0Before you start

CART follows the order of a voice evaluation in four steps. Only the CAPE-Vr form is required. The acoustic analysis and the documentation tools are optional: you can skip either one, or both, and still save your session and print a report.

What you need

How to read the boxes

Grey boxes in a monospaced font, like the one below, show file names, folder contents, or the text inside a file. The small label in the corner says what it is. You never need to type them in.

Jordan-Example_capevr_2026-11-10.json

1Open CART

Use CART either way; both work the same:

• Online: open maypychan.github.io/CART.
• On your own computer, without internet: double-click index.html in the CART folder (Part 3 shows how to get it).

Either way, nothing is installed, nothing is stored in the browser, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere. Your work is kept only in files you save.

The rail lists the four steps in page order. Click a step to jump to it. Each step’s circle shows how far you are:

Circle	Means
Empty	Not started
Teal outline	In progress
Filled, with a check mark	Complete

At the foot of the rail are New, Load…, Save, and Report…

2Fill in the CAPE-Vr form

Work from top to bottom, as on the paper CAPE-Vr. Every field is optional; fill in what applies.

2.1Speaker details and recording conditions

Type the Name/ID, gender, age, examiner, and date. For the options (Yes/No, In person/Virtual, Environment), click to choose; click again to un-choose. The chosen option is outlined, like circling it on paper.

2.2Rating conditions

Further down, record how you rated: live or recorded voice, headphones or speakers, auditory anchors, the rater, the date, and how many times the sample was played.

2.3Rate on the lines

Click or drag on a line to place your mark. The arrow keys move it by 1, and Page Up / Page Down by 10. Clear returns a line to not rated.

The numbers are hidden while you rate, so you rate from the line alone. Tick Show numerical values to see the scores (0–100). Scores are saved either way.

2.4Descriptive ratings and overall impression

Choose Pitch, Loudness, Resonance, and Nasality (each with an optional comment), then Inconsistencies, Instabilities, Additional features, and your Overall Impression.

3Save your session

Click Save at the foot of the rail at any time. Your session downloads as a file:

Jordan-Example_capevr_2026-11-10.json

The small dot on Save is orange when there are unsaved changes and green when everything is saved. When the form is saved, step 1 shows a check mark.

To continue later, click Load… and choose that file.

4Print the report

Click Report… (in the rail, or Generate and print report… at the bottom of the page). The report opens as a print view: the CAPE-Vr form, filled in.

Click Print / Save as PDF. In the print dialog, choose your printer, or Save as PDF as the destination. ← Back to the form returns to the form.

5Acoustic analysis with Praat optional

CART does not compute acoustic measures itself. Instead it prepares a Praat package: your WAV files, renamed by task, plus a settings file and a Praat script. You run the script in your own Praat, which writes a results.json file. You then import that file into CART.

CART: add WAVs ─► Make Praat package (.zip)
                              │
Praat:          unzip ─► Open Praat script… ─► Run ─► results.json
                                                          │
CART: Import results.json… ◄──────────────────────────────┘

5.1Add your recordings

Open 2 · Acoustic analysis with Praat by clicking its header.

Drag your WAV files onto the Recordings area, or click Add WAV files…. Each file gets a CAPE-Vr task, suggested from its file name. Check each suggestion and change any that are wrong.

A small Recordings player also appears in the corner, so you can listen while you rate the form. Hide shrinks it.

5.2Choose the speaker profile

Under Speaker and analysis settings, choose a speaker profile. It fills in the pitch floor, pitch ceiling, and formant ceiling: the ranges Praat searches in. These are analysis settings, not norms for the speaker.

5.3Make the Praat package

Click Make Praat package…. CART checks the files first (WAV format, a task for every file, no duplicates). Check the list, then click Download package.

