ZCANT – The Zero-Cross Analysis Negative Transformer
ZCANT is a free tool for the conversion of full-spectrum .wav files to Anabat Zero-Cross Analysis format. We’ve written it and released it at no cost so that…
- Users may compare “apples to apples” by analyzing the exact same call sequence in full-spectrum and in zero-cross
- Those who need to do ZCA analysis on their bat calls today may record in full-spectrum so that they have the additional spectral and amplitude dimensions available for analysis in the future
- Agencies may evaluate statistical tools in the ZCA domain using existing libraries of voucher calls collected with full-spectrum recorders
This screenshot shows a full-spectrum .wav MYOSOD voucher call rendered in SonoBat 3 on the right, and the Anabat ZCA version -- converted by Myotisoft ZCANT -- rendered in AnalookW on the left.
Downloads
Myotisoft ZCANT is available at no cost, and is provided to you with no warranty or support, though we’d love feedback if you try it.
ZCANT IS CURRENTLY EXPERIMENTAL “ALPHA TEST” SOFTWARE AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR PRODUCTION USE – USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND PLEASE LET US KNOW HOW IT COULD BE IMPROVED!
Boring Technical Details
ZCANT will recursively convert all compatible .wav files in the specified directory, and any directories underneath (except for SonoBat scrubbed or deleted files).
It supports both mono and stereo .wav files, in 8, 16, or 32 bits.
It correctly follows SonoBat’s time-expansion format (any TE factor), and will assume any .wav with samplerate of 48kHz or less were recorded with 10x time-expansion. All .wav files with samplerate greater than 48kHz are assumed to be from direct-recording full-spectrum devices with no time-expansion.
ZCANT is known to work well with recordings from the Pettersson D240X, D500X, D1000X, Binary Acoustic Technology AR125, Wildlife Acoustics SM2BAT and EM3.
Default ZCAIM divratio is 16, but you may change this value from the “DivRatio” menu. Smaller values add more detail to the ZCA file and more precisely represent the original .wav file, but they make the file larger. Note that Analook has a file size limit, if you choose a low divratio=4, for instance, Analook will only display the first ~3/4 second of your recording.