Talk:Music visualization

it looks like a drug induced hallucination

Maybe this article should be put in context with previous visual music instruments such as colour organs, lumia, light sculpture etc.

Also some criticism is needed, the phrase "It also may give the musicians a greater appreciation of their music when they see it in motion as only visualization programs can provide." grates a little. It could also be argued for exaample that these pluggins turn any kind of music into the same visual sludge and are therefor insulting to the richness of music as a form of expression. There are plenty of examples of audio-visual content which give the listener more appreciation of each; in abstract cinema for eaxmple with animations by Alex Ruttterfors, Norman McLaren, SemiConductor etc. Visualisation pluggins are merely the dull tip of the iceberg.

While these programs may be the "tip of the iceberg," I think as these programs become more advanced we may be witnessing the birth of something big.

'Also some criticism is needed, the phrase "It also may give the musicians a greater appreciation of their music when they see it in motion as only visualization programs can provide." grates a little.' Why exactly? That's precisely what I use it for, and when you constantly write you're own new visualization code for tracks you've created it wouldn't just be the same visual sludge now would it? I know for a fact several artists use Milkdrop for this, including myself, Eo.S., and FishBrain. I in no way consider visualization programs insulting to the richness of music, and I compose symphonies. Actually I would say that's as much conjecture as saying a 512 band fast fourier transform 'insults the richness of music', I mean how insulted is the richness of music? Might the richness of music cry? I think what the person was getting at was that Music Visualization programs provide a here and now rendered in real time solution, where as other forms of audio-visual content such as abstract cinema, would often take much longer to create content for. I'm not saying it's the best sentence in an encyclopedic sence, yet at the very least was included with positive intentions.Eos4life 16:50, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

First Music Visualization software...

Jeff Minter's VLM-0 was developed in 1990, and though not commercially released it was the first VLM software. http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/vlm.php

He should probably be mentioned because his algorithms were emulated by the likes of Nullsoft and such...he could very well be considered the father of music visualizations. Since 1984 he was developing virtual light show apps that were controlled by hand, rather than automatically generated from music input. Like I said, in 1990, that's when he first incorporated audio input to control the visualization.

I apologize if I've posted this in the wrong area or broke some rules, this is my first wikipedia post.

NrXic 22:09, 7 February 2007 (UTC)nrXic

The earliest music visualization software I am aware of was written by Gary Shannon for the Apple ][ personal computer. This would have been around 1978. It was written in 6502 assembly language and used the Apple cassette in port (used for loading programs from tape) to crudely sample the audio. The output used the Apple's low-resolution graphics to create a kaleidoscopic display. I later wrote a "performable" music visualizer for the Apple called Kaleidosound that was published through Passport Designs Inc. Kaleidosound included several themes that used the Apple's low-res and hi-res graphics, and keystrokes could be used to control various color and speed parameters in real-time. Ironwolf 22:30, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Uncited synaesthesia comment.

"Synesthetic persons might perceive music visualization as uncomfortable as it contradicts their own feelings towards the visualized music.[citation needed]" How long should we let a comment like that go without citation before just removing it? Anyone have any ideas? Eos4life 16:55, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Proposal for broader scope

As mentioned above, animated imagery semi-automatically generated in response to real-time computer analysis of audio data is a recent development in an art form whose origins go way back --- and whose practitioners appear in various Wikipedia entries. Is there an entry on the art form itself? Without specifying what art form this is, it’s hard to say. It could be "a combination of visual and aural art" but that’s potentially very broad. Does the visual part need to be animated or would it also include paintings that are meant to be viewed while hearing a particular piece of music? Would it include dance choreographed to music, or does the visual part need to be abstract?

The names "visual music," "light music," etc. have been applied to abstract animation, but many artists who apply these to their work intend the "music" part to be taken metaphorically, to refer to visual art that has the abstract, temporal quality of music without necessarily including music (some going even so far as to be actually offended by the suggestion that what they do is merely "visualizing music").

Still, there are people whose aim is precisely to create a visual analogue to (and expressly to accompany) music, and "music visualization" seems like a likely name for what they’re doing. Music visualization may be "a feature found in some music player software," but it is certainly more than that, and it seems like this Wikipedia entry (or some Wikipedia entry with a name like this) ought to present a broader picture, perhaps laid out like this:

Overview of what music visualization is (and is related to), perhaps including a discussion of
Principles (metaphor, perception, synesthesia, mapping, psychoacoustics, etc.), followed by a
History of its development (Greeks, Newton, Scriabin, color organs, film animation, computers), including or followed by information about its various
Practitioners past and present; then, a compendium of
Tools that facilitate music visualization (this is where the "feature found in some music player software" would be mentioned), followed by
Future Directions (including architectures currently under development for support of music visualization), and of course the usual
See Also and
External Links.

Who should write this? If William Moritz were alive, he would be a likely contributor. Maybe Ken Peacock [1] could help? Somebody from the iota Center [2]? I’m no authority, but I’m tempted to put something up myself --- if only to entice better-qualified members of the community to remedy it.

We may indeed be witnessing the "birth of something big," but that’s just the point: it’s only being born; until it’s grown up, there will be a lot more to say about the other, more mature members of the family.

Musanim 02:24, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

I can help in some ways, after the main tone of the article is set. I've been scripting and programing visualization software (mostly in AVS, Milkdrop, VVVV, and proprietary software) for 4 years now, and have done visuals in front of crowds in excess of 4 thousand. (I'll stop there because more is just bragging.) But currently I'm tied up trying to help the MilkDrop article (check my user page), as I think it desperately needs to get past stub status. Eos4life 01:30, 26 April 2007 (UTC)