How to Post A Sound Clip of You Shooting

[Z-man]

So you want to see just how fast you or your arch rival really shoot their markers? The most accurate method of doing so is to analyze the sound of the marker being fired. Unlike timing how long it takes to empty the hopper or relying on what your super awesome LCD readout says, sound analysis offers the only real accurate moment by moment method that anyone can quickly see.

To do this you will need:

1- A sound clip or a video clip that you can extract the sound file from
2- A sound editing application
3- (optional) Some picture editing program if you wish to add text or lines to help illustrate your findings.

1- (if you already have the sound clip that you want to look at go to #2 below) Most people will video tape the person shooting the marker as its much more interesting to see than a sound clip. Here are a few “basic recording NONO’s” to watch for:

- Don't talk or make any noise during the firing. It only makes it harder to determine a shot from a yell
- Don’t shoot at something that makes noise. No wait, don’t shoot at ANYTHING close to you as it simply adds more noise that you deal with.
- Don't shoot a cocker!!! Ok well if you must then take a few shots spaced out so that you can determine what the sound signature looks like. Because the back block of the autococker cracks back just a moment after the marker fires, high speed sound testing can be a bit more difficult.

2- Back 15 years ago, sound editing was like doing CG in movies like Lord of the Rings and you had to buy nice pricey sound cards to work with stuff that the Bargain Bob’s PC can do 10x faster. In addition you can find cheap or free sound editing software WITHOUT STEALING IT.

I personally like the web resource VersionTracker.com (http://www.versiontracker.com/). This site keeps an updated and accurate log of the majority of the applications, utilities, and patches released for the Mac/PC OS. You can simply do a search for “sound editing” and look through the list.

Once you find an application you like, its pretty easy. Just open up your sound clip, zoom in to shooting section, and count up the sound spikes in a 1 second period. Look for the same “shape” of sound spike so you don’t get fooled by sound patterns that have multiple spikes in a complete cycle.

With your 1 second section that you want located, you can simply take a screen shot of the screen of your window and sound clip.

in PC = Print Screen button

in Mac OS 9/X = Apple+Shift+3 (prints all screen)
or Apple+Shift+4 (allows you to select the area you want)

At this point you can post up your findings. However if you want to add some class to them or make things even a bit easier you can move on to step 3

3- Open up your screen shot in some picture editing program. There are a million choices and I say use the one that works best. If you have Photoshop great, if you have MS Paint, fine. You can add some simple info to your picture like the section of the sound clip you pulled from. You can also crop down the picture so you only are putting up what we care about (not your start menu)

So that is it. I have a tendency to type more than needed but that is really what’s involved. Not very hard huh?

[AGDlover]

wow thanks i was allways wondering how they did it

[GoatBoy]

Don't shoot a cocker!!! Ok well if you must then take a few shots spaced out so that you can determine what the sound signature looks like. Because the back block of the autococker cracks back just a moment after the marker fires, high speed sound testing can be a bit more difficult.


What I've done is taken a sound clip and slowed it down. Once you've slowed it down, say, 50%, it's much easier to distinguish the shots, at least audibly. Just gotta slow the ol' sample down so that the gray matter can run its pattern matching.

The best way would be to get the sound clip of one shot, and then use it as a matching filter. In fact, I was going to say something about matlab... but it appears Python has modules for .wav file reading as well as something for performing a convolution...



2- Back 15 years ago, sound editing was like doing CG in movies like Lord of the Rings and you had to buy nice pricey sound cards to work with stuff that the Bargain Bob’s PC can do 10x faster. In addition you can find cheap or free sound editing software WITHOUT STEALING IT.

I personally like the web resource VersionTracker.com (http://www.versiontracker.com/). This site keeps an updated and accurate log of the majority of the applications, utilities, and patches released for the Mac/PC OS. You can simply do a search for “sound editing” and look through the list.



You seem to be hesistant to name an application.

I'll name one. I use Audacity. Free, and available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS X.

[RT pRo AuToMaG]

Nice writeup zman, now I know how to find bps of videos without asking you! :D :cool: (BTW, thanks again for doing that)

[Z-man]

What I've done is taken a sound clip and slowed it down. Once you've slowed it down, say, 50%, it's much easier to distinguish the shots, at least audibly. Just gotta slow the ol' sample down so that the gray matter can run its pattern matching.

Or simply zoom in untill its very obvious as to what you are looking at. None the less the point is simply that cockers are the least nice to sound test as most other sound signatures are simple and don't make you think :)


You seem to be hesistant to name an application.

I'll name one. I use Audacity. Free, and available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS X.

I did not name one as I honestly don't know what the good free ones are today. I use BIAS Peak which is not something most people want to invest in so I did not list it. Thanks for listing one.

[Carbon]

+ your the man zman!

[blackdragunsblood]

also another way my buddy did it,

if you have some nice camera equiment and ways to slow the video on your comp and stuff you can zoom in on the end of the barrel and then with your pretty expensive camera equipment record it and make sure you have a fast recording speed on it and then you can take it and slow it down on the computer and slow it down and watch it and count out every shot. sometimes you get some cool pictures of paint breaking out of the barrel and really cool pictures of barrel flashes. this method can take some money if you you want to be really accurate. but it is another way.

[Z-man]

Well it better be a high speed camera because high end or cheapo high-8 handycam systems ALL RUN 29.97fps meaning that even around 18 bps you may not get all the shots recorded. Digitally slowing the film down won't create any additional frames and video software that will "interpolate" and add frames to keep the tracks smooth cannot generate some shot if its not recorded.

Yes it's another way but I would say not as accurate and a lot more trouble.

