[HN Gopher] Astrofox - Turn Audio into Videos
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       Astrofox - Turn Audio into Videos
        
       Author : GenericCanadian
       Score  : 198 points
       Date   : 2022-07-07 19:47 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (astrofox.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (astrofox.io)
        
       | processing wrote:
       | This is fantastic - will be using in the next Dystopian Disco
       | mixtape series
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Mxban54mM&list=PLFyd_83HK5...
       | 
       | Is it possible to set the effects run time for a set period & if
       | so would it be possible to have the effects modulated?
        
       | GenericCanadian wrote:
       | Found this today when looking for something to turn short podcast
       | clips into something more visual. Anyone have any other open
       | source tools they like? I've heard of using ffmpeg
       | (https://lukaprincic.si/development-log/ffmpeg-audio-
       | visualiz...).
       | 
       | Youtube video of Astrofox:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbvuniqNPPw
        
         | melony wrote:
         | The key to all audio/music visualizations is the Fast Fourier
         | Transform. Hook a FFT implementation to a graphics library and
         | you are set.
        
         | sogen wrote:
         | vvvv not open source but has a free version:
         | 
         | https://vvvv.org/
        
         | userhacker wrote:
         | You can use revoldiv.com. If you go to export and choose
         | audiogram, it will convert the audio/video you uploaded to text
         | and create an audiogram.
        
         | nmstoker wrote:
         | I had ended up using ffmpeg a few times for this (i think
         | inspired by the link you gave there) because it's often easier
         | to share video than just audio on mainstream social media
         | 
         | A few details of what worked for me and the output shown here:
         | 
         | https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/tts-audio-to-video-trick-usi...
         | 
         | But Astrofox looks much cooler and massively more
         | sophisticated.
        
       | kebman wrote:
       | Slightly reminiscent of old school demo scene stuff. Or perhaps
       | like a static version of WinAMP? I want more scrollers to greet
       | peeps in trippy space tunnels! xD
       | 
       | Digression about the Atari demo scene: Amazingly they still keep
       | cranking them out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QginSr9V7A
        
       | oferzelig wrote:
       | @mcao - this is fantastic! Finally a free and a really robust
       | replacement for Headliner and such. It's so great for podcasts.
       | Thanks!
       | 
       |  _EDIT_ I now realize it 's been out for 2 years now and never
       | heard of it before!
        
       | cassepipe wrote:
       | I just recalled windows media player animations seeing this. (Is
       | this thing still kicking ? I wouldn't know. I ditched Windows
       | quite some time ago)
        
       | tekni5 wrote:
       | Looks incredible, I could really use this I've been using stock
       | footage for my music videos with various effects/transitions. Can
       | I overlay the effects over videos or only static images? I
       | already have a ton of ideas.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/k2NAtIo8Wcs
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/BRMywh9yHWY
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/-89K59xrYmY
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/TCw7Bcwpsfw
        
         | mcao wrote:
         | Video is not currently supported but will be in the future.
        
           | tekni5 wrote:
           | I guess I could just export the audio visual effects based on
           | the audio track on a green background and then key them out.
           | So not a major issue just extra steps.
        
       | Mixtape wrote:
       | The one thing that I would like to see added to this would be the
       | implementation of IO streams for audio and video. I'd love to
       | find a piece of software that could be selected as the sole
       | output for either a system's audio or a specific application,
       | keep a buffer of the audio stream for processing, create an AV
       | output, and then allow that to either be captured or streamed to
       | something like OBS or VLC. Realistically, I can see latency being
       | a bit of an issue of course. Audio fidelity may also take a hit
       | if you exceed the buffer's capacity, but trying to implement a
       | direct passthrough for the audio may desync the it from the
       | visualizer.
       | 
       | Maybe it's just a pipe dream, but has anyone created/worked with
       | a project like that before? I'd be interested in seeing what's
       | out there.
        
         | Cyberdog wrote:
         | Streams, a pipe dream? I see what you did there.
         | 
         | Unfortunately this appears to be an Electron app, so expecting
         | behavior which would probably be quite simple for a real
         | application does in fact seem unlikely.
         | 
         | Too bad, too, since this does indeed look like a cool app.
        
