This is the output of a visualization system I thought of a couple of days ago. In a piano, notes repeat every 12 semitones (or keys, both black and white), and each whole interval doubles the frequency of these notes. Together, these notes form what we call a pitch class. It occurred me that the shape of a spiral has all the correct properties to represent this relation between notes. So I wondered, how would piano music look like if it was represented as a spiral of keys? I quickly hacked together a PHP script that reads MIDI files and creates the frames of this video you see now. It’s a rough draft, but it works pretty well! In this representation, the notes with higher frequencies are in the center of the spiral, starting with C8 (as in the piano). Each radial block of keys represents a single pitch class, so octaves (when two adjacent notes of the same pitch class are played togeter) look like a pair of keys being pressed radially. You’ll see this a lot in the Scott Joplin videos I’m going to upload shortly. To start, I decided to use Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody #2″, not only because it is a beautiful and amazingly intricate piece of music, but also because it has all the elements that I’d like to check out in this form of visualization. The algorithm isn’t missing any notes now, so I figured I’d give justice to this piece, at last. Anyway, enjoy!
Video Rating: 4 / 5
25 comments
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l3akedPotater says:
January 2, 2012 at 7:22 pm (UTC 0)
awesome stuff. Good plan. I like it.
OSCARA320 says:
January 2, 2012 at 7:46 pm (UTC 0)
@armen131 and you really needed to comment that? prick.
dont wright anything and get a fucking bad grade dickhead, i understand every one has different preferences about music, if you dont like it then dont watch it or do your stupid project about something else,
TheRiddox says:
January 2, 2012 at 8:00 pm (UTC 0)
who ever is the only person that disliked this needs to know what they typed into the search bar to listen to this. i know music is gone down the toilet but come on now this is legendary stuff here. check your ears
LemmeLieHere says:
January 2, 2012 at 8:35 pm (UTC 0)
Many pianists play this too fast, to show off their skill. This midi file sounds better than many real pianists I’ve heard… sadly.
Cool looking visualization.
luchout says:
January 2, 2012 at 9:00 pm (UTC 0)
How would that principle work with Arnold Schoenberg?
naringrass says:
January 2, 2012 at 9:06 pm (UTC 0)
Could you add a way to mark the keys of the tonality currently in use?
gordo39432 says:
January 2, 2012 at 9:54 pm (UTC 0)
i love this piece, and that visualization is pretty neat
1ucasvb says:
January 2, 2012 at 10:34 pm (UTC 0)
@PeXLord Spot on! I love WinGroove.
PeXLord says:
January 2, 2012 at 10:48 pm (UTC 0)
This is a WinGroove soundfont!
weikko79 says:
January 2, 2012 at 11:08 pm (UTC 0)
Who is playing?
armen131 says:
January 2, 2012 at 11:46 pm (UTC 0)
u guys rly watch this shit i’m just watching this bcz i have a music project about him
ceoddyn says:
January 3, 2012 at 12:45 am (UTC 0)
This is extremely cool. I love sensory abstraction. Thank you for sharing.
ceoddyn says:
January 3, 2012 at 12:54 am (UTC 0)
This is extremely cool. I love sensual abstraction. Thank you for sharing.
guillatra says:
January 3, 2012 at 1:00 am (UTC 0)
I think, there is a note missing in 1:14, because the gis is only played once here and it had to be played twice.
Petrof51 says:
January 3, 2012 at 1:57 am (UTC 0)
I think by allotting colours to rate of vibrations, you could add another dimension. Great stuff as is.
electronixtar says:
January 3, 2012 at 2:09 am (UTC 0)
great work!
waverleo says:
January 3, 2012 at 2:19 am (UTC 0)
It would be cool to do a visualization that combined the above with movement in depth (to represent the relative timing of various notes. Kinda guitar hero/ddr style …
icculus87 says:
January 3, 2012 at 3:10 am (UTC 0)
anyone else picturing how their right and left hand might wrap and correspond to the various levels and keys while this is playing?
dejen45 says:
January 3, 2012 at 3:12 am (UTC 0)
Awesome. I could see some educational uses if you tied in appropriate fingering (and could layer an mp3 over the midi..,)
great work
dotzvbjnp says:
January 3, 2012 at 3:50 am (UTC 0)
I can’t listen to this tune now without imaging Tom and Jerry beating the crap out of each other.
gmcerveny says:
January 3, 2012 at 4:15 am (UTC 0)
I’d like to see this, but with 4ths or 5ths as increments instead of semitones…
larsgjerlowjorgensen says:
January 3, 2012 at 4:27 am (UTC 0)
Wonderful concept!
electronixtar says:
January 3, 2012 at 4:59 am (UTC 0)
nice!
1ucasvb says:
January 3, 2012 at 5:47 am (UTC 0)
Hah, yeah. I have a Python version now. Buggy, but I’ll fix it soon.
Zahlman says:
January 3, 2012 at 5:58 am (UTC 0)
>PHP
D: