Been a while

Hey there, sorry it was pretty hectic over Christmas New Year etc... Getting right back in the swing of things now though.

So here is a cool video the I stumbled across recently, made cooler by the fact it has links to some really useful places online, namely an Arduino forum with a post about FFT data driving LED colour spectrums.

Although I can already see this being to rapid changing for any sort of analytical use, it could be fun to include this as a setting on the arduino to get a bit more vibe going when you are just listening back to what you have created or other peoples work.

On the more analytical side, we can look at something like the setup in the video below, I am pretty sure this could be calibrated in order to use it as a VU meter and RMS meter. As the ideas keep coming the device I am envisioning is a modernise real time analyser, I will make sure to get my ideas down in a drawing soon.

This is neat because I could give the user control over certain parameters, enabling them to tailor their visual experience to the way they like it. The beauty of Arduino is they can be loaded with multiple libraries of code that can be cycled through very simply for different uses.

Max for Live & Max 7

So what exactly is Max? Well, it's a programming language. It's a visual programming language, that allows users to connect together elements of code and processing in a modular way. 

"Max - Visual programming language for media" is how the creators, Cycling 74, descriptively open their product page. I suppose their focus is on clarity and ease of use....

Taken from their product page, above we see the key features that Max offers, with details of the updated capabilities of the platform. The beauty of using this platform is the way it integrates with one of the most commonly used studio DAW's, the one I use, Ableton Live

Because Ableton Live was built within Max, Cycling 74 worked with Ableton's creators in order to create something truly innovative - a DAW that allows the user to edit it's capabilities, it's instruments, it' routing, directly from within the UI. It is safe to say that the Max/Ableton relationship is a game changer; the number of unique and fascinating projects that are being born from the abilities it has allowed users is large. Very large.

Although not fully relevant to this project, this project shows its power in the extreme. It does actually user an amazing graphical interface to show what is actually happening - Ableton 4D

That's enough for today, tomorrow I shall go more in depth into devices and projects directly relevant to this one.

Platforms that use Colour to Describe Sound

I have already been over the theory behind colour and sound and showed how they are in fact naturally related.

It is important at this stage to say that just because we can prove certain frequencies are related to certain colours, doesn't mean we have to stick firmly to this structure every time that we choose to describe sound with colour. It is also important to state that from now on, any readers can assume that we are using FFT analysis and processing as the underlying means for everything being generated ie waveforms, spectral images, metering, colour etc.

A platform I use regularly called Traktor (DJ Software) has four different choices for colouring the audio waveform that it displays, obviously they feel that certain people will prefer different colour scemes from others.

I am going to assume that anyone reading this uses DAW software, again these commonly allow the user to change the colour of tracks and groups within the software, in order to visually keep track of where you are. 

Image-Lines FL Studio takes this to the next level, with some fantastic plugins that show the user with graphics and colour exactly what is going on with the device.

First off tis the "Z Game Imager", which allows you to visualize in a creative and intuitive way what is happening in the music. Other than simple velocity mapping to the size scale (X, Y, Z planes) of the image and a frequency analyser there doesn't seem to much controlled by the music itself; there is a certain amount of predefined graphical movement regardless of music. However it is still enough to add something to the experience in my opinion.

This is a fairly new feature, the are plugins that use other graphcal feedback.In this tutorial by "Seemless" on YouTube, we see how their most powerful sythesiser is actually capable of taking any image and turning it in to sound. It can then in turn display that info on the right hand side as a spectral image.

In this next one, we can see it again uses a spectral image in a pinky/orange hue to show the harmonic content of the audio the equaliser is editing. The actual content of the tutorial has no meaning for this project, it just shows the EQ nicely.

In the next post I will look at Max for Live, the programming language that Ableton Live is built upon.This allows for far more interesting and detailed analysis and graphical reconstruction of audio signals.

Concept Development

So for the next two weeks the focus is on concept development. First off I think it would be useful to outline here what I identified in my research proposal as the main area's I need to focus on for completion.

Max 7 and Resolume are the platforms I have chosen for primary development of the system. There are a number of reasons for this:

• I own a projector that I can use in my room for development. 
• I own Ableton, Max & Resolume
• Max & Resolume haave better online learning resources than the other platforms identified in research.
• The LED system requires many more parts, making for a more cumbersome end product.
• LED's do not allow for complex graphical output except in extremely expensive cutting-edge systems.
• You can emulate the effect of LED's within Max for Live.

During this whole time I have been playing about with pre-existing projects and devices within Max for Live & Max in general, in order to try and familiarize myself with the layout and how it works.

I have found a number of projects on the Max for Live website that display similar characteristics to the ones I have previously identified as needed within this project, which is a great start. In the next weeks I will outline the different devices that generate graphics from audio.

The main issue I have found so far is no-one seems to have scaled the colour wheel to audio parameters yet, within Max. As my research identified this is easily achievable (with some clever maths). When it comes to said clever maths I might not be the man to implement it in Max, hopefully once I know who my project supervisor is they can help or point me in the right direction. I have already started to make contact with certain practioners within the scene, with little response luck to date, however I have started early so I am confident that I will have success there.

During the next few weeks I will also be putting together post detailing case studies and similar systems from youtube, vimeo etc. This is in order to identify ideas that I like and ideas I don't; this will aid me in the process of developing the most effective wasy of implementing the system in a room i.e. would projections mapping the generative graphics onto the speakers be more effective than a tradition 2D screen? 

So in summary, for the next two weeks, expect posts on the following topics.

• Generative graphic devices withing Max for Live and Ableton
• Projection mapping examples using Resolume Arena
• Music that has been created with the visuals being considered as an integral part of the production and performance
• Studio scenarios where the aesthetic has been strongly considered