Sonification is a very interesting technology concept that I was otherwise unfamiliar with until recently. This effectively gives you a unique sounding instrument that can be played via a MIDI device, like a keyboard. I could imagine them being used in the sound design for a sci-fi movie set in the 80s! Liam then demonstrated how you can take these sounds and sample them for MIDI instruments. However, they shared one thing in common: they all had a strange, alien-like quality to them. Each image sounded vastly different from one another, differing in complexity and overall mood. I was surprised when I heard the bizarre, yet satisfying audio playback. Liam imported the images to see what kind of wild sounds they would produce. I handed these off to the audio wizard, and he shared the results in his video below. I reached out to my fellow staff members at Fstoppers to borrow their images for this experiment. Up until this point, I had only been shown very simple examples, but I wanted to hear what photos from professional photographers sounded like. This piqued my interest, so I was very keen to experiment with this process. This bright, orange flame against a black background when converted, played back a roaring, whooshing sound. I was certainly skeptical, but then he showed me a picture of fire. It was basically a chaotic, digital cluster of sound that was not too kind on my ears. The first image, which looked like hundreds of stars in the night sky, sounded all over the place. Liam showed me some previous examples he had made using experimental images. What Does an Image Sound Like?Īfter learning more about sonification with Liam, I was extremely curious to hear these sounds and compare different images. Researchers will convert data into audio in order to spot recurrences within complicated data strings. Liam mentioned that the human ear is often better than the eye at detecting patterns. Sonification can be used for research purposes, employed to search through patterns of complex data. It’s not just limited to creative uses, though. You might do this if your image is sounding too messy and you want to limit how much sound is produced. Have it play for as little as one second, or slow it down to three days! Additionally, you can change and limit the frequency range that the software uses. He said you have complete control over the duration of the outputted audio. I asked Liam about the length of the audio clip and how that was decided. There are various attributes you can change within the software therefore, more creative controls are in your hands. The pitch of the sounds would be determined by the size and vertical position of the moon, while the complexity of the sounds would be affected by the moon's detail. If we were to convert this using Photosounder, what we would hear would be silence, followed by a series of loud sounds, then silence again. So, let’s say we have an image of a bright, distant moon, center-framed, against a black night sky. Liam stated that the brighter the area, the louder the sound will be, and vice versa. Lastly, the volume of the audio is dependent on the brightness levels in your image. In turn, anything at the bottom of your image will be deep and bassy. This means any detail towards the top of your image will be played as a high, chipmunk-like pitch. The Y-axis, however, represents frequency (pitch). It then scans horizontally, playing back the raw data live. In other words, the X-axis of your image represents time, meaning the left side will be played first. Liam mentioned that Photosounder plays images from left to right, just like how we read text. The sound is essentially a variation of white noise and is affected by various elements from your image, such as exposure, position, and lines. It works by taking the visual data from your image and generates audio using only that data. He recommended Photosounder, which costs $79 for the full version, but a free demo is also available. Liam said that in order to begin sonifying your images, you first need the right software. He often posts these creative explorations to his YouTube channel. Liam frequently experiments with audio/visual crossovers, using technology to further artistic possibilities. To understand this unique cross-media technique, I spoke with Liam Taylor, an audio wizard from the UK. It sounds bizarre, but sonification has a variety of purposes in many different fields. Essentially, it translates the visual data into audible data through a stream of clever conversion. So, how on earth could you hear an image? And what would your images sound like? With sonification, a post-production process, you are able to take a still image and convert it into sound. Photography and audio production are vastly different worlds, with completely different equipment and processes involved. The idea of hearing what an image sounds like is a ridiculous concept to comprehend.
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