You get one .zip file. Unzipped, it holds everything Praat needs:

Jordan-Example_praat_package/
  cape_acoustics.praat          # the Praat script
  cape_settings.tsv             # your settings (profile, methods)
  README.txt                    # how to run it
  Jordan-Example_vowel_a.wav    # your recordings, renamed by task
  Jordan-Example_vowel_i.wav
  Jordan-Example_sentence_1.wav  …  Jordan-Example_sentence_6.wav
  Jordan-Example_extemporaneous.wav

5.4Run the package in Praat

This part happens in Praat, outside CART.

1. Unzip the package so all its files sit together in one ordinary folder.
   Caution

   Don’t run the script from inside the .zip. On Windows, right-click the .zip → Extract All…; on a Mac, double-click it.

2. Open Praat. Its Objects window appears.

   

3. In the Objects window, choose Praat → Open Praat script…

   

4. Go to the unzipped package folder and choose cape_acoustics.praat.

   

5. The script opens in a script window. Choose Run → Run.

   

6. Praat asks before the script may save its results file. Click Yes, I allow this script to perform the action that it requests. The script only writes results.json into this folder.

   

7. Progress appears in Praat’s Info window. When it says Done, results.json is in the package folder.

   

5.5Import the results

Back in CART, under Acoustic results (from Praat), click Import results.json… and choose the results.json file from the package folder.

CART checks the file, warns you if the file names or the speaker profile don’t match this session, and shows the results by task. Step 2 now has a check mark.

6A first look at Documentation optional

Below the acoustics, 3 · Documentation tools writes a Clinical Summary and an EMR Documentation Draft from what you entered. Both are plain text you can edit and copy into your notes with Copy to clipboard. Always review them first. Part 2 covers the options here.

7The full report

Click Report… again. With acoustics imported, the report now has, in order:

1. the CAPE-Vr form, filled in;
2. the acoustic results, by task;
3. a methods paragraph, written from the settings and the Praat version in results.json;
4. the Clinical Summary and the EMR draft (untick either one in the toolbar to leave it out).

Recap of Part 1

• Fill in the CAPE-Vr form; click Save. (Required.)
• Optional: add WAVs → choose a speaker profile → Make Praat package…
• Optional: in Praat, unzip → Open Praat script… → Run → Run → allow → Done.
• Optional: back in CART, Import results.json…
• Report… → Print / Save as PDF.

8Sessions: New, Load, and Save

• New starts an empty session. If you have unsaved changes, CART asks first.
• Load… opens a session file you saved earlier. Older session files still load.
• Save downloads the session again. Your browser may add “(1)”, “(2)” to repeated downloads; the newest file is the latest.

9More on the form

• More attributes. Type a name on the blank line below Strain to rate another attribute. + Add attribute adds further named lines; ✕ removes one. These lines are an addition to the paper form.
• Stimuli. Show stimulus wording shows or hides the sentence text on screen.
• CAPE-Vr instructions. The administration and scoring instructions (Table 1) are at the bottom of the form, under CAPE-Vr instructions; click to show or hide them.

10Recordings in depth

10.1File names and task suggestions

CART suggests each file’s task from its name. Names that contain a task label are recognized, for example:

vowel_a   vowel_i
sentence_1  sentence_2  …  sentence_6
extemporaneous
reading            # optional reading passage

If a suggestion is wrong, or there is none, choose the task from the list. Every file needs a task before you can make the package.

10.2Several takes of one task

You can add more than one recording for a task. CART numbers the takes for you, and the package names show the take number:

S001_vowel_a_t1.wav
S001_vowel_a_t2.wav

Tick Exclude this take on a recording that shouldn’t be used (a cough, a restart). It is left out of the package and the summaries, but stays in the list.

11Praat settings

11.1All speaker profiles

More options… shows every speaker profile: Adult female, Adult male, Child, Trans woman, Trans man, and Other / unspecified. Choosing one fills in the three values below it. You can type a different value in any of them; the report and results.json record that you changed it.

The sources for each value are listed at the top of the Praat script (cape_acoustics.praat). The wide ranges are search ranges, not norms.

