organica ANS synthesizer

video upload by psilosamples

"music, art and fun collection is coming!! check psilosamples.xyz !
minimalist photoelectronic lofi music fun loops and free study recorded live textures, melodies and atmospheres adventures composes from images to pure frequencies,
created in the virtual ANS synthesizer ,Hi Fi soundloops and generative art in the frames digital poster made by psilosamples"

Silhoutte Eins Optical Synthesizer at Superbooth 2022

video upload by ound On Sound magazine

"Silhoutte Eins Optical Synthesizer at Superbooth 2022

Objects placed on the light table create the source audio waveforms in real time.

The user interface consists of an on-monitor plexiglas hardware controller which addresses 4 software pages. 20 potentiometers and 21 buttons give you quick access to the functions. All values are shown directly behind and around the controlling potentiometer or button.

SOS says ... this is not unlike Daphne Oram's famous Oramics machine reinterpreted for the 21st Century.

More info here. http://www.silhouette-synthesizer.de/"

See the Przygodda label for additional posts.

Silhouette eins - dove dance - (feb. 2022)

video upload by Pit Przygodda

"'Silhouette eins' - the optical soundtrack synthesizer.
Now the development of Silhouette changes over from prototyping to production. You can order your Silhouette here: http://www.silhouette-synthesizer.de"

Also see SILHOUETTE eins - synthesizer (Demo 2021)

eurorack image synthesizer | Spectral Synth Scanner | ENG

video upload by ilia Osokin

"Spectral Synth Scanner is a unique prototype of an instrument from an electronic laboratory in France."

Note the first "image synth" would be the ANS from 1937 to 1957. Also see this post. More recently, there have been a number of ANS based creations including Alexander Zolotov's Virtual ANS for iOS, Photosounder, and Silhouette eins. A search for them on the top right of the site will bring up additoinal posts on each. You can sort the resutls by date or relevance. You can also check out the ANS label below for all ANS realated posts in order.

SILHOUETTE eins - synthesizer (Demo 2021)

video upload by Pit Przygodda

"This is my 2021 built synthesizer 'Silhouette eins'. (prototype)

It is an optical soundtrack synthesizer: Optical shapes are transformed into musical waves for audio and modulation in real time.

Infos:
http://www.silhouette-synthesizer.de

It is the successor of former prototypes (2017 - 2019).
'Silhouette eins' now extends the concept by the use of the generated waves not only for audio but also for modulation."



"VIDEOVOX is a synthesizer which transfers video-data into audio-data.
It´s a prototype, programmed under Pure-Data.
More info:
www.videovox.de Thanks,
Pit Przygodda"

See the ANS Label below for additional synths that transform images to audio.

Forms - Screen Ensemble

Forms - Screen Ensemble from Playmodes Studio on Vimeo.

This one reminds me of a virtual ANS meets tracker. Details and pics follow:

"Forms -Screen Ensemble- is a generative visual music jukebox. Driven by chance and probability, this automata creates endless, unrepeatable graphic scores that are immediately transformed into sound by means of sonification algorithms. Images become sound spectrums, making it possible to -literally- hear what you see. The dream of Kandinski.

Each screen of this networked ensemble plays a particular instrumental role: Rhythm, Harmony or Texture.

Performed by this trio of automats, a visual music symphony evolves over time giving birth to unique sonic landscapes that will never be repeated again: from tonal ambient music to raging rhythms, surreal electronic passages or dance-floor beats.

Forms - Screen Ensemble was presented at 2020's edition of Ars Electronica festival in Barcelona, thanks to a grant given by NewArtFoundation, Institut Ramón Llull and Hangar.org.

+info: https://www.playmodes.com/home/forms-screen-ensemble/"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Синтезатор АНС / ANS Synthesizer (1960)

Dmitry Bystrov

Excerpt from the newsreel "Наука и техника" 1960 №12 https://www.net-film.ru/film-75521
Синтезатор «АНС» — фотоэлектронный оптический музыкальный инструмент, сконструированный советским инженером Евгением Мурзиным, один из первых в мире многоголосных музыкальных синтезаторов. Рабочая модель АНСа была закончена в 1958 году, в 1959 Мурзин получил на своё изобретение авторское свидетельство. Он обозначил синтезатор аббревиатурой «АНС» — в честь композитора Александра Николаевича Скрябина.
The ANS synthesizer is a photoelectronic optical musical instrument designed by the Soviet engineer Yevgeny Murzin, one of the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizers. The working model of ANS was completed in 1958, in 1959 Murzin received an inventor's certificate for his invention. He designated the synthesizer with the abbreviation "ANS" - in honor of the composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin.

Googlish:

Excerpt from the newsreel "Наука и техника" 1960 №12 https://www.net-film.ru/film-75521
Синтезатор "АНС" - фотоэлектронный оптический музыкальный инструмент, сконструированный советским инженером Евгением Мурзиным, один из первых в мире многоголосных музыкальных синтезаторов. Рабочая модель АНСа была закончена в 1958 году, в 1959 Мурзин получил на своё изобретение авторскеое свистое. Он обозначил синтезатор аббревиатурой «АНС» - в честь композитора Александра Николаевича Скрябина.
The ANS synthesizer is a photoelectronic optical musical instrument designed by the Soviet engineer Yevgeny Murzin, one of the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizers. The working model of ANS was completed in 1958, in 1959 Murzin received an inventor's certificate for his invention. He designated the synthesizer with the abbreviation "ANS" - in honor of the composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin.

See the ANS label below for more.

What's new in Photosounder 1.10

Published on Feb 8, 2020 Photosounder

Try the demo at https://photosounder.com/download.php

Process of translating images to sound similar to ANS, scroll down for the original machine. You can also find Oramics there. A search for ANS will bring up additional posts featuring endless demos of Virtual ANS for i0S and more.

