Developer Pit Przygodda shared this live performance with the Silhouette Eins Optical Synthesizer, an instrument that translates images into sound in real time.
The Waves is an audiovisual piece, played on the Silhouette Eins. Przygodda says that the piece is inspired by the beauty of nature and the novel The Waves, by Virginia Woolf.
Within the blue rectangle, visual greyscale data is being selected and transformed into audio, to create a multimedia performance.
Przygodda also shared this video, demonstrating 7 sounds created with the Silhouette Eins:
See the Silhouette Synthesizer site for details.
Next to the Motor Synth, this is the dumbest idea yet!
i must have missed the performance… was it just the screen? did anyone move more than a mouse… no? no… it was just a consumer computer program.
When I got into electronic music, EVERYBODY was interested in experimenting, trying something new, or at least doing something outside the mainstream.
I love to see performances like this, where someone’s designed an original synth, created a performance that has a concept behind it, and made some interesting music.
Now, it seems like electronic musicians are turning into conservative luddites. Comments like John and John Rossi’s are incomprehensible and small.
Agreed, though the comment section on this whole site is really one of the most toxic armpits of the synth universe. There are a few people in particular who despite comment moderation end up in many comment sections saying unkind things. Ego ego ego. Those who enjoy exploration have always been the heart of the synth world.
Admin: Personal attack deleted. Keep comments on topic and constructive.
It may be “small” but I fail to see what was incomprehensible about my remark. Things that suck apparently suck!
There is a free ANS synthesizer emulator available for download. Image Line’s Harmor can use images as waveforms and apply various modulation. PixelSynth can do the same for free. Native Instruments’ Reaktor Newscool and Space Drone both convert animated image to sound in real time. There is another free image synthesizer but the name escapes me at the moment. Search for picture to sound software and dozens of entries appear. Silhouette Eins appears to be taking random snapshots of the frame and using them as spectral wavetables. Hundred year old technology.