osci-render/README.md

Program for making music by drawing objects, text, and images on an oscilloscope using audio output.

This allows for 3D rendering of .obj files, .svg images, and .txt files on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

You can use MIDI to interface with osci-render to make and record music.

Read more about 'Rendering shapes through audio signals' in this article featuring osci-render!

Send an email to james@ball.sh if you have any issues, feedback, feature requests, or anything else!

Video Demonstration

Current Features

• Render .obj files on an oscilloscope
• Render .svg files
• Render text
• Rotation of objects
• Scaling images
• Translating images
• Applying image effects
  • Bit Crush
  • Vertical/Horizontal Distortion
  • Image Wobble
  • Smoothing
  • Image Tracing
• Save rendered audio to .wav file
• Show current frequency of audio
• MIDI control!
• Frequency control
• Animating image effects

Screenshots

Usage

Using osci-render is very easy; run the program and choose the file you would like to render, and it will output as audio to visualise on your oscilloscope.

By default, the program loads the example cube object. If this is working, you're good to go and should be able to load your own objects, files, or images!

Control the output using the sliders and text boxes provided. Currently the following can be controlled:

• Translation and speed of translation
• Weight of the lines drawn
• Rotation speed
• Volume/scale of the image
• Frequency

There are some additional controls for .obj files:

• Focal length of camera
• Rotation speed
• Rotation direction

Additional effects can be applied to the image such as:

• Vector cancelling (every other audio sample is inverted)
• Bit crush
• Horizontal/Vertical distortion
• Image Wobble (plays sin wave at same frequency as output)
• Smoothing
• Image Trace (traces out the image, drawing only a portion of the whole image)

Using osci-render without an oscilloscope

Obviously, not everyone has access to an oscilloscope, let alone an analogue oscilloscope. Luckily there are some decent software alternatives that are a good option once they're setup.

• First, download a virtual audio input/output device
  • This routes audio from osci-render to the software oscilloscope
  • On Windows, I use VB-CABLE
    • Set the digital input to be your default output device
    • Set the digital output to be your default input device
    • Then you can listen to the digital output to duplicate the audio to your headphones/speakers
  • On macOS, VB-CABLE is also available
  • Soundflower and Loopback (paid, but better) are also options for macOS
• Then, download a software oscilloscope
  • There are quite a few options available
  • My preferred option is https://dood.al/oscilloscope/
    • You need to click [reset all] when you first load the page otherwise there are no visuals
    • Just tick the microphone checkbox and it should listen to your default input device!
  • https://asdfg.me/osci/ is another good option
    • This can be buggy, and doesn't look as realistic
    • Just press the mic icon and choose your digital audio device you have routed osci-render to
• Contact james@ball.sh if you need any help

MIDI

You can use MIDI to control the frequency of the output - just plug in or open a MIDI software/hardware device and open osci-render and start playing notes!

To control the sliders using a MIDI slider or knob from a physical device, do the following:

• First, plug-in MIDI device
• Open osci-render
• Click MIDI logo next to the slider you want to control
• Red means the slider is 'armed' and waiting for you to choose a MIDI key to associate it with
• Move a CC slider/knob etc. on your MIDI device
• The MIDI logo now turns green, and is controlled by your MIDI device!

Installing

Head over to Releases and download the latest .exe, .pkg, .deb, or .jar.

.exe, .pkg, or .deb is recommended, if possible, as it is simpler to get up and running.

Installing using .exe (Windows)

• Download the latest osci-render-VERSION.exe from Releases
• Open the .exe skipping any Windows security warnings
• It should open briefly and then close without any user input
• Check your start menu for osci-render or open osci-render.exe at C:\Program Files\osci-render
• Start rendering!

Updating to later versions is as simple as running the latest osci-render-VERSION.exe again.

To uninstall, use Windows control panel, as you would expect.

Installing using .pkg (macOS)

• Download the latest osci-render-VERSION.pkg from Releases
• Since I haven't paid for a developer licence, you'll be warned that it is from an 'unidentified developer' when trying to run the installer
• To mitigate this, do the following (explained on the macOS User Guide)
  • Locate the downloaded .pkg file in Finder
  • Control-click the file, and choose Open from the shortcut menu
  • Click Open
• Follow the steps in the installer
• Open osci-render from the Launchpad
• Start rendering!

Installing using .deb (Ubuntu)

• Download the latest osci-render_VERSION-1_amd64.deb from Releases
• Install as usual, according to your distro
  • e.g. on Ubuntu, just double click to open and choose software installer
• After installing, you can execute /opt/osci-render/bin/osci-render to run!
• Start rendering!

Running using .jar (all platforms)

• Download the latest osci-render-os-VERSION.jar from Releases
  • Download the version that is relevant to your OS, otherwise the program will not open
  • i.e. osci-render-win-VERSION.jar for Windows and osci-render-unix-VERSION.jar for Linux
• Download and install Java 17 or later
• Run the following command from your terminal to run the .jar, substituting the correct path to your .jar file
• java "-Dfile.encoding=UTF8" -jar "PATH/TO/osci-render-os-VERSION.jar"
• Start rendering!

Building

I am using Maven for dependency management and to package the program. Doing the following will setup the project. I highly recommend using IntelliJ.

• Download and install Java 17 or later
• Run git clone git@github.com:jameshball/osci-render.git
• Open the project in IntelliJ
• I use SceneBuilder to edit the GUI
  • The FXML project files for each GUI element are located in src/main/resources/fxml
• You're good to go!

You should now be able to run sh.ball.gui.Launcher and start the program 😊

Contact

James Ball, james@ball.sh

Special Thanks

'Rendering shapes through audio signals' article author: Sudarshan Sreeram

@javierplano_videonix for testing and providing advice as an artist