Spectrum Analysis of a Sinusoid:
Windowing, Zero-Padding, and FFT
The examples below give a progression from the most simplistic
analysis up to a proper practical treatment. Careful study of these
examples will teach you a lot about how spectrum analysis is carried
out on real data, and provide opportunities to see the Fourier
theorems in action.
FFT of a Simple Sinusoid
Our first example is an FFT of the simple sinusoid






% Example 1: FFT of a DFT-sinusoid % Parameters: N = 64; % Must be a power of two T = 1; % Set sampling rate to 1 A = 1; % Sinusoidal amplitude phi = 0; % Sinusoidal phase f = 0.25; % Frequency (cycles/sample) n = [0:N-1]; % Discrete time axis x = A*cos(2*pi*n*f*T+phi); % Sampled sinusoid X = fft(x); % Spectrum % Plot time data: figure(1); subplot(3,1,1); plot(n,x,'*k'); ni = [0:.1:N-1]; % Interpolated time axis hold on; plot(ni,A*cos(2*pi*ni*f*T+phi),'-k'); grid off; title('Sinusoid at 1/4 the Sampling Rate'); xlabel('Time (samples)'); ylabel('Amplitude'); text(-8,1,'a)'); hold off; % Plot spectral magnitude: magX = abs(X); fn = [0:1/N:1-1/N]; % Normalized frequency axis subplot(3,1,2); stem(fn,magX,'ok'); grid on; xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Magnitude (Linear)'); text(-.11,40,'b)'); % Same thing on a dB scale: spec = 20*log10(magX); % Spectral magnitude in dB subplot(3,1,3); plot(fn,spec,'--ok'); grid on; axis([0 1 -350 50]); xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Magnitude (dB)'); text(-.11,50,'c)'); cmd = ['print -deps ', '../eps/example1.eps']; disp(cmd); eval(cmd);
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FFT of a Not-So-Simple Sinusoid
Now let's increase the frequency in the above example by one-half of a bin:% Example 2 = Example 1 with frequency between bins f = 0.25 + 0.5/N; % Move frequency up 1/2 bin x = cos(2*pi*n*f*T); % Signal to analyze X = fft(x); % Spectrum ... % See Example 1 for plots and such
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% Plot the periodic extension of the time-domain signal plot([x,x],'--ok'); title('Time Waveform Repeated Once'); xlabel('Time (samples)'); ylabel('Amplitude');The result is shown in Fig.8.3. Note the ``glitch'' in the middle where the signal begins its forced repetition.
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FFT of a Zero-Padded Sinusoid
Looking back at Fig.8.2c, we see there are no negative dB values. Could this be right? Could the spectral magnitude at all frequencies be 1 or greater? The answer is no. To better see the true spectrum, let's use zero padding in the time domain (§7.2.7) to give ideal interpolation (§7.4.12) in the frequency domain:zpf = 8; % zero-padding factor x = [cos(2*pi*n*f*T),zeros(1,(zpf-1)*N)]; % zero-padded X = fft(x); % interpolated spectrum magX = abs(X); % magnitude spectrum ... % waveform plot as before nfft = zpf*N; % FFT size = new frequency grid size fni = [0:1.0/nfft:1-1.0/nfft]; % normalized freq axis subplot(3,1,2); % with interpolation, we can use solid lines '-': plot(fni,magX,'-k'); grid on; ... spec = 20*log10(magX); % spectral magnitude in dB % clip below at -40 dB: spec = max(spec,-40*ones(1,length(spec))); ... % plot as before
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![[*]](../icons/crossref.png)
Use of a Blackman Window
As Fig.8.4a suggests, the previous example can be interpreted as using a rectangular window to select a finite segment (of length

