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Visuals

Watch your sound

See what you hear. The XY Plot draws one sound against another as a shape of light, and a Screen shows it big. The Analyzer shows a sound's wave and its frequencies as it plays.

Pro: anyone can open any module and read its code, parts list or patch. Writing your own, or changing one, needs SynthMaker Pro. Turning its knobs is free. Adding a Screen, an XY Plot or shader art is part of SynthMaker Pro too; sounds made with them, such as Circle and Knots, open and play for everyone, and the Analyzer is free.

Circle and Knots's XY Plot card drawing its figure, and a keyboard below.
Hold a note: two sines draw a circle that ties itself in knots. Turn Glow. Open the example sound: Circle and Knots ↗ (opens in a new tab)

New words

An XY Plot is a beam of light that one sound moves left and right and another moves up and down.

A Screen shows the picture wired into it, big: an XY Plot's light, or a shader pattern.

An Analyzer passes the sound through untouched and shows it: its wave, or its spectrum, the sound's frequencies from low to high.

1The XY Plot's light

An XY Plot draws a beam: one sound moves it left and right, another up and down. Two sines make a circle; change their ratio and it ties itself in knots. Its card shows the light as you play, on the web and the Mac. Open Circle and Knots and hold a note.

  1. Step 1: On its card. Circle and Knots's XY Plot card, its figure drawn as a note plays. (larger)
  2. Step 2: Turn its knobs. Glow turned up: the beam blooms brighter. (larger)
  3. Step 3: XY Plot, in Visuals. The module browser’s Visuals group: XY Plot and Screen, each marked Pro. (larger)

2Big, on a Screen

Wire the XY Plot's visual into a Screen and the Screen shows its light, big. The wire is what decides which plot a Screen shows.

  1. Step 1: Visual into the Screen. The Patch: the XY Plot's visual wired into the Screen. (larger)
  2. Step 2: On the Screen. The Screen's card showing Circle and Knots. (larger)
  3. Step 3: Petals. Petals, another XY sound, on its Screen. (larger)

3The Analyzer

Click a module, then + Add a module, and add Analyzer from Tools. It goes after the module you chose. Play, and its card shows the wave (Scope). Switch it to Spectrum to see the frequencies: turn the Filter's Cutoff and watch the highs fall away. Freeze holds the picture still, and Compare draws another Analyzer over this one, to see before and after a module.

  1. Step 1: Analyzer, in Tools. The module browser's Tools group, Analyzer chosen. (larger)
  2. Step 2: After the Filter. Acid Starter's Patch with the Analyzer between the Filter and the VCA. (larger)
  3. Step 3: The wave. The Analyzer’s card on Scope, a note held. (larger)
  4. Step 4: Spectrum. The card on Spectrum: a peak for each harmonic. (larger)

Try it

  1. Open Circle and Knots and hold a note: its card draws the figure, and so does its Screen.
  2. Turn the XY Plot's Glow and Persistence: the light blooms, and the trail lasts longer.
  3. Open Acid Starter, click the Filter, then + Add a module, Analyzer, hold a note and switch it to Spectrum.
Open the example sound: Circle and Knots ↗ (opens in a new tab)

On the Mac, the XY Plot draws on its card the same way. Click Visuals in the toolbar and a Screen's figure fills a window of its own, which you can drag to a second display and make full screen.

Remember