generating textures from sound input

hi all.
I’m super new to this program and it’s feeling really alien to me.

I’m trying to figure out how to use audio files to generate or affect images.
(the project I have in mind is based on Cymatics)

any input on how I can do this? I could really use all the help I can get.

Thanks

punkonater,

welcome to touch! The first things you’d want to do for audio reactivity is to get usable channel data out of an audio stream or file. There are number of methods: you can do the analyses in another program and send it in the touch via OSC, or do the analyses of the audio in Touch. This tutorial has a simple method for analyzing an audio stream in Touch :

[url]http://vimeo.com/groups/insidetouchdesigner/videos/15850663[/url]

Richard is using it to affect a geometry’s position, but you can also apply the data to the parameters in any number of TOPs (texture Operators) to create flat reactive textures.

As he suggests, if you’re totally lost you should probably watch the 'first things" videos. These will give lots of info on the basics of the workflow, exporting channels, etc.

When it comes to cymatics, you may be able to string together an interesting TOP network using OPs like displace, but chances are you’ll want to investigate a GLSL shader that simulates cymatic patterns.

You may want to look at a couple of the shared COMPs, perhaps these two, as methods for more complex, shader based, texture generation:

[url]Reactive Diffusion Component - Shared .tox Components - TouchDesigner forum

[url]http://www.derivative.ca/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1615&start=0[/url]

Hope that gives you something to go on!

Thanks so much for the quick reply!
Actually about an hour after posting I found Richard’s tutorial and made a sphere that’s reactive to my laptop mic.

I really have to say that this program is amazing. It’s just so powerful! I even sent an email to my university department’s chairperson telling him students need to learn this program.

I’m starting to understand more about the program. I’ll give those two forum links a look and try them out for myself.

Ahh! I’m so excited about this software!!

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Hey Punkonater,

Here’s a .toe file I used to create cymatics.
It’s a very basic audio synthesizer.
It has two waves where the frequency, offset, wave type, cross fade, and noise can be adjusted.
It’s still a bit rough, as it was made for personal use.
I made this film with it…

vimeo.com/9681936

I spent about six hours cleaning the .toe file up,
so that you and others can use it.
It’s far from perfect, but it should get you going.

Now for some conversation with the Derivative folks:
At first I had these chop waves (audio frequencies) displayed in the Control Panel interface with a Top Op-view.
Problem is, tops only samples at 60hz max.
When I look at these audio waves displayed in Chops,
I can see the frequency accurately.
As soon as it goes through a top (for a control panel reference)
then the sampling rate of the image is too slow to accurately depict the wave form.
[u]If there was a way to depict chops at their inherent sampling frequency
(as inside of the chops designer interface)
inside a Control Panel than this would be very helpful for a synth such as this.
Another problem is that the Trail Chop kills the wave representation as well,
and makes the representation blocky/choppy
[/u]

enjoy

Jim
JimEllisTwoWaveAudioSynth.121.toe (162 KB)

Wow your video is amazing. It makes me think of floating in a nebula.

I just figured out my problem with using the old build. I guess everyone uses the experimental builds.

I’ll give this a try and ask later if I get lost :stuck_out_tongue:

– also
I tried that first tutorial by Richard. here it is if you wanna have a look :stuck_out_tongue:
youtube.com/watch?v=Nik1s1Wuydo