M = 64; w = blackman(M);Many other standard windows are defined as well, including hamming, hanning, and bartlett windows. In Matlab without the Signal Processing Toolbox, the Blackman window is readily computed from its mathematical definition:
w = .42 - .5*cos(2*pi*(0:M-1)/(M-1)) ... + .08*cos(4*pi*(0:M-1)/(M-1));Figure 8.5 shows the Blackman window and its magnitude spectrum on a dB scale. Fig.8.5c uses the more ``physical'' frequency axis in which the upper half of the FFT bin numbers are interpreted as negative frequencies. Here is the complete Matlab script for Fig.8.5:
M = 64; w = blackman(M); figure(1); subplot(3,1,1); plot(w,'*'); title('Blackman Window'); xlabel('Time (samples)'); ylabel('Amplitude'); text(-8,1,'a)'); % Also show the window transform: zpf = 8; % zero-padding factor xw = [w',zeros(1,(zpf-1)*M)]; % zero-padded window Xw = fft(xw); % Blackman window transform spec = 20*log10(abs(Xw)); % Spectral magnitude in dB spec = spec - max(spec); % Normalize to 0 db max nfft = zpf*M; spec = max(spec,-100*ones(1,nfft)); % clip to -100 dB fni = [0:1.0/nfft:1-1.0/nfft]; % Normalized frequency axis subplot(3,1,2); plot(fni,spec,'-'); axis([0,1,-100,10]); xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Magnitude (dB)'); grid; text(-.12,20,'b)'); % Replot interpreting upper bin numbers as frequencies<0: nh = nfft/2; specnf = [spec(nh+1:nfft),spec(1:nh)]; % see fftshift() fninf = fni - 0.5; subplot(3,1,3); plot(fninf,specnf,'-'); axis([-0.5,0.5,-100,10]); grid; xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Magnitude (dB)'); text(-.62,20,'c)'); cmd = ['print -deps ', '../eps/blackman.eps']; disp(cmd); eval(cmd); disp 'pausing for RETURN (check the plot). . .'; pause
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Applying the Blackman Window
Now let's apply the Blackman window to the sampled sinusoid and look at the effect on the spectrum analysis:% Windowed, zero-padded data: n = [0:M-1]; % discrete time axis f = 0.25 + 0.5/M; % frequency xw = [w .* cos(2*pi*n*f),zeros(1,(zpf-1)*M)]; % Smoothed, interpolated spectrum: X = fft(xw); % Plot time data: subplot(2,1,1); plot(xw); title('Windowed, Zero-Padded, Sampled Sinusoid'); xlabel('Time (samples)'); ylabel('Amplitude'); text(-50,1,'a)'); % Plot spectral magnitude: spec = 10*log10(conj(X).*X); % Spectral magnitude in dB spec = max(spec,-60*ones(1,nfft)); % clip to -60 dB subplot(2,1,2); plot(fninf,fftshift(spec),'-'); axis([-0.5,0.5,-60,40]); title('Smoothed, Interpolated, Spectral Magnitude (dB)'); xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Magnitude (dB)'); grid; text(-.6,40,'b)');Figure 8.6 plots the zero-padded, Blackman-windowed sinusoid, along with its magnitude spectrum on a dB scale. Note that the first sidelobe (near


