save presets for the configuration of window layouts, spectrogram parameters, measurement sets, recorder parameters, and color schemes. Using presets you can easily switch among frequently used configurations without having to specify numerous parameters. Raven Lite does not support presets.

Flexible graphic image export and printing

Images of signal views or sound windows can be saved in a variety of graphics formats, or copied to the system clipboard for easy import into most word-processing, presentation, and graphics programs. Raven Pro can export graphics at a variety of high resolutions, and offers improved printing precision and support for multi-page printing. Signal views can also be printed directly to a PostScript printer.

Automatic Updates

Users can download software updates so that the latest bug fixes and performance improvements are always available.

Feature Comparison of Raven Lite and Raven Pro

Feature List	Raven Lite 1.0	Raven Pro 1.4
Target Audience	all who want to learn more about sounds, bird songs, music, etc.	biologists working with acoustic signals
Operating Systems Supported	Windows and Mac OS X	Windows and Mac OS X
File types	able to read WAVE, AIFF, MP3, and AIFC files plus audio CD tracks	able to read WAVE, AIFF, MP3, and AIFC files on both platforms plus audio CD tracks on Mac OS X
Views supported	a single waveform and spectrogram view per open file	multiple waveform, spectrogram, spectrogram slice, average spectrum, and beamogram views per open sound file
Detection features	no detection available	includes both amplitude and energy detectors
Correlation features	no correlation available	allow both single and batch qualitative comparison of spectrograms and waveforms
Multi-channel audio input device support	supports mono and stereo recording using Java Sound, as well as multi-channel recording using CoreAudio on Macs	supports multi-channel recording using NI-DAQ and ASIO devices, as well as mono and stereo recording using Java Sound, and multi-channel recording using CoreAudio on Macs
Channels read	a single channel of each audio file	multi-channel audio files
Visibility	supports visibility of two views as well as view axes	supports visibility of a wide variety of user interface components
Recorder features	reads a single channel of audio into memory or single files at 44.1 kHz sample rate	reads multi-channel audio into memory, single files, or file sequences at various sample rates. Supports decimation of audio samples, delayed recording, and file naming templates
Feature access	limited contextual menus and a limited set of toolbar buttons	contextual menus and a full set of toolbar buttons
Playback features	playback, scrolling playback, and reverse playback of a single channel of audio	playback, scrolling playback, reverse playback, and looping playback of any two channels of audio from a multi-channel file
Selections of zoom, playback, and measurements	single selection for zoom and playback	multiple selections for zoom and playback, annotations, and measurements of sounds stored in a measurement table with export capabilities
Graphics	graphics export and printing	graphics export and printing
Spectrogram parameters	varying spectrogram window size with all other parameters fixed	multiple spectrogram parameters including window type, window size, DFT size, overlap, and hop size
Presets	a single user-defined window layout and a single default window layout	user-defined presets for sound windows, recorders, color schemes, measurement lists, and spectrogram parameters
Support	Online forum support	E-mail support and online forum support
License options	Single license option	Multiple license options
Documentation	20-page User's Guide and 4-page Quick Start Guide	313-page, fully-indexed User’s Manual and “What’s New” document
Price	$25 . . . now FREE ! ! !	$800 (commercial license) $400 (academic, government, or non-profit license) $100 (student license) Further discounts are available for users in specific countries