Wideband Bessel function chirp signals and their application to the test and evaluation of audio systems

A method is presented for generating a maximally-flat chirp signal whose effective duration is controllable by a single parameter. A sequence of discrete sample values is calculated, each of which is equal to the nth-order Bessel function at a fixed argument. The effective duration of this sequence is approximately twice the value of the argument. Standard analog-to-digital conversion methods can be used to produce a time-varying analog signal for system test and evaluation. The utility of these signals is demonstrated by their application to the spectral analysis of audio systems including multimedia sound cards and a cassette tape recorder.