Teryy, For Python a great place to start is 'Snack'. http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/ "The Snack Sound Toolkit is designed to be used with a scripting language such as Tcl/Tk or Python. Using Snack you can create powerful multi-platform audio applications with just a few lines of code. Snack has commands for basic sound handling, e.g. sound card and disk I/O. Snack also has primitives for sound visualization, e.g. waveforms and spectrograms. It was developed mainly to handle digital recordings of speech, but is just as useful for general audio. Snack has also successfully been applied to other one-dimensional signals. The combination of Snack and a scripting language makes it possible to create sound tools and applications with a minimum of effort. This is due to the rapid development nature of scripting languages. As a bonus you get an application that is cross-platform from start. It is also easy to integrate Snack based applications with existing sound analysis software." Python Snack manual, version 2.2 http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/man/snack2.2/python-man.html Spectograms are crucial to understanding speech and the role of formants. Be sure to followup on the Snack links page: http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/links.html For example, a paper on the use of Snack was presented at the ICSLP '98 conference. [ICSLP = International Conference on Spoken Language Processing] http://www.speech.kth.se/~jocke/publications/icslp98_web.html Two other important toolkits I recommend to help you do what you want are: PD = Pure Data and its GEM extensions http://www.pure-data.org/ http://www.crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/index.htm PD has terrific community [andmailing list] doing all manner of experimental sound work, much of for live performance orientation. The GEM extensions may well cover your graphic needs too. http://www.danks.org/mark/ JSyn - Audio Software Synthesis API and Plugins for Java [works with Jython] http://www.softsynth.com/jsyn/ Other interactive synthesis tools I suggest for deepening ones grasp of speech and speech-like sound are: RGS - Realtime Granular Synthesis by Henry Lowengard http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/software.html RGS was developed for Amiga. To the best of my knowldege it will still run on a number of computer platforms using UAE [Universal Amiga Emulator]. A modern Windows version I have used is 'Coagula' by Rasmus Ekman: http://hem.passagen.se/rasmuse/Coagula.htm Finally, an unusual book with a novel, eye-openig approach to speech analysis is "Who is Fourier?" http://www.lexlrf.org/pub/fourier.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0964350408/104-1198719-6481569 Developed by the 'Transnational College of Lex', the book is an extraordinary and lively introduction to calculus, working with the idea recorded vocal sounds and leading up to fourier transformations to compare and graph patterns of Japanese vowwls. The result on page 160 is stunning. Clearly their technique can be applied to other languages and sounds. hth & please keep me posted about your project best wishes ./Jason