How to automatically measure silences in ELAN (and CLAN)

This tutorial shows you how to measure silences (and speech) automatically in ELAN and how to export the bullets to CLAN.

Note: You need to have your audio as a .wav file.

1. Open ELAN
   1. Go to ‘File’ and ‘New
   2. Click ‘Add Media File’
   3. Select your .wav file and click ‘Open’
   4. Click ‘Ok’
2. Click on ‘Recognizers’
   1. Click on the drop down menu at the top
   2. Select ‘Silence Recognizer’
   3. Make the top window bigger (so you can see what you’re doing)
   4. !Change the settings or do a trial run to see if the default settings work for your audio!
3. Click ‘Start’ and ‘Create Tier(s)’
   1. A new window opens
   2. Click ‘Create’
   3. Click ‘Ok’
   4. Click ‘Close’
4. Make the bottom window bigger again
   1. Make the waveforms visible again, so you can compare them to the result. (s=silence, x=sound)
5. Try different settings (if you’re not happy with the result)
   1. Change settings
   2. Click ‘Start’ and ‘Create Tier(s)’
   3. Click ‘Create’, ‘Ok’, and ‘Close’
   4. Compare results
   5. Repeat until you’re happy
6. When you’re happy
   1. Go to ‘File’ and ‘Export as’
   2. Select ‘CHAT file’
   3. Click ‘Ok’
7. Select the channel with the best result (deselect the others)
   1. Enter 3 letter (CLAN style) participant = *PAU
   2. Enter participants name = Pause
   3. Enter role = Adult
   4. Enter language (3 letter code) = eng / dan / ger
   5. Click ‘Export’
8. Set destination
   1. Enter file name
   2. Select destination (same folder as audio)
   3. Click ‘Save’
9. Find your new CHAT file and open it
   1. Press ‘esc a’ to open the bullets
   2. !You’ll probably need to fix them, but don’t worry CLAN will help you!
10. Fix bullets
    1. Go to ‘Windows’ and click ‘Command’
    2. Write ‘fixbullets’ (one word) into the command window
    3. Click ‘File in’
    4. Find your .cha file
    5. Click ‘Add’ and click ‘Done’
    6. Click ‘Run’
11. Close the current file and open the new file CLAN generated for you.
    1. Press ‘esc a’
    2. Your bullets should be fixed now
12. What if the silence was measured wrong? – How to fix it in CLAN
    1. Open ‘Sonic Mode’
    2. Triple click on a bullet to highlight it in Sonic Mode
    3. Use cmd+click to play selected bullet
    4. Click and drag across the waveform to adjust bullet (if necessary)
13. Add duration of silence
    1. Click on the black line above Sonic Mode (until you see W: 00.00.00 D:00.00.00 C: 00.00.00)
    2. D stands for duration and tells you how long the silence is
    3. Write the duration of the silence like this: (0.5)
14. Remember to save the file
    1. Go to ‘File’ and ‘Save’
    2. OR go to ‘File’ and ‘Save as’
    3. Change the file name to ‘filename.cha’
    4. Click ‘Save’