Audio-Reactive Visuals
Generated percussion and live sound animate a geometric pattern, while echo and analog-style distortion turn its movement into trails. A smoothed zoom follows the overall envelope, and a trace threshold reacts separately to the microphone.
Two analysis paths
A Stereo Mixer combines the synthesized percussion with live audio for level analysis. RMS converts that sound into a control signal, and OneEuro smoothing makes the zoom follow it more gradually. A second RMS analyzes the microphone independently to control the trace threshold.
The steady rhythm shapes the overall motion while a voice or instrument interrupts the image. Turning down the microphone in the mixer does not silence its separate trace-control path.
Setup
Use a build with Faust and its standard physical-modeling library for DjembeMIDI. Select a working audio input for the microphone branch; the percussion is synthesized and needs no recording.
Try it
- Start playback and turn Stereo Mixer inputs 1 and 2 down one at a time to hear each source being analyzed, then increase RMS Gain.
- Adjust OneEuro smoothing until the zoom follows individual accents, then until it moves gradually.
- Adjust the second RMS’s Gate while making quiet and loud sounds: below the gate, the microphone no longer affects the trace threshold.
To use recorded audio instead, connect a sound-file process to the microphone paths you want to replace.
Learn more
- Analysis - Audio analysis processes (RMS, FFT, pitch, onset)
- ISF Shaders - Interactive Shader Format effects
- Smooth - Signal smoothing for fluid animations
- Graphics pipeline - How the rendering system works