Measure Duration

Codes for Measuring Duration of Sound Files

Published by Haerim Hwang

duration length praat

2 min READ

  • This script is for measuring the duration of individual sound files and saving the ourput in a separate text file. This script is developed based on the two scripts: (1) one by Brynn Hauk from the praat workshop in LING 632 at University of Hawai’i and (2) the other by Paul Boersma and David Weenink.


  • Codes

    • Set your input directory

      form Analyze pitch of sound files 
     comment Directory of sound files
     text sound_directory /Users/haerimhwang/Desktop/Done/
     sentence Sound_file_extension .wav
     comment Full path of the resulting text file:
     text resultfile /Users/haerimhwang/Desktop/results.txt
endform


    • Check if the result file exists

      if fileReadable (resultfile$)
    pause The result file 'resultfile$' already exists! Do you want to overwrite it?
    filedelete "'resultfile$'"
endif


    • Write a row with column titles to the result file; remember to edit this if you add or change the analyses!

      titleline$ = "object_name	duration	'newline$'"
fileappend "'resultfile$'" 'titleline$'


    • Make a list of all the sound files in the directory you’re using, and put the number of filenames into the variable “number_files”

      Create Strings as file list...  list 'sound_directory$'*.wav
number_files = Get number of strings


    • Set up a “for” loop that will iterate once for every file in the list

    • Query the file-list to get the first filename from it, then read that file in

    • Make a variable called “object_name$” that will be equal to the filename minus the “.wav” extension

    • Save result to text file

      for j from 1 to number_files
    select Strings list
    file_name$ = Get string... 'j'
    Read from file... 'sound_directory$''file_name$'
    
    object_name$ = selected$ ("Sound")
        
    select Sound 'object_name$'
    startTime = Get start time
    endTime = Get end time
    duration = (endTime - startTime) 
        
    resultline$ = "'object_name$'.wav	'duration'	'newline$'"
        
    fileappend "'resultfile$'" 'resultline$'		
        
endfor


    • Clean up all files on the list

    • Show if the process is completed

      select all
Remove
      
print All files have been processed!