24 ms·

12 Piano notes made visible for the first time

46 points by thinker 14y ago

wavesounds 14y ago
"If we sample a moment from music and analyze it in terms of its fundamental frequency and associated harmonics, and then apply that sample to, say, a circular latex membrane of known elasticity, known diameter and fixed edge, present mathematical techniques cannot predict what pattern will form on the membrane." If you knew the resonate frequency of the membrane I wouldn't think this would be that hard to figure out using Fourier analysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_analysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_analysis
beemoe 14y ago
"The CymaScope represents the first scientific instrument that can give us a visual image of sound and vibration - a cymatic image - helping us to understand our world and universe in ways previously hidden from view." ... you can graph change in pressure over time to get a visual image of sounds and vibrations. It is safe to say people have been doing this for a very long time. And what about the page on "sonic healing"... What a crazy site!
- asksol 14y ago
  Like this little "fact box": http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/soundhealingimages/Principles_of_Resonance_URL.jpg http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/soundhealingimages/Pr..., only reference to "Prime Resonance Frequency" I could find on the web was on a few new-age sites, and apparently they have managed to find the frequency at which a cell vibrates.
dsirijus 14y ago
So, this is like Chladni patterns, but in 3D and high definition? Or just Chladni patterns with high framerate? I'm having a hard time interpreting this from very vague and pretty uninformative descriptions. Frank Zappa stated on multiple ocassions that he considered himself, in essence, an air sculptor. I'd love to see few of his "sculptures" animated in 3D.
teeja 14y ago
For the first time in history individual piano notes have been made visible using the CymaScope instrument. Except for all the times someone fed the output of a mic amplifier into a scope and watched a Lissajous figure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve Not to mention Duddell's photo oscillograph over 100 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope_history#Photographic_oscillograph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope_history#Photograph...
- raverbashing 14y ago
  Yes Still it's not clear what they are doing with the sound, and how they're plotting it
  - hamai 14y ago
    I guess they could be using "partials": >Any complex tone "can be described as a combination of many simple periodic waves (i.e., sine waves) or partials, each with its own frequency of vibration, amplitude, and phase." A partial is any of the sine waves by which a complex tone is described. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_%28music%29#Partial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_%28music%29#Par...
- ljf 14y ago
  Or... it's been done for 'thousands of years', more recently described in 1787 by Ernst Chladni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Chladni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Chladni. There are descriptions of this process in ancient Arab and Indian texts, and the results match images drawn in sacred spaces around the world. The simple way to see these images is to place fine sand or similar medium on a tight drum skin, and play an instrument (or even sing a sustained note) loudly near the drum. The sand will 'dance' to various set patterns, widely differing for each note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtiSCBXbHAg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtiSCBXbHAg [please do watch this video, it's easy to imagine that this could have been seen through history by drummers - and give it a try at home, it's really easy to do, and blows kids/friends/spouses minds!] The cryptic symbols in Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland may be musical instructions, copied down from the shapes formed during the processes described above, before written music was mainstream, and used to decorate the ceiling of the chapel: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_rosslyn_code/2011/05/the_rosslyn_code_5.single.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_rosslyn_code/2011/05/...
DanBC 14y ago
These are very pretty visualisations. I agree with others here that the page is "interesting" and seems to lack detail about the process. The visualisations reminded me of the book "Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty" by Clifford Pickover. http://www.amazon.com/Computers-Pattern-Chaos-Beauty-Graphics/dp/031206179X http://www.amazon.com/Computers-Pattern-Chaos-Beauty-Graphic...
pazimzadeh 14y ago
I think I prefer the iTunes visualizer.
- jarin 14y ago
  Milkdrop is probably the best general visualizer ever made. There used to be an iTunes port but I think it died long ago, which is too bad.
ivanb 14y ago
So what do the images depict? Is it some density map in polar coordinates? Fourier? What am I seeing here?
- defrost 14y ago
  Camera images of a fluid on a circular membrane would be my best guess: http://www.cymascope.com/cymascope.html http://www.cymascope.com/cymascope.html http://www.cymascope.com/gallery.html http://www.cymascope.com/gallery.html
pretoriusB 14y ago
This looks like a goofy amateur science thing. >"The CymaScope is a new type of scientific instrument that makes sound visible." Really? Because we have been making sound visible for centuries. I have around 40 plugins in my Logic Pro that "make sound visible". >"The CymaScope has applications in almost every branch of science simply because vibration underpins all matter. The ability to see such vibrations permits a depth of study previously unavailable to scientists, engineers and researchers." Really? Because it seems rather simple to make one... >"Music, in the absolute sense, is the invisible geometry of the cosmos, a delicate tracery of frequencies that harmonise with each other and from which all matter manifests." Only if you define "music" very loosely, and probably not even then.
largesse 14y ago
MMV technology is still under development but as this excerpt from Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" shows, an exciting future lies ahead when all music can be transcribed to MusicMadeVisible. I preferred the laser shows at the planetarium when I was a teen.

