Synths node
Spectral Synth
Reads an image as a spectrogram: it scans horizontally while each row of pixels defines the amplitude of one of a bank of up to 256 sine partials, so a picture's brightness pattern literally becomes the sound's harmonic content.
What it does
Spectral Synth is a synth: it turns notes into sound. It takes picture and notes in and gives audio out.
Try it
Draw a simple shape in a Draw node and route it in — the silhouette becomes an audible spectral sweep as the playhead crosses it.
Draw/Video TextureSpectral SynthAudio Out
Inputs and outputs
Inputs
- picture image
- notes note
Outputs
- audio out
Controls
Every control with a range can be driven by a modulator, a note, an audio level or a sketch.
| Control | Range or options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| specMode | Loop (0->1), Ping-Pong, One-Shot, Free-Run Hz, BPM Sync, Manual Scrub | 4 |
| specRate | 4 bars, 2 bars, 1 bar, 1/2, 1/2., 1/2T, 1/4, 1/4. … | 2 |
| speed | 0.05 to 10 | 1 |
| specPart | 64 Partials, 128 Partials, 256 Partials | 1 |
| specScale | Logarithmic (Musical), Linear (Hz), Harmonic Series, Mel Scale, Chromatic (12-TET) | 0 |
| minHz | 20 to 2000 | 40 |
| maxHz | 500 to 20000 | 16000 |
| rootHz | 20 to 2000 | 261.630005 |
| fine | -50 to 50 | 0 |
| glide | 0 to 2 | 0 |
| specColor | Luma (Mono), Hue -> Stereo Pan, RGB Split (L/R/Shimmer), Spectral Bands | 1 |
| thresh | 0 to 0.5 | 0.0199999996 |
| contrast | 0.2 to 4 | 1.20000005 |
| gain | 0 to 3 | 1 |
| volume | 0 to 2 | 0.800000012 |
| pan | -1 to 1 | 0 |
| width | 0 to 2 | 1 |
| unison | 1 to 8 | 1 |
| detune | 0 to 50 | 8 |
| specFilter | off, lp 12, lp 24, lp 36, hp 12, hp 24, hp 36, bp 12 … | 1 |
| cutoff | 20 to 20000 | 18000 |
| reso | 0 to 1 | 0.150000006 |
| drive | 0 to 1 | 0 |
| attack | 0 to 4000 | 10 |
Example patch
This patch wires Spectral Synth to what it needs and shows the result. Download it, then use File, Open in Infinite, or read it here: it is plain text.
infinite-patch 1
rev 2
# Spectral Synth: a starting patch for the Spectral Synth node
node 1 Synths Spectral Synth
id node
pos 520 300
end
node 2 Source Ramp
id in0
pos 0 220
end
node 3 Notes Random Note Generator
id in1
pos 0 510
end
node 4 Utility Audio Out
id speakers
pos 1080 300
end
cable node 0 in0
note node 1 in1
aud speakers 0 node