Screenshot of Dated Attributer panel. The Dated Attributer will read digital files from a signal-level triggered recorder such as a Samson Zoom H2 and write date and time stamped files with SonoBat notes and file attributes.

This utility will create files having SonoBat attributes and notes that you specify from source files created from a detector and recorder that already parsed the bat pass events into separate files. It will read the creation date of the parsed files and use that to append a date and time to the filename start that you specify, e.g., a site name. The recording device must have its clock properly set to generate files with correct date and times. If a stereo file, specify the channel to read as the attributer will only generate mono files. (E.g., Samson Zoom H2 recorders create stereo files, even though the time expanded audio data is only on the right channel.) The attributer will output files into the directory you specify. Note that if you do not specify an output directory the Attributer will default to the source file directory.

For example, if you recorded at Bat Spring on 4 July, 2010, you might enter "Bat Spring" in the "filename start" text box. The files will then appear named like

Bat Spring-04Jul10-20,32,45.wav
Bat Spring-04Jul10-20,37,12.wav
Bat Spring-04Jul10-20,38,51.wav and so on.

In the absence of any "filename start" text, the Attributer will just generate filenames with the date and time in the format HH,MM,SS.

You may also set the Dated Attributer to scan and scrub non-bat files. However, skip this step if using the automated classifiers of SonoBat 3 as they perform a more thorough and sophisticated evaluation to determine bat/no bat presence.

You can then analyze the attributed files using SonoBat or other signal processing software. This facilitates monitoring efforts, particularly when you would like to simultaneously monitor multiple sites, or carry on the monitoring while you tend to other tasks.

*Well, any recorder with sufficiently high sampling rate, e.g., 160 kbps for mp3, 32 or 44.1 kHz (CD quality) for wav format. Most digital voice recorders only record up to 11 kHz (sampling rate) and will only resolve time expanded ultrasound bat data up to 55 kHz (sound frequency).