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Animal Sound Communication
Avisoft Bioacoustics
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13158 Berlin
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Animal Sounds

Avisoft-UltraSoundGate
High-Quality Ultrasound Recording and Playback



The Avisoft-UltraSoundGate system is an integrated PC-based hardware and software solution for recording and playing back ultrasonic signals both in the field and in the laboratory, which has been specifically designed for bioacoustic applications.
UltraSoundGate Product Family

Key Features



  • Avisoft-UltraSoundGate is a turn-key system that consists of a rugged data acquisition hardware with USB interface and a PC-based harddisk recording software. Depending on the specific application, various ultrasound microphones or hydrophones can be attached.
  • Selectable sample rates of up to 750 kHz with adaptive anti-aliasing filter,
  • The accompanying Avisoft-RECORDER software provides a real-time spectrogram display and advanced triggering facilities,
  • Balanced analog inputs for high immunity against electric interference,
  • Multichannel recording with guaranteed synchronity from up to 12 channels,
  • Acoustic real-time (broad-band) monitor (model 116 only),
  • Overload indicator & peak level meter (model 116 only),
  • Gain adjustment potentiometer either continuous (standard version) or stepwise with eleven 3dB increments (optionally on request),
  • Trigger button for quick start and stop of recordings.
  • Digital inputs for external triggering,
  • Easy plug-and-play installation,
  • Bus-powered operation (no need for extra power-supplies, which is important in the field),
  • Rugged and compact design suited for field use (all parts have been selected for best performance and maximum reliability),
  • Watertight, dustproof and unbreakable transport box.
UltraSoundGate Principle

Principle of the UltraSoundGate system

UltraSoundGate Product Family Members


The UltraSoundGate product family consists of the following components:

Recording Devices (A/D Converter Units)

single channel multichannel
model number 116Hb 116H 116Hm 416 416H 816H 1216H
number of channels 1 1 1 4 4 8 12
max sample rate at 16 bit [kHz] 300 1000 1000 500 750 750 750
acoustic monitor output
overload indicator
peak level meter
external trigger input
digital input
sync input/output
USB version 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.1 2.0 2.0 2.0


Ultrasound Microphones

  • Externally polarized condenser microphone (10...200 KHz): CM16/CMPA
  • Externally polarized condenser microphone (10...120 kHz): Polaroid/CMPA
  • Prepolarized electret microphone (10...120 kHz): Emkay

Playback Devices

Ultrasound Speakers

  • Dynamic speaker (1...55 kHz) : Magnat
  • Dynamic speaker (1...120 kHz) : ScanSpeak
  • Electrostatic speaker (25...200 kHz) : ESS 16
  • Electrostatic speaker (25...150 kHz) : ESS Polaroid

System Integration

Avisoft-UltraSoundGate is fully integrated into the sound recording and analysis applications Avisoft-RECORDER and Avisoft-SASLab Pro.
Avisoft-RECORDER provides the following key-features in conjunction with UltraSoundGate:
  • Multichannel real-time spectrogram display (0% overlap), waveform envelope display, energy waveform within selected frequency range,
  • Pre-tigger harddisk-recording with widely selectable trigger options. Trigger event threshold definition for sound-activated recording can be done graphically by mouse,
  • There will be no limitations on the duration of continuous recordings (harddisk space rather than RAM size limits the duration of single recording sessions),
  • ASCII-format LOG file containing date, time and duration of each recorded event and optional text comments,
  • Manual triggering by the UltraSoundGate button,
  • External triggering through the UltraSoundGate digital input (TTL-compatible, 2.5mm mini jack). This external signal can also be used to enable/disable the sound-activated recording mode (e.g. a photo transistor directly connected to the digital input for limiting automatic recording to darkness),
  • Multichannel recording with UltraSoundGate 416 / 416H / 816H / 1216H with either separate triggering of each channel (separate .wav files for each channel) or simultaneous triggering for all active channels (one single multichannel .wav file containing all channels). The latter configuration is suited for passive acoustic location of animals because all channels are packed into a single data stream, which secures the phase relationship between all channels. Several USG xx16H devices can be sychnronized in order to extend the total number of synchronous channels.
  • Real-time measurements of call frequencies that can also be issued by voice messages.
  • Real-time acoustic monitoring through the soundcard (heterodyning or aliasing technique).
Avisoft-RECORDER

Avisoft-RECORDER real-time spectrogram screen shot
The versatile sound analysis software Avisoft-SASLab Pro can be used to analyze the .wav files created by the RECORDER software.
Sample recordings made with the UltraSoundGate system can be found at the Animal Sounds page.


Third party solutions integrating the UltraSoundGate system


© 2007 Avisoft Bioacoustics

last modified on 09 May 2008, Raimund Specht

www.ultrasoundgate.com