This project will enhance the practical experience of the senior undergraduates by providing them with the ability to perform digital signal processing upon extended segments of audio data in the laborator y. Audio data has been chosen because it will permit cost- effective, real time signal processing. The availability of the equipment provided will greatly improve the quality, and quantity, of the experiments that the students can perform. The need to provide an integrated laboratory setup to gather, store, manipulate, and reproduce extended segments of audio data has led to the need to purchase a computer system that has all the pieces from the microphone through the computer to the speaker. The system selected is based upon a NeXT computer, together with some ancillary audio hardware. The system will be used to gather audio data from an experimental setup. The data can either be processed in real time, or stored in the computer and processed off-line. (Processing can be done though both software and the built-in Digital Signal Processing board.) The data can be played back to give the students direct feedback as to what effects the processing had on the audio data.
