Cymascope II - seeing sounds

Some of you may remember some time ago I talked about an engineer friend of mine who designed a machine where you can 'see' sounds. Now dont confuse this with the laptop music waveforms that simply jump about in relation to the music you are playing on your computer - as they have nothing to do with it

With the Cymascope - you see a visual representation of the structure of sound. The possibilities are endless. See this link below and definately watch the Pink Floyd video to the images it produces.

http://cymascope.com/cyma_research/musicology.html

Now - imagine you're on a big stage and you have a 100ft version of these images behind you linked up to your ASAT or your Legacy.....Does anyone know how to contact steve vai??? Brings a whole new angle to 'seeing someone play'

Comments welcome. - Do read around on the whole site.

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I am going to thoroughly read through the website but when I first saw those piano notes it reminded me of the geometric patterns that form in sand when hitting a tuning fork.

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Fantastic.

I loved the concept of this idea and now seeing part of it in action is spellbinding.

I am gonna have to pour over that site some more.

i can not find the pink floyd video. it mentions it in the text, but no link of any sort.
also, i don't like that it brings religious overtones into it. why could it not be left alone.

i can not find the pink floyd video. it mentions it in the text, but no link of any sort.

Its right there on the page - check your browser - or your eyesight

also, i don't like that it brings religious overtones into it. why could it not be left alone.

Nor do I - but I dont think that has anything to do with the discussion of the physics of seeing sounds in dynamic real time.....I never made any mention of the spiritual stuff - I guess that's in the eye of the user....

Point is - its an amazing piece of kit and opens up a nice way to think about sound / music.

Anyone fancy composing in vision?

i am checking. my guess there should be something there, i tried with 2 different browsers, but i only see text where it mentions pink floyd.
it is very interesting and would be fun to compose in vision.
btw, i do know how to contact steve vai, i'll get the word to him, if he hasn't heard about it yet.

Hi Louis

Have a look at the movies / links on the page link - click on it - it does work. I have just checked it for you - it is there (MusicMadeVisible - click on that). I've been speaking to the main designer all afternoon as I am interested in running some independent experiments with his images - measuring emotional brain responses to different glyths from positive and negative sounds (laughing / crying etc) - but where the sound is not played.

I've also been trying to see what things like earthquake rumbles look like and the tsunami etc. I am also interested in the potential stimulation for autistic children and special needs individuals.

I have always thought of Steve Vai as being the most viable artist to use this technology and possibly help develop it - simply because he can make his guitar do things no one else can and I know he is quite into things like the 'earth' and spirituality.

If you chat to him - you can be sure he probably will not have heard of it - its cutting edge stuff and very new - he would be the first and i love the idea of him composing a song backwards, through the visual images....as i said, i know the main engineer who designed it - so if steve needs to be put in direct contact with him - let me know.

I would really like to get this information on steve's desk so he can consider his own artistic take on it and take it to a new level - but seeing what some of his sonic abilities 'look' like is mouth watering. The idea of these images (over-sized) projected onto the wall behind steve, as he plays in real time, during a tour is to die for....

I think steve would relish being the first to really use this technology.....

Louis,

Do you see the Flash Player like this under the line mentioning Pink Floyd?

Do you have Flash installed on your system?

no i don't and yes i do. latest version. i unblocked it with noscript, but still can't see it.

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I need to read the information still but my impression of the Pink Floyd video is that those are deliberately adulterated images, as in someone is doing something as they listen to the music to make the patterns do different things. Those images are not audio waves translated into visual light waves. If you listen to the audio and pay attention to the different patterns there is not a true representation of sound there. It could very well be derived from this technology but the result plays out like the manually manipulated laser light shows from the 70's. Of course I am relying on what I expected to see when I have not read the information yet.

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Last edited by Michael-GnL-Michael on Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

no i don't and yes i do. latest version. i unblocked it with noscript, but still can't see it.

Unfortunately it is Flash and not something easily linked and shared in this forum like a YT video.

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I need to read the information still but my impression of the Pink Floyd video is that those are deliberately adulterated images, as in someone is doing something as they listen to the music to make the patterns do different things. Those images are not audio waves translated into visual light waves. If you listen to the audio and pay attention to the different patterns there is not a true representation of sound there. It could very well be derived from this technology but the result plays out like the manually manipulated laser light shows from the 70's. Of course I am relying on what I expected to see when I have not read the information yet.

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Yes you do need to read the information

It is sound - turned into vision - that part of it has been established to some degree. Read the stuff on astronomy (songs of the sun) and how close it matches a computational model. Some aspects of the sound bubbles will be represented more strongly than others (probably due to dominance and amplitude) but the underlying physics represents the involvement of numerous engineers, scientists and mathematicians.

It is early days for the technology and their are bound to be refinements required - but the premise is there. My field of expertise is not sound - but i've played around alittle and its easy to get geometric shapes from basic sounds on a sensitive membrane.