What is an efficient way to calculate the FFT of a signal at specific

J
Jalal-ad-din · Mar 12, 2021 · 1.9K views
Question
What is an efficient way to calculate the FFT of a signal at specific frequency points in Signal Processing Toolbox 6.12 (R2009b) ? Normally, the FFT function returns the frequency response of a signal at regularly spaced frequency points given by the equation:     f = kFs/N where k is given by the vector [0:N-1] N is the length of the input signal vector Fs is the sampling frequency However, I am only interested in specific frequency points. Is there an efficient way of calculating the frequency response of a signal at irregularly spaced frequency points?  
Expert Answer
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John Michell PhD Expert
Answered Aug 25, 2026
In Signal Processing Toolbox 6.12 (R2009b), the GOERTZEL function is an efficient way of calculating the frequency response of a signal at specific frequency points.
 
This function uses the second-order Goertzel algorithm which computes DFT values at a specified subset of indices. If less than log2(N) points are required, GOERTZEL is more efficient than the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).
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