11.2Speaker ID for file names

By default, the package files are named from the Name/ID on the form. If that is a real name, type a code in Speaker ID for file names (for example S001). The package, its file names, and results.json then carry the code instead of the name.

11.3Advanced analysis settings

Open Advanced analysis settings (optional) to choose how Praat measures. Each choice is written into the package’s settings file, echoed in results.json, and listed in the report’s methods paragraph.

11.4Changed a setting? Run it again

Settings take effect only in a new package. After changing any of them:

1. Click Make Praat package… again and download it.
2. Unzip it and run it in Praat exactly as in section 5.4.
3. Import the new results.json. It replaces the earlier results.

11.5Inside the package

You never need to edit these files, but it helps to know what they hold. The settings file is a simple two-column table that the script reads:

name                  value
speakerID             S001
speakerProfile        adult_male
pitchFloorHz          75
pitchCeilingHz        300
formantCeilingHz      5000
cppsMethod            maryn_weenink_2015
hnrMethod             cc
jitterMeasures        local,rap,ppq5
shimmerMeasures       local,local_db,apq3,apq11

Praat writes results.json. It records the Praat version, the date, every setting, and each file with its measures:

{
  "praatVersion": "7.0.02",
  "speakerID": "S001",
  "speakerProfile": "adult_male",
  "settings": { … },
  "files": [
    {
      "fileName": "S001_extemporaneous.wav",
      "task": "extemporaneous",
      "status": "analyzed",
      "measures": {
        "f0Mean":        { "value": 92.16, "unit": "Hz", "reason": null },
        "intensityMean": { "value": 73.30, "unit": "dB (uncalibrated)", "reason": null },
        "cpps":          { "value": 10.70, "unit": "dB", "reason": null }
      }
    }, …
  ],
  "unrecognizedFiles": [],
  "missingTasks": [],
  "warnings": []
}

• A measure Praat could not compute is written as null with a reason, never as 0.
• Files whose names don’t match a task are listed under unrecognizedFiles; nothing is skipped silently.
• Intensity is relative (uncalibrated dB), not sound pressure level.

Show the script window in Praat

The top of cape_acoustics.praat explains how to run it and lists every setting, its default, and its source.

11.6Running the script without CART

The Praat script also works on its own, for example on a folder of recordings that was never in CART:

1. Put cape_acoustics.praat (in CART’s praat/ folder) and your WAV files in one folder. Name the files <speakerID>_<task>.wav, or <speakerID>_<task>_t2.wav for a second take.
2. Run it in Praat as in section 5.4. With no cape_settings.tsv in the folder, one dialog asks for the speaker ID and profile, and every other setting uses its default.
3. To set other options by hand, copy praat/cape_settings_template.tsv into the folder, rename it cape_settings.tsv, and edit the values.

12Clinic-defined interpretation rules

Open 3 · Documentation tools, then Interpretation Rules. Rules let your clinic turn scores and Praat values into wording for the Clinical Summary and EMR draft.

12.1Why every rule starts empty

• The CAPE-Vr removed the mild/moderate/severe labels from the form on purpose, because such labels act as anchors and bias ratings. CART therefore ships with no categories and no cut-offs.
• A rule is used as soon as it is filled in. To stop using it, clear its values.
• Grey numbers are placeholders only. Fill in example values copies them in, after asking you to confirm: they have no published source, so your clinic should review and change them.
• Rules appear only here, below the form, never on the rating form itself.

There are four kinds of rule.

12.2Severity ranges

Your clinic’s own ranges and labels for Overall Severity, applied after rating.

12.3Perceptual feature ranking

Names the primary, secondary, and tertiary features by score, from the attributes you tick. An attribute is named only if it reaches the minimum score; the tie margin names close scores together.

12.4Attribute descriptors

Turns a score range into wording, such as “Breathiness present”.

12.5Clinic reference values

A reference value, a condition (below or above), and the sentence to write. Allowed only for the threshold-based measures: CPPS, HNR, jitter, and shimmer. F0, intensity, and formants are never interpreted.

