The Oculi Organ is spectrographic synthesizer I created with Processing and Max MSP. My goal was to make an easy-to-use tool for visual -> audio synthesis that is conducive to live performance and improvisation, allowing the user to quickly create and destroy unique sonic landscapes from images. The process can be viewed as a meditation on relationships of creation, destruction, order, chaos, and impermanence..... or just a cool thing to make sounds with.
How it Works:
Put simply, the visuals "draw" the sound, with low tones towards the center of the image and high tones at the peripheries. The Max patch reads grayscale data of a 1 pixel strip from the center of the image down to the bottom, translating that data into an audio frequency spectrum. The image can be rotated at variable speed to cycle through the entire drawing as an audio sequence. It can also be stretched or shrunk to change the pitch in a major scale.
Put simply, the visuals "draw" the sound, with low tones towards the center of the image and high tones at the peripheries. The Max patch reads grayscale data of a 1 pixel strip from the center of the image down to the bottom, translating that data into an audio frequency spectrum. The image can be rotated at variable speed to cycle through the entire drawing as an audio sequence. It can also be stretched or shrunk to change the pitch in a major scale.
Live performance footage at Open Signal's A/V Party, 11/15/17 shot by Patricia Wolf:
