Timbres Gallery

Published: 17 March 2011

“See Sound…”

A mathematical transformation converts the timbres of sounds to images. Below is a random collection of sounds with their visualised timbres for illustration.

Do they look like they sound ?

Strings

Organs

Synths

Didgeridoo, Piano, Flute, Clavinet

“…Hear Images”

The transformation works both ways. We synthesized images and then transformed them to the unique sounds that have these timbres.

Yep - an image-based musical synthesizer.

What exactly are you looking at ?

We recorded short audio samples and calculated their timbre images. When you play the animations below, you will hear the original sound and see an animated bar moving along the timbre to show which part you currently hear. Because the timbre of the sound evolves over time, its visual representation creates a unique pattern, like a fingerprint.

For the specialist: horizontal axis is time, vertical axis is phase, colouring is amplitude.