Basic and advanced Praat Scripting

1. Basic and advancedPraat Scripting Kyuchul Yoon Division of English Kyungnam University Seoul National University, Linguistics Department, 2006. 12.09

2. Praat Scripting Language • Where to Get Help • A Brief Look at a Sample Script • Basic Topics • Advanced Topics • Hands-on Activities • Scripting Examples

3. Where to Get Help • Built-in manual “Help” menu of Praat (“search” button) • Official Praat homepagewww.praat.org • Discussion grouphttp://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/praat-users/ • Scripts from other people“Files” menu from the discussion grouphttp://ling.osu.edu/~kyoon/scripts/praat/http://ling.osu.edu/~welby/praat.html

4. A Brief Look at a Sample Script

5. Basic Topics • Looks of Praat • What Praat can do • What is an object? (.TextGrid) • How to run a script (example) • Language elements • Comments, continuation lines, white space • Variables, arrays, formulas • Jumps, loops

6. Basic Topics: Looks of Praat • Windows: Praat objects, Praat picture, Editor • Menus: Praat, New, Read, Write • Command buttons (context-sensitive) • Activated when an object is selected • Changes depending on the type of an object (e.g. Sound)…Help, Edit, Play, Draw…, Query-, Modify-, Annotate-Analyse: Periodicity-, Spectrum-, Formants & LPC-, …, To Intensity…Manipulate: To Manipulation…Synthesize: Convert-, Filter-, Combine sounds- • Command buttons (fixed) • Rename…, Copy…, Info, Remove, Inspect

7. Basic Topics: What Praat can do • General functionsSound recordingAnalyses (spectral, pitch, formant, intensity)AnnotationManipulation (pitch, duration, intensity, formant) • Specialized functionsVoice analysis (jitter, shimmer, noise)Listening experimentsFilteringSynthesis (source-filter, articulatory)Learning (neural networks, OT learning)Statistics (multi-dimensional scaling, etc.)

8. Basic Topics: What is an object? (.TextGrid) • A segment of computer memory • Contains a set of data in the Praat program • Resides in the Praat object window (e.g. sample.wav) • e.g.) Sound sample • Is NOT a file! (Must be saved!) • Needs to be clicked to be selected (Shift, Ctrl, dragging) • Types of objectsSound, Spectrum, Spectrogram, TextGrid, Pitch, Formant, Intensity, Manipulation

9. Basic Topics: What is an object? (.TextGrid) • TextGrid object • Created with a sound object selected Annotate-To TextGrid… • Used for annotation (segmentation and labeling) • Consists of a number of tiers • Two kinds of tiers: • Interval tier: a connected sequence of labeled intervals with boundaries in between • Point tier: a sequence of labeled points

10. Basic Topics: What is an object? (.TextGrid) • Examining an object through Query… • Gives you information about the selected object • Information is displayed by default in the Info window • Query results can be used to put information into a variable • myStartTime = Get start time • myPointLabel$ = Get label of point… 1 1 • Modifying an object through Modify… • Query results can be used to modify an object, e.g. TextGrid • Set point text… 1 1 ‘myPointLabel$’

11. Basic Topics: How to run a script (example) • What is a script? • An executable text with menu commands and action commands • Praat ==> New/Open Praat script • In the script editor, Run ==> Run • Edit ==> Paste history in the script editor • Records all the menu/action commands • Can be used to copy/paste recorded commands • Constants could be replaced with variables • Clear history to erase all the earlier commands • A good source for beginners!

12. Basic Topics: How to run a script (example) Paste history Read from file... D:\recording\2syllAP-LHa.wav To TextGrid... "phonological phonetic" phonetic plus Sound 2syllAP-LHa Edit select TextGrid 2syllAP-LHa Insert boundary... 1 0.5 Set interval text... 1 1 test ================================================================= fileLocation$ = "D:\recording\2syllAP-LHa.wav" uTonesTierName$ = "phonological" sTonesTierName$ = "phonetic" uTonesTier = 1 intervalText$ = "test" Read from file... 'fileLocation$' Rename… soundObj To TextGrid... "'uTonesTierName$' 'sTonesTierName$'" 'sTonesTierName$' Rename… textgridObj plus Sound soundObj Edit pause Insert a sample interval? select TextGrid textgridObj Insert boundary... uTonesTier 0.5 Set interval text... uTonesTier 1 'intervalText$' Now a script!

13. Basic Topics: Language elements • Comments, continuation lines, white space • All white spaces (and tabs) at line beginnings are ignored • You can use indenting to make your script readable (tabs preferred)sum = 0 for i to 10 for j to 10 sum = sum + i*j endfor endfor pause The total sum is ‘sum’ • Comments lines start with # or ! or ; (# preferred) • You can split long command lines into multiple lines using … • myStringVariable$ = left$(myMainSentence$, (lengthOfUtterance-…lengthOfRightWord))

14. Basic Topics: Language elements • Variables, arrays, formulas • Numeric variables, variable = formula • e.g.) lengthOfSentence = 10 • String variables (end in a dollar sign), variable$ = string • e.g.) sentenceToProcess$ = “Praat rules” • Predefined string variables: newline$, tab$, shellDirectory$ • Variable substitution (in between single quotes), ‘variable$’ • e.g.) echo The number of characters is ‘lengthOfSentence’ • e.g.) Try ‘lengthOfSentence:2’ • Array variables: simulated with quote substitution • e.g.) for j from 1 to 5 square‘j’ = j*j endforsquare1 = 1, square2 = 4, square3 = 9, square4 = 16, square5 = 25

