4 ms·
Ask HN: What's the point of audio waveform visualization?
When playing audio, iPhone 14 displays the waveform on the dynamic island. It looks neat, but it got me thinking - why is this ever visualized outside of audio editing software? Is it just art? Does anyone actually get any information from it? What's the point?
- dqpb 4y agoTo answer my own question, it does indicate that something is playing, even of the audio is turned off, which is useful. I guess I'm wondering if anyone can "read" waveforms, or if there's some other usefulness to it.
- necovek 4y agoYou can see the underlying beat: it doesn't really require any special skill I think (though I haven't seen the iPhone waveforms).
- eimrine 4y agoI do not know what is displaying on iphone, but I love seing a spectre (Fourier transform) on log scale while listening to music.
- necovek 4y agoIt's not exactly art, but similar to a vumeter, you get an artifical "dancer" on your screen: just like watching other people dance (in rhythm), it activates your visual metronome and gets you more engaged with music. If the above sounds convincing, bear in mind that I am just thinking aloud, and I have no idea if any of the above translates to other people, let alone that this might be the reason music is ever visualized like this for playback.
- h2odragon 4y agoIt can be art, but in most contexts it's a low information progress bar type "give the user something to watch" measure.
- stuxnet79 4y ago> It can be art A fact that's been exploited by artists like Venetian Snares [1] and Aphex Twin [2] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHup81lEjqo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHup81lEjqo [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSYAZnQmffg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSYAZnQmffg Say what you will about "IDM" but the whole genre / movement enabled quite a bit of creative expression and range. I'd be hard pressed to see tracks like these being included in albums in any other context.
- h2odragon 4y agoI'll also submit that eXtace (remember that one?) is art. Surely there's other "pretty picture from audio" generators that count too.