![[*]](../icons/crossref.png)
Hann-Windowed Complex Sinusoid
In this example, we'll perform spectrum analysis on a complex sinusoid having only a single positive frequency. We'll use the Hann window (also known as the Hanning window) which does not have as much sidelobe suppression as the Blackman window, but its main lobe is narrower. Its sidelobes ``roll off'' very quickly versus frequency. Compare with the Blackman window results to see if you can see these differences. The Matlab script for synthesizing and plotting the Hann-windowed sinusoid is given below:% Analysis parameters: M = 31; % Window length N = 64; % FFT length (zero padding factor near 2) % Signal parameters: wxT = 2*pi/4; % Sinusoid frequency (rad/sample) A = 1; % Sinusoid amplitude phix = 0; % Sinusoid phase % Compute the signal x: n = [0:N-1]; % time indices for sinusoid and FFT x = A * exp(j*wxT*n+phix); % complex sine [1,j,-1,-j...] % Compute Hann window: nm = [0:M-1]; % time indices for window computation % Hann window = "raised cosine", normalization (1/M) % chosen to give spectral peak magnitude at 1/2: w = (1/M) * (cos((pi/M)*(nm-(M-1)/2))).^2; wzp = [w,zeros(1,N-M)]; % zero-pad out to the length of x xw = x .* wzp; % apply the window w to signal x figure(1); subplot(1,1,1); % Display real part of windowed signal and Hann window plot(n,wzp,'-k'); hold on; plot(n,real(xw),'*k'); hold off; title(['Hann Window and Windowed, Zero-Padded, ',... 'Sinusoid (Real Part)']); xlabel('Time (samples)'); ylabel('Amplitude');The resulting plot of the Hann window and its use on sinusoidal data are shown in Fig.8.7.
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Hann Window Spectrum Analysis Results
Finally, the Matlab for computing the DFT of the Hann-windowed complex sinusoid and plotting the results is listed below. To help see the full spectrum, we also compute a heavily interpolated spectrum (via zero padding as before) which we'll draw using solid lines.% Compute the spectrum and its alternative forms: Xw = fft(xw); % FFT of windowed data fn = [0:1.0/N:1-1.0/N]; % Normalized frequency axis spec = 20*log10(abs(Xw)); % Spectral magnitude in dB % Since the nulls can go to minus infinity, clip at -100 dB: spec = max(spec,-100*ones(1,length(spec))); phs = angle(Xw); % Spectral phase in radians phsu = unwrap(phs); % Unwrapped spectral phase % Compute heavily interpolated versions for comparison: Nzp = 16; % Zero-padding factor Nfft = N*Nzp; % Increased FFT size xwi = [xw,zeros(1,Nfft-N)]; % New zero-padded FFT buffer Xwi = fft(xwi); % Compute interpolated spectrum fni = [0:1.0/Nfft:1.0-1.0/Nfft]; % Normalized freq axis speci = 20*log10(abs(Xwi)); % Interpolated spec mag (dB) speci = max(speci,-100*ones(1,length(speci))); % clip phsi = angle(Xwi); % Interpolated phase phsiu = unwrap(phsi); % Unwrapped interpolated phase figure(1); subplot(2,1,1); plot(fn,abs(Xw),'*k'); hold on; plot(fni,abs(Xwi),'-k'); hold off; title('Spectral Magnitude'); xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Amplitude (linear)'); subplot(2,1,2); % Same thing on a dB scale plot(fn,spec,'*k'); hold on; plot(fni,speci,'-k'); hold off; title('Spectral Magnitude (dB)'); xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Magnitude (dB)'); cmd = ['print -deps ', 'specmag.eps']; disp(cmd); eval(cmd); disp 'pausing for RETURN (check the plot). . .'; pause figure(1); subplot(2,1,1); plot(fn,phs,'*k'); hold on; plot(fni,phsi,'-k'); hold off; title('Spectral Phase'); xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Phase (rad)'); grid; subplot(2,1,2); plot(fn,phsu,'*k'); hold on; plot(fni,phsiu,'-k'); hold off; title('Unwrapped Spectral Phase'); xlabel('Normalized Frequency (cycles per sample))'); ylabel('Phase (rad)'); grid; cmd = ['print -deps ', 'specphs.eps']; disp(cmd); eval(cmd);Figure 8.8 shows the spectral magnitude and Fig.8.9 the spectral phase. There are no negative-frequency components in Fig.8.8 because we are analyzing a complex sinusoid
![$ x=[1,j,-1,-j,1,j,\ldots\,]$](http://www.dsprelated.com/josimages_new/mdft/img1520.png)


Spectral Phase
As for the phase of the spectrum, what do we expect? We have chosen the sinusoid phase offset to be zero. The window is causal and symmetric about its middle. Therefore, we expect a linear phase term with slope



















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Raw spectral phase and its interpolation ![]()
Unwrapped spectral phase and its interpolation ![]()
Canonically unwrapped spectral phase and its interpolation |
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DFT Theorems Problems