Requests/Wishlist

[A_SN]

Ok, got you, I think. Because of the 2 Gs for every R and B in most sensors?

No, for equal intensities (when all three colours add up to white) then green is seen as much brighter, much more luminous. According to my estimates if full white is 100% brightness then red is as bright as 16% white, green 73% and blue 11%. But that is why there are twice as many green pixels in a camera, since we're much more sensitive to green then we're also much more sensitive to its noise, so capturing more green lowers that green noise and gives better results. See this picture, each colour is at its fullest, and it's clear that green is much brighter

though I don't really understand it?

Just like Multiply blending between two layers (in image editors). Or like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA3KZbfJGD8 but with an image and a sound instead of two sounds.

[XComposer]

Wonderful… I'm very happy that I "resurrected" the discussion

All these new features sound great to me: you may surely count me in among the future users and supporters of this new version!

[XComposer]

Sorry… just a little question: what is the purpose of applying motion blur to the image in the above video? What happens if you don't apply it?

[A_SN]

Sorry… just a little question: what is the purpose of applying motion blur to the image in the above video? What happens if you don't apply it?

It fuses the harmonics together. Without it you'd have gaps, so, it wouldn't sound quite right.

[XComposer]

Sorry… just a little question: what is the purpose of applying motion blur to the image in the above video? What happens if you don't apply it?

It fuses the harmonics together. Without it you'd have gaps, so, it wouldn't sound quite right.

Thank you!

[pottering]

I read that the GUI is problematic, but in case it may be possible in the current GUI framework, the only feature I really NEED is drag and drop support for just dropping files directly into the interface.

That would be a HUGE boost to my workflow.

[lnikj]

OK, understanding much improved. Thanks.

@Xcomposer - thanks for resurrecting the thread!

[A_SN]

Btw just so we're clear, what you guys care about most is turning images to sounds to make sound effects, right? I need to know what to focus on.

[XComposer]

Well, not in my case. I do also that, but I prefer to use Photosounder to make spectral hybrids, convolution, vocoding, extreme time stretching, formant - harmonics separation (fantastic script!) and advanced audio samples elaboration.

[A_SN]

Well, not in my case. I do also that, but I prefer to use Photosounder to make spectral hybrids, convolution, vocoding, extreme time stretching, formant - harmonics separation (fantastic script!) and advanced audio samples elaboration.

Cool, good to know

Maybe I should ask you if you have any idea about how to improve the workflow and the back and forth with your DAW.

For years I've been thinking of doing a VST that would communicate with Photosounder to basically retrieve the produced sound, however that might suck on the DAW side as you wouldn't really be able to save that (you could save the instance of the receiver plugin but that wouldn't save the produced sound, you'd have to re-setup the whole thing every single time). What do you think?

Oh and yes I'll do the drag-and-drop file thing in Photosounder 2, it got easier since SDL 2 (the main library I use) handles it easily now.

[XComposer]

The formant – harmonics separation is a quite unique feature… I don't know any other software that does that so well (do you know of any?).

Yes, a better interaction with the DAW would be important. I am not a programming expert at all so I don't know if it is possible, but perhaps a good idea would be to make also a Photosounder virtual instrument (beside the standalone application program), like a VSTi.
In my case, I work on a Mac and my DAW is Logic Pro X, so I would use only AU plug-ins (Logic does not accept the VST format) and I would need an AU virtual instrument (like a VSTi, but in AU format).
A virtual instrument could load an audio sample (or an image), let you work on it as usual as you do in the Photosounder standalone program, then it could save the reworked sample and play it back in the DAW (like a sampler). But, again, I don't know if this would be possible.

Changing subject: I can speak only for myself, but I would be interested also in another synthesis method. I mean: if you have a line of pixels, I imagine that you can play it as a sound by matching it with a sinusoid at the corresponding frequency, or by making a narrow bandpass filter at that frequency that filters a white noise (I tend to simplify). Now, I would also be interested in the (optional) possibility of playing it back with an arbitrary audio sample, loaded by the user. If I remember correctly, Metasynth used to have this capability. It would be a very interesting option when working on the construction of sound hybrids (think of a bell spectrum played back with a trumpet note sample as the basic "oscillator").