12.6Share one set of rules

Save rules file downloads your rules; Load rules file… loads them, so a whole clinic can use the same set. A copy of the rules is also kept in each session file.

rules_Demo-Voice-Clinic_2026-11-10.json

13Statements, Clinical Summary, and EMR draft

13.1Statements and “why?”

Each filled-in rule produces statements, and each statement shows its value. Click why? to see the exact rule and value behind it. Ticked statements (all, by default) go into the Clinical Summary and EMR draft; untick any you don’t want.

13.2Edit and copy the texts

The Clinical Summary and the EMR Documentation Draft update automatically until you edit them yourself. Under each, Why does the text say this? lists every generated line and its source. Copy to clipboard copies the text to paste into your notes.

Under the rules, Acoustic values in the Clinical Summary and EMR draft chooses which Praat measures and tasks appear in the texts. With several takes of a task, or several tasks, you can show each value or their mean. A mean is always labeled as a mean, with the number of values and the files used; vowels and connected speech are never averaged together.

14CSV export

Export CSV writes one row per evaluation (session details, every score, every acoustic value, and the rule outputs), for spreadsheets or research. Tick CSV without names to leave out the name, examiner, rater, and original file names.

S001_capevr_2026-11-10_names-hidden.csv

15Report privacy options

In the report toolbar, under Privacy:

• Hide names replaces Name/ID with the speaker code (from section 11.2) and hides the original file names. If no speaker code was typed, Name/ID shows [removed].
• Hide examiner and rater removes those two names.
• Include: untick Clinical Summary or EMR draft to leave them out of the report.

Recap of Part 2

• Speaker profiles and Advanced analysis settings control Praat; re-make the package after any change.
• Speaker ID for file names keeps names out of the package and results.
• Interpretation rules start empty; your clinic fills them in; why? shows the rule and value behind each statement.
• The Clinical Summary and EMR draft are editable and copyable; review them before use.
• CSV without names and the report’s Privacy options hide names, but are not full de-identification.

16Download CART from GitHub

1. Open the CART repository: github.com/maypychan/CART. You don’t need a GitHub account.

   

2. Click the green Code button, then Download ZIP.

   

3. Your browser saves CART-main.zip, usually in your Downloads folder.

17Unzip it and keep it somewhere safe

The folder looks like this. Keep everything together; CART needs all of it.

CART-main/
  index.html             # ← open this
  README.md
  css/                   # styles
  js/                    # the program
  praat/                 # cape_acoustics.praat and a settings template
  vendor/                # the font
  docs/                  # QUICK_START.md
  tutorial/              # this tutorial
  tools/                 # for developers only

18Open CART from your computer

CART looks and works exactly as in Part 1. The address bar shows a file address instead of a web address, which is how you can tell CART is running from your own computer:

file:///C:/Users/you/Documents/CART-main/index.html      # Windows
file:///Users/you/Documents/CART-main/index.html         # macOS

19Install Praat only for acoustics

If you will use the acoustic analysis, download Praat from praat.org and install it as its website describes. Praat is separate, free software by Paul Boersma and David Weenink; CART does not include it. Version 7.0.02 was used for testing. Once installed, Praat also works without internet.

20Updating to a new version

1. Download the ZIP again (section 16) and unzip it.
2. Replace your old CART-main folder with the new one, or keep both side by side.

Your sessions, reports, rules files, and CSV files are separate files that you saved yourself, so updating CART never touches them. Load them into the new version as usual.

21Troubleshooting

22Tutorial information

CART

version 0.1.0

Praat

7.0.02, Windows (screenshots and results)

Browser

Google Chrome, 1280 × 760 window

Demo data

fictional speaker “Jordan Example” (speaker code S001); synthetic WAV recordings made in Praat

Example rules

placeholder values for demonstration only; not published cut-offs

Also available

a captioned walkthrough video on YouTube (Parts 1 and 2), and docs/QUICK_START.md inside CART