Symphony Data Acquisition system

Simple, Powerful, Extensible Protocol-Driven Acquisition in MATLAB®

Symphony is a MATLAB based data acquisition system for electrophysiologists. It provides a framework for writing acquisition routines and a user interface to conduct experiments.

Symphony is designed with a focus on simplicity, performance, and flexibility. It is built on the .NET Platform and currently requires 64-bit Windows and MATLAB 2016a+. Supported hardware includes National Instruments and HEKA ITC DAQ devices as well as Molecular Devices MultiClamp and Axopatch amplifiers.

Protocol-Driven Acquisition

Symphony is centered around protocol-driven acquisition. Protocols are high-level acquisition routines written in MATLAB using the Symphony framework. Protocols may include sophisticated online analysis as well as support for gap-free and closed-loop recording.

Built-in Data Manager

Symphony includes a built-in data manager to browse, view, and annotate data during experiments. The data manager makes it easy to maintain visibility across the entire experimental timeline.

Flexible Data Model

Symphony uses a flexible data model that supports a wide variety of organizational approaches. Simple description files may be written to define an experimental structure and metadata that best suits individual needs.

Modular and Extensible

Symphony was built from the ground up to be modular and extensible. At the app-level, modules may be written to add custom features to the user interface. At the core-level, DAQ, device, and persistor implementations may be written to add support for additional hardware and file formats.

Device-Agnostic Programming Interface

Symphony abstracts away device-specific details that allows acquisition routines (i.e. protocols) to be hardware independent. Device-agnosticism allows protocols to be shared across labs and rigs with limited to no modification.

Free and Open Source

Symphony is released under the MIT License, which is an open source license. Pull requests to the Symphony-DAS GitHub organization are welcomed and encouraged.