I've just uploaded a new audiovisual instrument, BrushStrokes. The idea with this one is that you draw to play it. The visuals display a brush trail following where the mouse moves, and the audio consists of two oscillators whose waveforms are obtained by scanning the x- and y-axis positions of the trail (like scanned synthesis without the physical modelling). This also means that when the mouse isn't moving, you'll get no sound out, and when you make big gestures, it'll be louder than if you make small ones (also, the faster you move the mouse, the more higher harmonics you'll get out of it).
It'll accept MIDI notes to change the pitch of the oscillators, but MIDI has no effect on the amplitude of the sounds, so don't expect to play it quite like a traditional VST instrument (you have to keep moving the mouse!
). To record/sequence it, the mouse movements are automatable parameters, so just set your host to record automation and you should be set. The other thing it can do is if you click a mouse button, the visuals and the waveforms will freeze, acting as static oscillators.I'm afraid it's Windows only, though as usual it's open source. Instead of putting a boring static screenshot up, I did a wee processing applet to demonstrate the visual part of the instrument, so check it out (and download the plugin): here.
- Niall.