46 points by thinker 14y ago

"If we sample a moment from music and analyze it in terms of its fundamental frequency and associated harmonics, and then apply that sample to, say, a circular latex membrane of known elasticity, known diameter and fixed edge, present mathematical techniques cannot predict what pattern will form on the membrane." If you knew the resonate frequency of the membrane I wouldn't think this would be that hard to figure out using Fourier analysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_analysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_analysis

beemoe 14y ago

"The CymaScope represents the first scientific instrument that can give us a visual image of sound and vibration - a cymatic image - helping us to understand our world and universe in ways previously hidden from view." ... you can graph change in pressure over time to get a visual image of sounds and vibrations. It is safe to say people have been doing this for a very long time. And what about the page on "sonic healing"... What a crazy site!

asksol 14y ago
Like this little "fact box": http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/soundhealingimages/Principles_of_Resonance_URL.jpg http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/soundhealingimages/Pr..., only reference to "Prime Resonance Frequency" I could find on the web was on a few new-age sites, and apparently they have managed to find the frequency at which a cell vibrates.

dsirijus 14y ago

So, this is like Chladni patterns, but in 3D and high definition? Or just Chladni patterns with high framerate? I'm having a hard time interpreting this from very vague and pretty uninformative descriptions. Frank Zappa stated on multiple ocassions that he considered himself, in essence, an air sculptor. I'd love to see few of his "sculptures" animated in 3D.

teeja 14y ago

For the first time in history individual piano notes have been made visible using the CymaScope instrument. Except for all the times someone fed the output of a mic amplifier into a scope and watched a Lissajous figure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve Not to mention Duddell's photo oscillograph over 100 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope_history#Photographic_oscillograph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope_history#Photograph...

raverbashing 14y ago
Yes Still it's not clear what they are doing with the sound, and how they're plotting it
- hamai 14y ago
  I guess they could be using "partials": >Any complex tone "can be described as a combination of many simple periodic waves (i.e., sine waves) or partials, each with its own frequency of vibration, amplitude, and phase." A partial is any of the sine waves by which a complex tone is described. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_%28music%29#Partial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_%28music%29#Par...
ljf 14y ago
Or... it's been done for 'thousands of years', more recently described in 1787 by Ernst Chladni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Chladni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Chladni. There are descriptions of this process in ancient Arab and Indian texts, and the results match images drawn in sacred spaces around the world. The simple way to see these images is to place fine sand or similar medium on a tight drum skin, and play an instrument (or even sing a sustained note) loudly near the drum. The sand will 'dance' to various set patterns, widely differing for each note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtiSCBXbHAg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtiSCBXbHAg [please do watch this video, it's easy to imagine that this could have been seen through history by drummers - and give it a try at home, it's really easy to do, and blows kids/friends/spouses minds!] The cryptic symbols in Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland may be musical instructions, copied down from the shapes formed during the processes described above, before written music was mainstream, and used to decorate the ceiling of the chapel: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_rosslyn_code/2011/05/the_rosslyn_code_5.single.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_rosslyn_code/2011/05/...

DanBC 14y ago

These are very pretty visualisations. I agree with others here that the page is "interesting" and seems to lack detail about the process. The visualisations reminded me of the book "Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty" by Clifford Pickover. http://www.amazon.com/Computers-Pattern-Chaos-Beauty-Graphics/dp/031206179X http://www.amazon.com/Computers-Pattern-Chaos-Beauty-Graphic...

pazimzadeh 14y ago

I think I prefer the iTunes visualizer.

jarin 14y ago
Milkdrop is probably the best general visualizer ever made. There used to be an iTunes port but I think it died long ago, which is too bad.

ivanb 14y ago

So what do the images depict? Is it some density map in polar coordinates? Fourier? What am I seeing here?

defrost 14y ago
Camera images of a fluid on a circular membrane would be my best guess: http://www.cymascope.com/cymascope.html http://www.cymascope.com/cymascope.html http://www.cymascope.com/gallery.html http://www.cymascope.com/gallery.html

pretoriusB 14y ago

This looks like a goofy amateur science thing. >"The CymaScope is a new type of scientific instrument that makes sound visible." Really? Because we have been making sound visible for centuries. I have around 40 plugins in my Logic Pro that "make sound visible". >"The CymaScope has applications in almost every branch of science simply because vibration underpins all matter. The ability to see such vibrations permits a depth of study previously unavailable to scientists, engineers and researchers." Really? Because it seems rather simple to make one... >"Music, in the absolute sense, is the invisible geometry of the cosmos, a delicate tracery of frequencies that harmonise with each other and from which all matter manifests." Only if you define "music" very loosely, and probably not even then.

largesse 14y ago

MMV technology is still under development but as this excerpt from Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" shows, an exciting future lies ahead when all music can be transcribed to MusicMadeVisible. I preferred the laser shows at the planetarium when I was a teen.