Simpleclust Workflow
Simpleclust assumes that each spike file coming from the ephys software already contains channels associated with one multicontact electrode (Ntrode).
It saves two files per sorted Ntrode:
One (_simpleclust.mat) that contains all the features used for sorting - this file can be opened in simpleclust again for re-sorting.
One (.mat) that only contains the spike times and clusters as well as cluster waveforms - this file is useful for loading for analysis.
Basic workflow for individual files and batch-processing:
Load spike data file -> pre-process into _simpleclust.mat file (not saved yet) -> sort -> save into 2 output files.
For large files , the Loading, pre-processing and saving steps can take up significant time. For this reason, simpleclust can batch-preprocess multiple files and prepare a batch of _simpleclust.mat that make for faster loading of individual files later during manual sorting. With this process the workflow is:
M times:( Load spike data file -> pre-process into _simpleclust.mat file & save) -> M times:(load _simpleclust file -> sort -> save 2 output files)
With this workflow, the main rate limiting step is usually the loading/saving to HDD, so a RAID0 or a SSD is recommended.