If you work in the field of acoustics, the answer is obvious. Praat’s interface is easy to get accustomed to, it comes with a plethora of functions and tools and you can use it without having any knowledge of programming (contrary to Matlab or other specialised software). If you have analysed more than a few minutes of audio, you have undoubtedly realised that manual analysis is not the way to go; you need to automate the process.

If you are not into phonetics/acoustics, why on Earth should you use Praat? Well, first of all, Praat is:

• open-source
• customisable
• free-of-charge
• frequently updated
• supported by a large community of users and an active forum
• available with a variety of freely available scripts designed by fellow enthusiasts
• compatible with all major OS

Second, if you are here, it is because you would like to learn how to program. Contrary to most programming languages, the Praat scripting language has a very simple syntax and you can master it without having to invest four, five, twelve months. Praat may not be a full-fledged programming language (you cannot design video games with it nor build websites or a web server) but it can, however, perform complex tasks. You can use it to do text analysis, statistics, create graphs, maintain and update a database, create quizzes etc. It is not the best option for each application – R and Python are better for statistics, LaTeX for complex graphs, Excel or PHP for databases… – but by learning a single language, you will be able to create programs in a number of fields in no time!

Let’s all raise a glass to Paul Boersma and David Weenink for offering our community this beautiful and handy tool!