Praat for Mac

6.1.42

6.1.42

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Thanks for keeping Praat free!

Doesn't start on 10.11.5! Always crashes...

Note: the download link here is for the 32-bit version. You can get the 64-bit version from the developer's website.

Oh, the icon keeps growing on you...

From http://savethevowels.org/praat/: "'Using Praat for Linguistic Research' by Will Styler is a practical guidebook and information package designed to help you use the Praat phonetics software package more effectively in Phonetic or Phonological research." The 60+ page guidebook is available free at the above website, or by using this URL: http://savethevowels.org/praat/UsingPraatforLinguisticResearchLatest.pdf

Cool program. Re the icon: isn't it easy to change an icon on a Mac? You can even make your own using img2icns or go out googling for free OSX icons.

It's simply outstanding to have such functional, useful, and versatile software not only offered for free, but continually updated, year after year after year. Kudos to Paul and David for their tireless hard work. As for the icon, I've been using Praat for over a decade, and I've never had a problem with it, and would miss it if it were changed significantly!

Praat is awesome. The icon is brilliantly crafted to grab your attention. Tops :)

I give Praat 5 stars for it's unmatched ability to make me come back to this page every time there's a new version, just to see if anyone's posted anything amusing about the icon. I've never come across another piece of Mac software that manages to do this so effectively! The developers have truly achieved something unique here.

I don't like the icon for Garage Band.app so I changed it to a piano instead of a guitar. For Fetch.app I use my little Boston Terrier's face. How hard is it to change the icon for a Mac user? And how important, if the app is great as this one is?

This version is Intel only.

I've come to believe that the monstrous icon of this app is in fact a subtle marketing ploy. There is no such thing as bad publicity in the world of business, and this icon has created a lot of attention for this product. Users who have no use for such a program have no doubt downloaded it anyway to show it to their friends. Clever advertising, I say.

my wife has another baby bump

I would like to nominate this app for worst icon in the history of icons on the Mac. I've seen worse for Windows, but nothing as bad as this on the Mac. Congrats, I think.

Developers, you are awesome. You have been continually upgrading for many years now and it keeps getting better and better. You have never asked for any financial aid, offering it free. I can't understand how anyone can continually criticize the icon when they are offering nothing financially nor technically to the application. I wish you both health, blessing, and encouragement.

Just passing through to see the latest on the icon... /whistles

Okay I have to say it...My favorite MacUpdate activity is seeing if the Praat icon has changed....it's an obsession....

I know.. why is the issue of this icon so important.. I mean appearance does not matter AT ALL.. EVER... only functionalities.. look at the iPhone 4.. works great, great reception/antenna problem, yet the appearance/design is crap and compleeeeeeeetely random lol Be honest people.. you all care about appearance or you would most likely not even be on MAC... The World would be a better place if humans were more honest (honesty is also an aesthetics ideal.. the ancient Greek gave a damn about all this .. how low can you go Humanity.. XXIst century looks like rock-bottom in this department)... And yes this icon su cks Paul the Octopus eight times rather than one.

I have no idea what this software does, but I have enjoyed the Icon debate for several years now! I think its funny how people complain so much about a free program's icon!

i myself absolutely love the icon to the hilt! it looks very very close to my wife's best side -- almost an exact duplicate of certain nether regions. my only real problem with the icon is that after only fifteen minutes at the most of working with this program, i find myself using every square inch of our king-sized bed with her for a very very long time in an animalistic fashion. while i'm certain i am not exactly using the program as intended by the developers, sometimes certain mac software has unforeseen beneFITS. i mean who would have figured Praat has produced 4 children, two of which i proudly named paul and dave. hats off to the developers and i thank you both in the worst way.

I don't get it. I wrote a CONSTRUCTIVE comment since I read all the NEGATIVE criticism about this particular freeware's icon. And every reply since, has been NEGATIVE toward my comments. Never said an insulting word about the developer's hard work. RELAX folks!!!

One of my guides to decide if an item is worth downloading is the icon itself. This is the first thing you visually associate with the developer's product. I my opinion, if they take the time & effort to create an eye appealing icon, then they must surely have taken the time & effort to write a great program. The icon represents the software!!! Unfortunately. I have no idea if this software is of professional quality because I'm afraid to download it since the developer's icon is so unappealing to my eyes.

wait is that pink thing supposed to be a mouth??

Iteration 65974: Still the same icon... LOL After reading Ozzpot's (very) thorough explanation of his design choices, the whole things seems even more bizarre to me... So, in the end it all comes down to the ear... LOL

I thought I'd check on the icon situation - Still no?!? Btw, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it... :)

Hey Ozzpot, did the devs give a reason for turning your icon down? I'd love to hear about it ...

Okay, sorry for taking so very, very long to get this out... if anyone wants to use my replacement (that the developers turned down) go here: http://www.ozzpot.com/icons/

I saw that a new version was released today and as I remembered the app from it's unique name, I decided to check if the icon was still the same after all these years... Unbelivable!

I am a professional icon designer, and have dispatched a shiny new icon to the developers. Just a matter of seeing if they approve it now!

A must-have tool for anyone studying Phonetics.

My brother was a published author on Linguistics and a college professor, but, sadly he passed away in 1998. I wish he could have been around to see this application. I think it would have been right up his alley.

This is a fabulous application. I've been using it to analyse swallowing behaviour (if you think this isn't a problem wait until you can't eat)! You record the data using an electronic stethoscope, import the data into Praat and compare the spectrograms of people with normal swallows and people with swallowing problems. The versatility of Praat, sophistication and ease of use are unmatched. Five stars all round.

I downloaded this just to see the icon. It really is the worst I've ever seen -- I couldn't believe it. What is it!? That said -- Lovely app! Works great! Who gives a toss about the icon?

Well Prof. as with most Mac users we like a certain elan with our basic workability but I agree that at the end of the day if it's useful... But it has to be said it is a pretty awful icon!

Downloaded Praat 4.3.20 but can't launch it. Keeps crashing. My OS is 10.3.9.

I cannot understand why reviewers make wise-cracks about such things as lousy icons instead of thanking the developer for spending all that time to give us a free and highly sophisticated application. Thank you Praat developers for a fun and utile linguistic application. Please keep improving Praat for us thankful users.

Worst. Icon. Ever.

As a free tool, it has a great feature for sound artists. Speeding up or slowing down speech without changing the pitch. Of course there's a great "change gender" button!

This was the software I was looking for right now. Though interface is not very well integrated into aqua, even sometimes counterintuitive, it is very useful.

For a linguistic software list that also lists Mac software see www.linguistlist.org/sp/Software.html.