Musical Spectrum Analysis is a really interesting take on Spectrograms. Developed by Jon-Kyle Mohr, a designer/programmer/musician and member of the Cargo Collective team, and Lee Martin, a developer at SoundCloud, who built a generative incarnation with Canvas and the SoundCloud API, which can be located at spectrogr.am.
What you are observing above is basically this (as described by Jon-Kyle Mohr):
Sound frequencies are displayed as they are heard. Lower frequencies are mapped low (bottom) to high (top). Brightness is determined by amplitude.
Sweeping tones and rhythmic patterns create intricate structures. The circular form is in memorial of dead formats; the CD, MiniDisc and others. R.I.P.
Andrew Ohlman, who also happens to be a member of the Cargo Collective team, compiled a Quartz sketch which does similar things called Circular Spectrogram.
You can download the Circular Spectrogram application here to create your own visuals (currently only available for Mac users).
Posted by B3PO
I love how organic these look. The second photo in particular reminds me of something you’d see in a ultrasound.
I am utterly loving this sound-mapping wavelength Charles & you are on. Great post, Jonathan! Can’t wait for more
Really interesting blog. I wonder how it works?
“Musical Spectrum Analysis is a really interesting concept developed by Jon-Kyle”
I am sorry, this is wrong. Musical spectrum analysis is a very classic audio signal processing tool.
The first spectrogram was realized in 1951 by the Kay Electric Co.
@WTF: Absolutely see how this can mislead people into thinking this is a new concept. We have rephrased. Thank you for pointing that out and for reading the blog.
B3PO
Cd’s are NOT dead! I condemn this notion.
Has anyone downloaded Circular Spectrogram application ?? Did it work?
@Denise: Yes, I’ve actually downloaded the App and tried it for myself. Easy to set up and to use. You just have to experiment with it. Currently available only for Mac users though.
B3PO
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I got it. very nice indeed but my spins much faster than the one on the first video. Is it possible to change the speed?
I can’t change the input either 🙁