MIDI art, and other forms of audio GFX
Introduction
The second edition of the SurfClub Guides E-Zine is about GFX: What makes a digital media visually interesting ? What makes the web and other digital medias stand out among other means of communication ? What makes the web revival movement so unique through web graphics ? While I really wanted to participate in this edition of the E-Zine, I tend to prefer music rather than visual art as a way to express feelings, convey messages, and entertain. Therefore I decided to tweak the initial theme a little: I had to find a connection between music and visual arts. This is when I first though about MIDI art. This was the perfect way to link pixel art and music, so that I could talk about stuff I love and know about. I also remembered about a 3a.m. youtube video with absolutely stunning visuals made only with an oscilloscope, along with the nostalgia of the Windows Media Player visualizer.I hope you will take pleasure in reading this submission, and that maybe you will have learned a few things!
Contents:
MIDI notes pixel art
Most examples in this section are done using Online Sequencer, so you can try and experiment on your own.MIDI ???
So there's this thing called MIDI, which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. I won't get into any technical details, you just need to know that it's a way to make sound with a computer. You can usually write musical pieces with specific softwares called DAWs.More info on the MIDI association website
This is what a midi track I made looks like !
And this is what it sounds like !
MIDI art ???
When composing, the notes are displayed on a grid, which can be seen as a canvas. From there on, we can start making pixel art ! The best part is, you can customize each note with a certain sound and create a very unique sounding pixel art.The MIDI association fully recognizes the existence of such art !!
Pixel art !
The sound of pixel art ??
DEMO !!!!
Here are a few examples of MIDI art pieces :A more complex drawing
sans.
sounds.
This one was also made to sound coherent !
A Zelda Medley in MIDI Art
~ Oscilloscopes and stuff ~
Waveform art
So you know how sound is just a wave ? Well turns out you can shape that wave ! I won't get into some complicated math, but basically, the most simple wave is a sine wave, a nice, smooth, round wave, repeating itself as regularly as possible. Using the previously mentioned complicated math, you can shape the waveform to your liking and create some unique designs. However, waveform art has a rather cumbersome limitation : Since we are using a mathematical function (and graphing it in cartesian coordinates), the line can only go right and up or down. This means we can never loop back and go left : to put it simply, this method allows us to draw the letter 'V', but not the letter 'O'. The good part is, other methods allow us to remedy this problem.Examples !! (Both made by Japhy Riddle)
Shark-shaped waveform ?!
I didn't know sharks made noise
Messing around with oscilloscopes
Oscilloscopes are very basic electronic devices, which take 2 signals in entry, and display them on a grid. You can fiddle with the entry signal to manipulate the visual output. But in our case the entry signal is duplicated to both left and right speakers. The process creates a very unique type of music, along with an interesting video clip. This genre was initiated by two polish composers/programmers. They ended up developing a software that functions alongside the Blender 3d modeling program, and outputs the corresponding signal to an oscilloscope. The project is better described on the >Oscilloscope Music< website.
Pretty nice, isn't it
Audio visualizers
Audio visualizers are graphical displays mostly used as a video complement to audio content. They illustrate the audio specter by graphing the audio frequencies all through the audio media.Graphs
Graphs are the most basic audio visualizers. Some are actually made of 2 graphs, displaying data for stereo audio (left and right channels), and some only show a single graph of the overall frequencies. An audio visualizer graph displays audio frequencies at any point in time, from low to high frequencies.One of the most well known audio visualizers [among linux ricing nerds] is called cava (for Cross-platform Audio Visualizer). It is widely used to spice up home screens and status bars.
What could be playing right now ?
Circles
Circular audio visualizers are somewhat similar to graphs, usually representing both audio channels, and using the center of the circle to display a logo or some other image. Frequencies from low to high are represented from the bottom to the top, extending away from the center of the circle. I've mostly seen this kind of audio visualizer used in youtube music videos.
You can notice the visualizer going crazy along bass drops
Windows Media Player
This one brings up a ton of nostalgia from back when Windows Media Player was still widely used (up until about 15 years ago). Although it feels soooo 2000s, I've always found it mesmerizing to look at. Turns out you can still enjoy it in the same old Windows Media Player, by displaying the currently playing song with the bottom right icon, right clicking in the middle, and selecting "Visualizations".
Surely someone else out there remembers this