Spectral swirl effect — User Guide

Praat script.

Author: Shai Cohen Affiliation: Department of Music, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Version: 0.1 (2025) License: MIT License Repo: https://github.com/ShaiCohen-ops/Praat-plugin_AudioTools

Contents:

What this does Quick start Parameters Outputs

What this does

Praat script.

Process Description: This script applies a high-impact Spectral Swirl effect by sinusoidally shifting the contents of the frequency bins within a complex spectrum object. This time-domain-independent manipulation tears and reassembles the harmonic structure based on a wave pattern, creating a metallic, swirling, or heavily distorted sound, often described as a phasing or frequency-blurring effect.

Quick start

In Praat, select a Sound object.
Run script… → Spectral swirl effect.praat.
Set parameters and click OK.
Output object appears (see Outputs).

Parameters (form fields)

Name (GUI)	Type	Default
fast_fourier	boolean	no
number_of_cycles	natural	4
maximum_bin_shift	positive	100
scale_peak	positive	0.99
play_after_processing	boolean	1
show_info_report	boolean	1

Outputs

Object name: 'sound$'_spectral_swirl
Sample rate: unknown
Normalization: No automatic normalization