Julia Yu
10.23.2023
Music 256A, Stanford University
HW #2
Milestone 3:
Your Eye is the Window to my Soul
Here is my finalized AudioVisualizer. From the download, you should get chuck files AudioVisualizer.ck, Narrative.ck, and KB.ck. To run the audiovisualizer alone, in terminal, type chuck KB.ck AudioVisualizer.ck. If you wanted to play the narrative as well, type chuck KB.ck AudioVisualizer.ck Narrative.ck (melody will start 15 seconds after the audiovisualizer window pops up). Here is my finalized AudioVisualizer. From the download, you should get chuck files AudioVisualizer.ck, Narrative.ck, and KB.ck. To run the audiovisualizer alone, in terminal, type chuck KB.ck AudioVisualizer.ck. If you wanted to play the narrative as well, type chuck KB.ck AudioVisualizer.ck Narrative.ck (melody will start 15 seconds after the audiovisualizer window pops up). To switch the iris to a swirling galaxy, simply press the space bar.
Constructing the narrative took a lot of thought, and I decided to go with a simplified version of Richard Strauss’s “Morgen,” that diverges in the middle. I thought it would be fun if my narrative had both coded and real-time components to make it more interactive and improvised. The five screenshots presented display the audiovisualizer taking in different kinds of sounds. If the environment is completely quiet, it looks like the first picture. I thought it would be fun to just have a pure breath before the narrative started (second pic), which made the “lashes” really voluminous. Once the narrative started, I used a single tone triangular wave oscillator, which is beautifully displayed in the frequency spectrum as individual lashes along the lash-line (playing around with envelope in ChucK really made it look like the eye was “blinking”). I started singing along to have live audio-input source, which made the different elements of the eye start to blend into each other (thought that German consonants especially would be fun to show in this audiovisualizer – frankly, I think it got a little too messy and made the climax later on a little anticlimactic, but it was still fun, nonetheless). Finally, the last pic shows how the audiovisualizer reacts to a sine and square wave oscillators (and also took it as an opportunity to expand on the piece I was originally inspired by so it wasn’t a complete melodic transplant), which is also the spot where the iris transforms into a swirling galaxy. Thank you so much everyone for your constructive feedback on the previous milestone, especially for making the frequency spectrum symmetrical; I think it really tidied up the scene. Thank you especially Andrew and Ge for answering any questions I had throughout the process and giving me suggestions on how to approach certain artistic choices via ChuGL. <3 <3 <3
AudioVisualizerFinalDeliverableMilestone 2:
Wooo…. So here’s my Audio Visualizer thus far… I’d say I’m proud with what I’ve been able to scrap together thus far!!! I decided to go with the “Eyes are the Window to the Soul” idea I had, but I’ve made some adjustments. I used the sndpeek.ck starter code (first the minimal, then expanded with the waterfall class). I was really inspired by Kunwoo’s eye in that he had the lashes portray some audio information so I decided to attempt to map the frequency spectrum above and below the iris of the eye like many layers of false eyelashes (this would also hopefully plot the history). Getting the time-domain information to wrap around the iris as a circle took me some time to figure out, shout out to Andrew Aday Zhu for showing me the Math.map() function in the ChucK documentation :D. Changing from GLines to GPoints gave the really cool visual effect where the information would start off looking like a line, but later would “dissolve” if the music got intense. I would say this experience was daunting at first, but quite rewarding when I was able to watch myself figure out how to make something that was pleasing to my eye (no pun intended).
Milestone 1:
I was able to design an audio-visualizer, using sndpeek-minimal.ck, where the time-domain is displayed on top, while the frequency spectrum is displayed on the bottom. Since I like rainbows, as they make me happy, I decided to have the top three lines colored red, orange, and yellow, while the bottom three finished the rainbow with green, blue, and purple. Inspired by the demonstration in class of a solar system, I thought it would be nice to have a planet (GSphere) with a rotating ring (GTorus) and multiple moons (GSphere). To have the objects rotate in different directions, I grucked some of the objects to the planet (which rotates in the positive Y direction), while others I grucked to core objects located in the center of the planet in the scene. The different cores would rotate in the negative Y direction, positive Z direction, and negative Z direction. The ring was simply grucked to the scene and rotated in the positive Y direction to make its motion more unexpected. Colors for each of these objects were arbitrarily chosen, as long as there was a nice palette of objects on the screen. It was a nice way of exploring ChuGL’s basic mechanics, and also not putting too much pressure on myself to create something AMAZING just yet.
Audio-Visualizer Brainstorm Ideas:
I. The Eyes are the Window to the Soul
This little tid-bit of wisdom has been spread by Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, and according to Google, even the Bible itself. I’ve felt that the amount of eye contact I am comfortable with making towards other people can sometimes be telling of how much I trust them. Since music can be argued to be an expression of the soul, I thought it would be nice to illustrate this point by having a giant eye serve as an audio-visualizer. The time-domain would be displayed on the outer parts of the iris, while the frequency spectrum would be emitted from the pupil. I’d imagine that the background can be customizable / change depending on the theme of the song to reflect if the mood is happy, sad, etc. Maybe triggering a blink could change the background of the iris. And as a final touch, if the song is sad, maybe when the music gets really loud, a tear drop can fall from the eye.
II. Timeless Galaxy
Since I love thinking about the vastness of the universe (to drown out my worries when my world gets too small), I thought it would be nice to integrate time with a galaxy. The time-domain information can be on the sides of the screen (like the edges of a lens?), while the frequency information can be shown via concentric circles that map out a solar system. They can have specks of light on each circle (kinda like planets, but making them balls of light seems more magical). The scene would also be more interesting if each of the planets traveled in different directions (like positive Y and negative Y). The background can feature a swirling spiral; maybe the rate at which the spiral rotates can be dependent on the volume of the song (louder sound, swirls faster).
III. Ocean Reverie
I seem to really like circles, spirals, and the night sky lol. My final idea for an audio-visualizer is an atmospheric view of the ocean at night, with the rays of the moon displaying the time-domain, and the ocean waves displaying the different frequencies (waves would be accentuated with the history displayed). A spiral of stars can swirl around the moon (again, maybe the rate can change depending on the song), and the ocean can be littered with glowing algae. Maybe based on other parameters of the song, the amount of glowing algae that emerges from the water can change as well.