fractal waveform virtual instrument

[Kalamata Kid]

You haven't responded to my previous post yet. I kind of feel like you don't understand the algorithm behind the Mandelbrot set, and now you want to mix and match fractal geometry with chaos theory?!

Throwing a rendering of a fractal into Kaleidoscope or Photosounder or Metasynth is hardly a "fractal waveform virtual instrument". The results won't be substantially different from a multitude of other ways of deriving images to feed into those programs. If you want a fractal oscillator, you'd better understand how fractals are computed and how to apply those algorithms to a fundamentally different domain.

Your patronizing attitude is not welcome here.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Another way which involves converting a fractal to audio and then use a number of audio to cc converters and map to parameters.

There are plenty of free image to audio programs.

Spectrobits is a free VST plugin
http://www.g200kg.com/jp/software/spectrobits.html

I convert algorithmic images to audio but fractals tend to be the most useless.

[Kalamata Kid]

Another way which involves converting a fractal to audio and then use a number of audio to cc converters and map to parameters.

There are plenty of free image to audio programs.

Spectrobits is a free VST plugin
http://www.g200kg.com/jp/software/spectrobits.html

I convert algorithmic images to audio but fractals tend to be the most useless.

Thanks, learned a new term today "algorithmic images".
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22algo ... gA&dpr=0.9

Spectrobits does a bit too much chirping for my liking. Many of these types of Plugins are work in progress. Gotta start somewhere! Oh, it gets a bit better later on! Spectrobits good for sound design and for some types of music. My two cents.

There are many ways to convert images to audio. I am mostly interested in fractals and the like what ever that may be as they have infinite detail. My thinking is to have a direct conversion from fractal to waveform and the means to tweak it.

I have no intention of ever developing a fractal plugin but am interested to cheek out any links to one that has a musical audio output. How abort a Serum Fractal VST? Is that a stretch?

[synzh]

what leaps to my mind is that you start with say one of those programs that allows you to slowly and at a linear pace, zoom into a particular region of a fractal you'd like to explore; allow that program to generate the image just like it does but instead of the colors/edges of an image as output, you use that data to generate the sound (like what has been described as in kaleidoscope, spectrobits, others) so that that output will slowly morph over time as you zoom; but again the real problem is how to do that mapping so that you wind up with something that doesn't sound like garbage. Sounds kinda like get some sort of prototype (or 2 or 3) up and going and start tryin stuff....

[Kalamata Kid]

what leaps to my mind is that you start with say one of those programs that allows you to slowly and at a linear pace, zoom into a particular region of a fractal you'd like to explore; allow that program to generate the image just like it does but instead of the colors/edges of an image as output, you use that data to generate the sound (like what has been described as in kaleidoscope, spectrobits, others) so that that output will slowly morph over time as you zoom; but again the real problem is how to do that mapping so that you wind up with something that doesn't sound like garbage. Sounds kinda like get some sort of prototype (or 2 or 3) up and going and start tryin stuff....

Let the zooming of the fractal create movement in the audio output. Color variation and brightness/contrast can also be used for movement. The tweaking should allow to meander in various ways in a fractal then making it into a linear waveform.

In the end the result mus be musical or not much has been accomplished. I am sure some gifted individual has thought of all this and more. Lets's hope that this individual is a musician and a programmer and is motivated.

[deastman]

You haven't responded to my previous post yet. I kind of feel like you don't understand the algorithm behind the Mandelbrot set, and now you want to mix and match fractal geometry with chaos theory?!

Throwing a rendering of a fractal into Kaleidoscope or Photosounder or Metasynth is hardly a "fractal waveform virtual instrument". The results won't be substantially different from a multitude of other ways of deriving images to feed into those programs. If you want a fractal oscillator, you'd better understand how fractals are computed and how to apply those algorithms to a fundamentally different domain.

Your patronizing attitude is not welcome here.

You're completely misreading the emotion behind my words. It isn't my intention to be patronizing, rude, insulting, or whatever. I just want to encourage you to look deeper into the math of the subject (which, frankly, isn't all that complex, even for someone as mathematically challenged as myself). Doing so might help to better inform the ways in which the algorithm can be applied to an audio signal.

[Kalamata Kid]

You haven't responded to my previous post yet. I kind of feel like you don't understand the algorithm behind the Mandelbrot set, and now you want to mix and match fractal geometry with chaos theory?!

Throwing a rendering of a fractal into Kaleidoscope or Photosounder or Metasynth is hardly a "fractal waveform virtual instrument". The results won't be substantially different from a multitude of other ways of deriving images to feed into those programs. If you want a fractal oscillator, you'd better understand how fractals are computed and how to apply those algorithms to a fundamentally different domain.

Your patronizing attitude is not welcome here.

You're completely misreading the emotion behind my words. It isn't my intention to be patronizing, rude, insulting, or whatever. I just want to encourage you to look deeper into the math of the subject (which, frankly, isn't all that complex, even for someone as mathematically challenged as myself). Doing so might help to better inform the ways in which the algorithm can be applied to an audio signal.

I am sure you mean well but let me encourage you discard the patronizing attitude.

[deastman]

I am sure you mean well but let me encourage you discard the patronizing attitude.

Something is getting lost in translation here. If you met me, you'd realize that I'm just about the least patronizing person ever. But okay, I can take a hint. Good luck with your project!

[xoxos]

personally (like you care ) i think it's patronising to speak about this idea as if its certain to elicit some exciting new synthesizer. hehehe

as people have said, fractal graphics methods don't immediately transfer to 1 dimensional forms. i think i have an attempt in my 2007 folder. maybe i should go back and think about it again. but i'll wait until you can tolerate comments you find disagreeable without cludging up discourse with retorts.

posting to mention you may already have your desired instrument available to you - if you've ignored the pertinent threads, recently noticed the sierpinski fractal (the triangle with triangular holes in it) is noted to be producible by a chaotic method (noted on the wikipedia page) - start from a point in the triangle, select a corner, move the point halfway to that corner, rinse, repeat.

this *suggests* to someone enthusiastic to believe it that the "chaotic" methods may implicitly produce fractal output, which may not be incorrect based on some of the oscillations i've seen. i can't imagine that it would sound overtly different from chaotic oscillators, eg. some parameter crosses a threshold, some lacunar advent produces a new harmonic regime, so that smooth modulation of parameters may pass through several discretised "timbral zones" instead of the continuous timbral modification we are used to with most synthesis methods.

by all means, continue to explore other possibilities! part of exploration though, is finding that not all destinations yield what is anticipated. fair enough, progress is the action of continuously moving forward.

[DocAtlas]

Actually, I think there is something like a fractal multi-stage envelope on Absynth, or a transformation to an existing envelope, something like that, adds a replica of existing envelope but smaller, I believe

No, the envelopes are multistage, but there's no fractalize function. Each envelope does have its own lfo, which can have a different rate and depth for each point on the envelope; it can only have one waveform, however.

There are two places where fractals come into play in Absynth. The first is in the waveform editor; it imposes smaller copies of the waveform on itself, and smaller copies on the copies, and so on. These can be used as oscillator or lfo waveforms, or as waveshaper curves. In the oscillators themselves, there is a similar function, but the position of the copies can be modulated, which adds a nice animation to the sound.