[Z-man]

Bumping this as I got several questions about this topic last night.

[MoeMag]

Thanks!

I have been wanting to post this for a while...
I will let you all count :D

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d53/MoeRoark/Magflo23bps.jpg

From my gun...
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d53/MoeRoark/DSCF0005.jpg

[PBCapo]

holy 23 bps! were you just bouncing it like a mofo?? input pressure??

[Z-man]

holy 23 bps! were you just bouncing it like a mofo?? input pressure??

This is what we call rapid-fire. Crank up the input pressure and off you go.

I wrote up the definitive "how to" on this subject on my site so I would not have to type it out each time... among other things.

The Complete Guide on How to Rapid-Fire (http://www.zakvetter.com/pages/paintballs/automag_info/rapidfire/rf_disclaimer.html)

Unless you start doing some work to your air system, about 20-25bps is about the most you can coax out of your setup. Then again, who is going to stick their face out for a 20+ bps stream?

BTW MoeMag- I am curious if you read my site info and basically set up your marker based off that? I see you have a tasty Max-Flo and a Halo setup. It doesn't get much better than that.

[PBCapo]

This is what we call rapid-fire. Crank up the input pressure and off you go.

I wrote up the definitive "how to" on this subject on my site so I would not have to type it out each time... among other things.

The Complete Guide on How to Rapid-Fire (http://www.zakvetter.com/pages/paintballs/automag_info/rapidfire/rf_disclaimer.html)

Unless you start doing some work to your air system, about 20-25bps is about the most you can coax out of your setup. Then again, who is going to stick their face out for a 20+ bps stream?

BTW MoeMag- I am curious if you read my site info and basically set up your marker based off that? I see you have a tasty Max-Flo and a Halo setup. It doesn't get much better than that.

oh don't worry z i've seen all of that....you're ridiculous in the best possible way

[Glickman]

Nice post Z-man!

i found audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) pretty user friendly (and free ;) )


where have you been anyways?

dont tell me WoW released its grip on you :p

[Z-man]

...dont tell me WoW released its grip on you :p


Actually I had to rip myself away from the game. I went nutz on that game... ~135 days played on my hunter in full tier 2.... ya I had to escape from it.

[MoeMag]

BTW MoeMag- I am curious if you read my site info and basically set up your marker based off that? I see you have a tasty Max-Flo and a Halo setup. It doesn't get much better than that.

Absolutely I did, thus my calling you my god of paintball... but now that I know you are more than a myth... I suppose you are just a really smart guy. :hail:

Unfortunately I just sold my Maxflo regulator because I could not get it to consistently work properly... :cry:

But I am getting another one with the same problem as my old one within the week to play with... I learned how to fix its little on/off problem from the guy that bought mine :rolleyes:.


Z-man, when I first started project, I was using your site but it went down almost the exact day I got my maxflo...
I was hoping to be able to ask you questions about the set up but never could...

I had bolt stick
Hopper feed issues
Insane chopping
And so on…

So will you be around for round 2?
I just got the speed wheel and the victory board is coming with the new Maxflo… so this time should be better!

[Z-man]

Sorry that my site was down... I should never have let it go. Fortunately this time I got me a wicked deal for a chunk of bandwidth and space and its paid for till 2008 so its here for a long time.

I envy the new toys you are getting, I keep thinking of making some ultralight RT machine gun to go out and play with. I would very much like to see how things work out for you.

[JSX]

This is what we call rapid-fire. Crank up the input pressure and off you go.

I wrote up the definitive "how to" on this subject on my site so I would not have to type it out each time... among other things.

The Complete Guide on How to Rapid-Fire (http://www.zakvetter.com/pages/paintballs/automag_info/rapidfire/rf_disclaimer.html)

Unless you start doing some work to your air system, about 20-25bps is about the most you can coax out of your setup. Then again, who is going to stick their face out for a 20+ bps stream?

BTW MoeMag- I am curious if you read my site info and basically set up your marker based off that? I see you have a tasty Max-Flo and a Halo setup. It doesn't get much better than that.


Damn, you do still exist! I found your site last year when I first found out about mags. After that I had to have an RT, found one and built a mag around it, stuck a qloader on it and could not believe how fast it could unload 100 rounds! Thanks Z. Good to see you back.

[Beemer]

Hey I remember you. You have been a legend since your site went down. Welcome back and glad to see your site back up. :cheers:

Sound clips from a classic Z-man vid.

The cock and lock. Air it up baby.

http://home.comcast.net/~beemerone/CockandLock.wav


Priceless Z-man laffs

http://home.comcast.net/~beemerone/TheZManLaugh.wav

The Classic Z-man Grin

http://home.comcast.net/~beemerone/ClassicZmanGrin.jpg

The full vid. Thats Fast :wow: :ninja:

http://home.comcast.net/~beemerone/Zman32cpsRapidFireClassicRT.MPG


So whats it like to vanish from the e-world for 8 months and then resurface?

Peace Out

___________

http://home.comcast.net/~beemerone/AoIL.gif

[Z-man]

Priceless Z-man laffs

http://home.comcast.net/~beemerone/TheZManLaugh.wav

The Classic Z-man Grin

http://home.comcast.net/~beemerone/ClassicZmanGrin.jpg

I KEEL YOU!



So whats it like to vanish from the e-world for 8 months and then resurface?

Like putting a DVD on pause, falling asleep on the couch then waking up the next day. I think that given a month or so I can catch up on what I missed.

[Mighty Mike]

I had to re-check the date on this thread to make sure i wasn't seeing things. :eek:

Zak's Back!! :headbang: I hope all is well and looking forward to shooting paint w/ you and the rest of NorCal again.