When Daqarta first starts up, the program name, version, and Web address will appear in the center of the screen, in the "trace" area normally used to display waveforms and spectra. The Generator dialog is visible on the right side. At other times, this dialog may be invoked via the small unlabeled button below the Generator button that is above the trace area, or by the CTRL+G accelerator key, or by selecting from the Edit menu ( ALT+E, G).

Sound output begins when the Generator On/Off button at the top of the dialog is toggled on. This acts like a "master switch" for the whole signal generator. You can toggle this at any time, even if this dialog is not visible, via the Generator button in the toolbar above the main trace area, or via the ALT+G accelerator key.

If Generator is on, you should see a waveform display of the output signal in the trace area, though you might not hear any sound just yet. The default sound is a continuous Sine wave on Stream 0 of the Left channel, shown as 'L.0 Stream'. (You can create a new default setup by saving any changes you make to the default settings. You'll be prompted to save any such changes to a setup file when you exit. If you save as Setup.GEN, then it will be loaded as the default sound in future sessions.)

The reason you might not hear anything is that the mixer controls are set to 'Mute' at start-up by default, to avoid unpleasant surprises. Look down the center of the Signal Generator dialog and click on the 'Vol' or 'dB' button to bring up the Volume/dB Slider dialog.

If you are just getting started with Daqarta, you probably won't have an attenuator calibration file yet, so the slider dialog will have separate Master and Wave controls for each channel. (After calibration you can set Use dB to have a single large dB control for each channel.) If either Master or Wave is set to 'Mute', that channel will be muted regardless of where the other is. Adjust these controls to a suitable listening level.

The default tone is generated only in the Left channel of the Generator, but sound cards typically send mono signals to both Left and Right outputs via the mixer controls.

Of course, all this presumes that your speakers or headphones are properly connected and functioning! See the No Sound Output topic in the Troubleshooting section if you still don't have sound.

If you do hear sound but it is distorted or stuttering instead of a pure, steady tone, see Distorted Sound Output or Stuttering Sound Output in the Troubleshooting section.

Once you have good sound output, you are ready to learn the Generator control fundamentals.

See also Daqarta Screen Tour, Basic Input Operation - Your First Input Signal

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