[A_SN]

The formant – harmonics separation is a quite unique feature… I don't know any other software that does that so well (do you know of any?).

I have no idea, I heard that some do it for pitch shifting purposes, but usually it's just like one knob, so I don't really know what they do.

Which reminds me of one thing. So right now for a feature like this at best you have a script I made that you can load, but most of the time you're on your own, having to do the individual operations yourself. In Photosounder 2 since it'll be easier for me to add sort of dialogs and controls, I think I'll make proper dialogs for a lot of advanced effects like this, so that on your end it's just a couple of knobs, which is what you want really. Then maybe I'll start making sort of spin-off plugins out of some popular unique effects. I actually wanted to do that before I created SplineEQ, I experimented with an effect in Photosounder that I found interesting, it was something that would boost only the overall gain (of the envelope) based on an EQ curve (so you could boost the volume for when let's say the kick drum would kick in in a drum loop, without actually doing any EQing) but after I did the EQ part of it I thought screw it I'm just gonna do an EQ plugin, and then I got really deep into it.

Yes, a better interaction with the DAW would be important. I am not a programming expert at all so I don't know if it is possible, but perhaps a good idea would be to make also a Photosounder virtual instrument (beside the standalone application program), like a VSTi.
In my case, I work on a Mac and my DAW is Logic Pro X, so I would use only AU plug-ins (Logic does not accept the VST format) and I would need an AU virtual instrument (like a VSTi, but in AU format).
A virtual instrument could load an audio sample (or an image), let you work on it as usual as you do in the Photosounder standalone program, then it could save the reworked sample and play it back in the DAW (like a sampler). But, again, I don't know if this would be possible.

I think the fundamental problem about making a VSTi is how can you automate anything? Everything that isn't a slider will be lost when you reload your project, that's why plugins are all about either MIDI input or knobs/sliders. I guess it could work by saving a project file and reloading it (I could automate the path of the project), but I'm not sure how that would work out.

Changing subject: I can speak only for myself, but I would be interested also in another synthesis method. I mean: if you have a line of pixels, I imagine that you can play it as a sound by matching it with a sinusoid at the corresponding frequency, or by making a narrow bandpass filter at that frequency that filters a white noise (I tend to simplify). Now, I would also be interested in the (optional) possibility of playing it back with an arbitrary audio sample, loaded by the user. If I remember correctly, Metasynth used to have this capability. It would be a very interesting option when working on the construction of sound hybrids (think of a bell spectrum played back with a trumpet note sample as the basic "oscillator").

Concerning the lines I think what you're thinking of would make my aforementioned idea of using thin vector lines for FM synthesis. Is this correct? I want to do this eventually but maybe not for the initial release. And eventually even later I'd love to vectorise the lines of an input sound's pure tones, separating sines from filtered noises, essentially, it would give a much better resynthesis.

[XComposer]

Yes, I suppose it's correct. I just wanted to tell you that I would really like to be able to use a loaded audio sample instead of an oscillator or instead of noise filtering (as an optional additional alternative method).

[pottering]

My simple suggestion for workflow with DAWs would be 2 buttons/places on the GUI, one you can drag audio from Photosounder into the DAW or file manager, other the same but for the images (of course, dragging into Photosounder should work anywhere, not only in those buttons).
That would be useful in either standalone or VST versions.

IMO, VSTs are not very good for sample editors, DAWs don't allow plugins to add finished audio clips directly to a track, they usually require you record in realtime (many require an extra track and some routing), so drag'n'dropping is faster than waiting a 30 seconds sample be played and recorded.

(That's the same for MIDI editors, even for a 4-bar loop it is faster to drag'n'drop into the DAW than setup and record, that's why every drum sequencer has it or many requests for it)

[XComposer]

Another (probably simplistic) idea: could perhaps part of the work be saved in a preset with settings and another part as a multilayered image, like a TIFF with layers, to be loaded again when you reopen the project?