KVR Audio

LexiDSP · Post by **LexiDSP** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 12:11 am

Hey guys,

I'm going teaching a few friends some basic sound design and I was thinking of making a few word docs that include the stuff I will be showing them. I would like to include some waveforms and spectrum diagrams but I was wondering if anybody knew a way I could capture a waveform or spectrum diagram as an image. Obviously I could use an oscilloscope plugin and just take a screenshot, but I would like it to be cleaner, as in the waveform itself would be black and the background would be translucent so that I could place it on the word doc and make it look good. Does anybody know of any oscilloscope or spectrum analyser plugins that allow you to export the signal as an image like i described?

I have included an image I got off google to try and demonstrate the type of diagram I would like to make.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:38 am

I'd use an audio editor like Adobe Audition / CoolEditPro. Can generate all basic waveforms, show the spectrum, etc. Zoom in to see the raw waveform.
Otherwise wikipedia has some basic diagrams of waveforms, usable under creative commons license.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 10:11 am

If you have access to a (32-bit, probably) version of something which can use Photoshop plugins, then there's this:

http://www.vanderlee.com/plugins_harmonix.html

stardustmedia · Post by **stardustmedia** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 12:23 pm

I'd also love to have such a little tool, best would be without the need of another software like Photoshop. But will try the Vanderlee with the free GIMP

stardustmedia · Post by **stardustmedia** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 12:39 pm

PS: Couldn't make Vanderlee's plugin work with GIMP

LexiDSP · Post by **LexiDSP** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 8:41 pm

Thanks for the suggestions guys

That Harmonix plugin looks good, on my mac now so can't test it out yet, but once I am home I can check it on my windows system. I probably will have to just use a regular oscilloscope screenshot for now. Amazing how I can't find a plugin that will let me either do a real time analysis of a sound and export the results as an image or load an audio file for analysis.

stardustmedia · Post by **stardustmedia** » Thu Dec 11, 2014 6:32 am

I bet there are software doing that, but probably not so known amongst us musicians or engineers. And probably very expensive

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Thu Dec 11, 2014 10:19 am

I think the problem is that your using real-time tools but want to expert a static image. Most of them aren't really designed with that in mind (although most software based oscilloscopes can do it). Adobe Audition would be my first choice for comparing the waveform to the spectrograph. I forget- does Audacity provide a spectral view?

At any rate, it sounds like you already have something capable of generating the displays you require. Just make screen captures of them and then clean them up in GIMP- cropping the image, inverting black and white if needed, adjusting luminance levels, etc. I don't know what your scope images look like so it's hard to be specific, but if you want to post an example, I'll be happy to get further into the details.

LexiDSP · Post by **LexiDSP** » Thu Dec 11, 2014 5:52 pm

I made a basic oscilloscope in m4l using the [scope~] object (see attached image) and just modifying the background colour etc. I can add my own axis and stuff to it now in Pixelmator or something. I will probably first copy the patch over to the standalone max app so i can resize the window but I am pretty happy with this as a basic waveform visualizer for now anyway until something better turns up

Waveform Diagrams