Chenyi Wang

This project is an interactive music visualizer built in Processing, where the sound piece is produced using Ableton.

I incorporated the environmental sounds while making the sound. I love the sea, and I just happened to have a recording of the sea waves, which I recorded during the winter break in my hometown. I thought this recording would be a perfect sample for the main thread of my sound piece. I then experimented with Ableton and added some drums and samples that I found would be compatible. I also played with the effects and added some delay effects to one of the tracks.

The final result of my sound experiment:

The visual part was inspired by the overhead view of the sea waves and was implemented using the Perlin noise and floating particle effects.

The particles will always be moving, but the noise seed of the Perlin noise will change when the amplitude of the sound file passes a certain threshold, which will result in a change in the direction of the movement of the particles. I also made the size of the particles dependent on the amplitude, so the higher the amplitude, the bigger the particle size, and vice versa.

There are also some interactivities implemented. I added low-pass and high-pass filters, delay and reverb effects, and some corresponding controls to make it more fun.

Summary of the instruction for the interactivity in my work:

• “L” for low pass filter, moving the mouse horizontally to adjust the cut off frequency.
• “H” for high pass filter, moving the mouse horizontally to adjust the cut off frequency.
• “D” for delay effect, using the up and down arrow keys to adjust the delay time.
• “R” for reverb effect, using the up and down arrow keys to adjust the room size.
• Mouse Click to reset effects.
• Moving the mouse around can change the background color.
• Note: only one effect can be added at a time.

Demo Video

Tools: Processing, Ableton