15. Basic Topics: Language elements • Jumps, loops for/endfor################################################# throws = 0repeat sum = randomInteger(1,6) + randomInteger(1,6) throws = throws + 1until sum = 12echo Took me ‘throws’ trials#################################################throws = 1sum = randomInteger(1,6) + randomInteger(1,6)while sum <> 12 throws = throws + 1 sum = randomInteger(1,6) + randomInteger(1,6)endwhileecho Took me ‘throws’ trials

16. Advanced Topics • Arguments to commands/scripts • Object selection • Calling system commands • Info window, user interaction, file handling • Scripting in an editor window

17. Advanced TopicsArguments to commands/scripts • form/endform keywordsform Types of script arguments natural numOfSentences_(positive_whole_number) 337 integer amplitudeSteps_(whole_number) -2000 real factorOfZoomOut_(real_number) -3.5 positive factorOfZoomIn_(positive_real_number) 4.7 comment A line with any text word targetWord_(string_without_spaces) school sentence targetSentence_(any_short_string) my school text targetText_(variableName_not_shown) my school bus boolean trueOrFalse_(with_a_checkbox) 1 choice myChoice_(with_a_radiobox) 1 button choice 1 button choice 2 button choice 3 comment Choose any color optionmenu Color: 2 option Red option Green endform

18. Advanced TopicsObject selection • How to select objects from your scriptselect Sound hello1 plus Sound hello2 minus Sound hello2 select all minus Sound hello2 Rename… greeting1 Remove ################## fullFileName$ = “male02-Seoul-32yrs.wav” Read from file… ‘fullFileName$’ filePrefix$ = fullFileName$ - “.wav” newTextGridName$ = filePrefix$ + “.TextGrid”

19. Advanced TopicsCalling system commands • Call system (DOS/Unix/Linux) commands from a scriptdirectoryName$ = “resultFolder”system_nocheck mkdir ‘directoryName$’will create a new subfolder in the current folder

20. Advanced TopicsInfo window, user interaction, files • Writing to the Info window from a script… • echo text, clearinfo, printtext, printtab, printlinetext • A sample scriptclearinfoprintline Minimum MaximumminValue = 1maxValue = 10print ‘minValue’printtabprint ‘maxValue’

21. Advanced TopicsInfo window, user interaction, files • Messages to the user • exit text : to stop the execution of the script with the text message • nowarn Write to WAV file… hello.wav : prevents warning messages, e.g. about clipped sound samples • noprogress To Pitch… 0 75 500 : prevents from showing a progress window • nocheck Remove : causes the script to continue even if there’s nothing to remove • pausetext : temporarily halts a Praat script. Continue & Stop buttons. • Can be used to accept user actions which will be stored in variables • e.g.) User selecting a particular section of a sound object in an editorstartOfSelection = Get start of selection endOfSelection = Get end of selection

22. Advanced TopicsInfo window, user interaction, files • File handling • Reading an existing file, e.g. hello.wav, sentences.txt • Read from file… C:/sound/hello.wav • Read Strings from raw text file… C:/text/sentences.txt • Creating a new text file in the current folder, e.g. result.txt • fileappend result.txt Hello world!’newline$’ • fileappend result.txt I am back! • Deleting an existing file • filedelete C:/sound/hello.wav • Getting a list of file names of a particular folder • Create Strings as file list… fileListObj C:/sound/*.wav • The object fileListObj has a list of filename strings in one column • With for/endfor, repeated actions can be taken

23. Advanced TopicsScripting in an editor window • In a Praat script • editor/endeditor required • In an editor script • Only endeditor is required editor Sound soundObj#do your stuff herecursorPosition = Get cursorSelect... cursorPosition-0.02 cursorPosition+0.02Extract sound selection (time from 0) endeditor To Spectrum (fft) Edit

24. Hands-on Activities • Write a script that will help measure the duration of a user-selected segment for all of the .wav files in a folderKeywords to use:form/endformCreate Strings as file list…for/endforEditpausefileappend

25. Hands-on Activities # Put variables here form Parameter settings word inFolder_(with_sounds) demo-folder word outFile_(to_be_created) measurements.txt endform # Make a list of files in the folder Create Strings as file list... fileListObj ‘inFolder$’/*.wav Sort numOfFiles = Get number of strings pause ‘numOfFiles’ files identified. Continue? # Loop through each file for iFile to numOfFiles select Strings fileListObj fileName$ = Get string... iFile pause Opening the file ‘fileName$’ Read from file... ‘inFolder$’/’fileName$’ Rename... soundObj Edit editor Sound soundObj pause Select the target segment targetDuration = Get selection length endeditor Remove fileappend ‘outFile$’ ‘fileName$’‘tab$’‘targetDuration:2’‘newline$’ endfor Remove all # End of script

26. Scripting Examples • Scripts for(1) Prosody swapping(2) Speech corpus searching(3) K-ToBI labeling