alexsounder v0.1 by aidan meacham

Instructions to build are at ccrma.stanford.edu/~ameacham/256a/hw2.html.

Motivations:
My goal was to build an audio-reactive mobile installation in the vein of alexander calder.
In order to accomplish this end, I first got simple line representations of the input signal and the FFT working. These can be viewed by pressing the 'a' key in the app.
Next, I created the "space" for the installation by adding a "floor" and defining the general position of the structure. I decided to keep the FOV the same, as I felt as though it was a nice blend of "3D feel" and realism.
By tracing a calder mobile in Adobe Illustrator, I was able to calculate the coordinates for bezier curves for each "wire" and the radius of each circular "terminus."
After inputting these coordinates by hand and performing the proper translations, the mobile took shape.
Finally, I mapped the color of the terminii to a binned power average of the input spectrum. By turning on trails (key 'c') one can view the spectral representation over time. The time domain signal can be mapped to the "string" holding the mobile, but I thought it was visually disruptive.
The app gives auditory feedback in the form of chimes that follow the input power, courtesy of _____ on freesound.org.

Challenges:
Drawing multiple mobiles was difficult, but a smart definition of a function made it trivial to switch between drawing 1 and 45.
Keeping track of input data was also tricky and could stand to see a lot of optimization: I'm doing the same things multiplee times when I could certainly do them once in a more elegant way.
Building the model itself was time consuming, but not terribly difficult. I pretty much nailed it the first time round.
Making the rotations and perturbations feel right was the last thing I did and provided some interesting challenges.

Collaborators:
None. Chime sounds courtesy of _____ on freesound.org.