When creating demo patches of audio visualization using FFT in class, one of the first thoughts that came into my mind was that the jit.world looked a lot like the outer space. All we needed on top of the black background was shapes that illustrate planets and meteors.
First and foremost, I decided to Fourier transform a song called “Open” by Rhye. The reason for choosing this music was that it has tonal and rhythmic contrast as it started with a mellow melody, gradually increasing to an upbeat. Since I used the transformed matrix data for the scaling of my graphical shapes, I didn’t want certain high amplitudes to completely go off the limits of the window dimension.
In order to make a sound visualization similar to the structure of the outer space, I created a 3D sphere in the center of the window. I used jit.gl.gridshape instead of jit.gl.plato that we used in class in order to render 3D objects. For changing the color, I incorporated the color parameter function from jit.mo’s organic movement patch and used min, max, and mean values of the return values of the function. Also, I worked with the mean value of the transformed matrix data to scale the size of the sphere.
Then, I created a ring system around the planet by using the position and rotation parameter functions from the jit.mo’s help patch. I tested values in these functions to make an encircling ring around the sphere. The most important aspect of these rings is that the most inner ring corresponds to the lowest fourth of the frequency range and the following rings also relate to its section in the range. I was able to achieve this by using jit.scissors and dissecting the matrix range into four parts.
Lastly, I wanted to display meteors in the outer space. In order to accomplish this I tested various point visuals based on the transformed matrix. Instead of jit.gl.gridshape, I utilized jit.gl.plato for this illustration because I only needed points that move in certain flow.
Another significant part of this project is that it not only uses FFT for sound visualization, but also for audio processing. I used one of our lecture examples on noise gating so that I can provide a control for the user to modulate the scaling value of the sound visualization. Since noise above certain limit will be lost, this is a good way for the visualization to be within the window resolution.
By working on this project, I was very glad to make my own visualizer by using FFT. Furthermore, the final outcome made me think that it looks a lot like the expansion or the explosion of the universe.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BAh3ae9IVZ0IWv25_XLpeLN_j36FyX_d