       | echelon wrote:
       | Can you run this headlessly from the command line? It would be
       | powerful to generate videos at scale.
        
       | jalino23 wrote:
       | I love this so much! I've always wanted to build one. but
       | struggle with the math to turn music frequency into something
       | beautiful visually
        
         | mcao wrote:
         | It's open-source so you can see how everything is done. The
         | audio processing is all done with Web Audio APIs.
        
       | lateralux wrote:
       | I also recommend Le Biniou an open - source, user - friendly,
       | powerful music visualization & VJing tool https://biniou.net/
        
       | mcao wrote:
       | Hi everybody, I'm the creator of Astrofox. Surprised to see this
       | here, but I'll be glad to answer any questions.
       | 
       | Astrofox has been my side project for several years now. It's
       | basically my playground for trying out things like Electron,
       | React and WebGL. It's open-source, MIT licensed, and totally free
       | to use.
        
         | fullstackwife wrote:
         | Did you simply reinvent Winamp?
        
         | giancarlostoro wrote:
         | The UI is beautiful, is it all from scratch? or did you use
         | libraries, and where did you get inspiration for it from?
         | 
         | Sorry for the multiple questions, just not often I see
         | something that catches my eye like that.
        
           | mcao wrote:
           | Yes, the UI is all from scratch. My inspiration was from
           | seeing other audio-reactive videos on Youtube, but those were
           | rendered with either Adobe After Effects or a 3D program like
           | Blender. I wanted to build something that was easy for the
           | average person to use.
        
         | porjo wrote:
         | Looks cool! Any plans to support headless operation? What I had
         | in mind was to design a scene in the UI (for example a daily
         | podcast), then on command line take the project file and the
         | audio file and generate the video file output.
        
           | mcao wrote:
           | I haven't looked into it so I am not sure if it's possible.
           | The requirement would be for Electron to be able to run
           | headless with WebGL enabled.
        
         | mike_d wrote:
         | Incredibly cool. I've always wondered what tool was used to
         | make the visuals associated with pretty much every DJ set
         | uploaded to YouTube.
        
           | Daub wrote:
           | The current standard for making live visuals for events (i.e.
           | 'vee jay') is Resolume. The one thing that Resolume lacks is
           | effective support for importing 3D objects.
           | 
           | Its nice to see blend modes in this app. That offers the
           | possibility of building up cool effects layer by layer.
        
             | mike_d wrote:
             | That isn't what everyone on YouTube is using though. See an
             | example here: https://youtu.be/d_G37G-8gMA?t=3329
        
               | Daub wrote:
               | Ahhh. this is new to me. Thanks.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | ronyfadel wrote:
       | I made a similar product on iOS [1]. It's not there yet in terms
       | of polish, but soon it will be.
       | 
       | [1] https://podbuddy.app/
        
       | nikolay wrote:
       | The latest version seems broken. It's not available on Homebrew
       | either.
        
       | BizarroLand wrote:
       | Could be a useful tool to generate snippets for a larger project.
        
       | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
       | Is there a package like this that renders real-time rather than
       | to a video for sharing? (like winamp visualizations used to do)
        
         | mcao wrote:
         | If you simply drop in a song, it will render in realtime. You
         | don't have to render it to a video. I am working on a "live"
         | mode that will act much like Winamp, where you would select a
         | playlist of songs and have it cycle effects.
        
           | skrebbel wrote:
           | Uneducated suggestion, feel free to ignore if inapplicable:
           | 
           | I don't know if this is common cross platform, but my Windows
           | has an audio in device called "Stereo Mix" which is just all
           | audio output played by all applications mixed together and
           | looped back to an input device. If you could set your live
           | mode to listen on any input device, then people can select
           | Stereo Mix and use whatever existing software they have for
           | playing/playlisting and have astrofox produce the visuals.
           | You'd be a sort of Winamp-less Milkdrop!
        
         | abarker wrote:
         | Check out projectM, "an open-source project that reimplements
         | the esteemed Winamp Milkdrop": https://github.com/projectM-
         | visualizer/projectm
        
       | perch56 wrote:
       | Looks similar to the FL Studio built in ZGameEditor Visualizer.
       | Of course the advantage here is that you can use it independent
       | from a DAW.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-08 23:03 UTC)