Virtual ANS 3 for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, & Android

Published on Jun 2, 2019 Alexander Zolotov

"Demo of the new Virtual ANS 3.0 spectral synth. Now with MIDI mapping, polyphonic synth mode, AUv3, and many other new features!"

via http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/

"Virtual ANS is a software simulator of the unique Russian synthesizer ANS - photoelectronic musical instrument created by Evgeny Murzin from 1938 to 1958. The ANS made it possible to draw music in the form of a spectrogram (sonogram), without live instruments and performers. It was used by Stanislav Kreichi, Alfred Schnittke, Edward Artemiev and other Soviet composers in their experimental works. You can also hear the sound of the ANS in Andrei Tarkovsky's movies Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker.

The simulator extends the capabilities of the original instrument. Now it's a full-featured graphics editor where you can convert sound into an image, load and play pictures, draw microtonal/spectral music and create some unusual deep atmospheric sounds. This app is for everyone who loves experiments and is looking for something new.

Key features:
unlimited number of pure tone generators;
powerful sonogram editor - you can draw the spectrum and play it at the same time;
any sound (from a WAV file or a Microphone/Line-in) can be converted to image (sonogram) and vice versa;
support for MIDI devices;
polyphonic synth mode with MIDI mapping;
supported file formats: WAV, AIFF, PNG, JPEG, GIF;
supported sound systems: ASIO, DirectSound, MME, ALSA, OSS, JACK, Audiobus, IAA."

SILHOUETTE - Visual to Analog Audio Synthesizer with Dual Flight Style Joysticks & Monitor Display

Published on Jan 2, 2019 Pit Przygodda

Kind of a modern day ANS, or Oramics. Also see Virtual ANS for iOS.

"silhouette". A video-to-audio-synthesizer by Pit Przygodda (Prototype 2018).
Infos: www.silhouette-synthesizer.de

6-voice, seperate tuning and modulation, analog-filter, FX. SILHOUETTE trains itself to become a really extraordinary sound-scape-machine!

Technique
s i l h o u e t t e is a software-based synthesizer, that creates sound by using greyscale-data chosen from a picture file.

This is done in real-time.

At the moment, it is programmed under the Pure Data programming environment.

Data-sources:
- real-time-pictures/motion-pictures (camera)
- picture-files
- motion-pictures (films)

Oscillator:
The sound is produced by transforming an area of greyscale-data into sound-data.

Windows:
You have a screen, where you see the camera-picture/picture/film you have loaded in.
You have 2 data-windows within the loaded picture to chose a visual area where you like to extract sound-data.
The 2 windows can be changed in size and position individualy and be modulated by LFO, EG, KBD-follow, audio-waveform or manually in realtime.
Their audio-output is routed anolog to their x/y-position in the picture to coordinates in a quadrophonic sound-system in the performance-room.

Silhouette
So it is possible that the outline of a silhouette is analog to your audio-waveform.
Therefor it is necessary that the silhouette-shape is strictly black and white.
This was the main idea at the beginning of this project:
That you act visually directly IN the waveform.
This is done very sensually by acting on the light-table in front of the camera.
I think about giving that technique a name: "silhouette-synthesis".

Quadrophonia
Since summer 2018 I am building a hardware. It has 2 joystick-controlled-data-windows inside the main-screen which let you move 2 audio-waves analog to their coordinates in the main-wondow inside a quadrophonic space (screen corner-left/top > speaker-front/left; screen corner-right/bottom > speaker back/right etc.).

Tom Richard's Mini-Oramics Machine Based on Daphne Orams

Mini-Oramics Medley from Tom Richards on Vimeo.

"Early experiments with Mini-Oramics from composers Ain Bailey, James Bulley and Jo Thomas"

The video above should give you an idea of what it does. In short it reads what is drawn on the transparent sheet and generates audio through hardware. You can see an image of the hardware further below. The implementation reminds me of the ANS.

I spotted this one on the BBC website which has the following to say:

"An electronic sequencer and synthesizer has been built based on designs produced over 40 years ago by electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram.

Daphne Oram who died in 2003, co-founded the BBC Radiophonic workshop and developed a system of creating sounds and compositions using drawings.

The 'Mini Oramics' machine is thought to have remained unfinished in Daphne Oram's own lifetime, but experts argue that its approach to composition and performance would have been influential.

Tom Richards, the researcher who finally constructed the Mini Oramics, told The World At One it helped answer the question "what if this had come to pass in 1973?"

There has been quite a bit posted on Daphne Oram and Oramics here on MATRIXSYNTH over the years, so click through either link to dig deeper. Now would also be a good time to post a reminder on the Kickstarter Campaign to Republish Daphne Oram's "An Individual Note: of Music, Sound and Electronics".

The following images are from John Lely's website, posted on April 8, 2016.

"First full day working with Tom Richards’ Mini-Oramics machine, a device for drawing sound, based on the work of Daphne Oram. Here is a link to Tom’s videos of construction and early trials."

Note the hardware synth engine that is driven by the optical reader.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Day Was Departing

"Simple live Improvisation about three Illustrations by Gustave Doré for Dantes devine Comedy (Inf.I,1-II,1),describing Dante and Virgil walking through a dark forest, searching for the gate of hell. The mopho gives the voice of the she-wolf:)"

via Matthias Semmler on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"My first improvisation with the Virtual ANS. Strings by Roland JX-8P, Timps Alpha Juno 1, Lead Mopho Keyboard."

Starts with the JX-8P & Alpha Juno. ANS comes in around :40.

Virtual ANS Based PhonoPaper: Play Music from Paper - How to Print your Voice and Play It Back

Published on Apr 16, 2014 Alexander Zolotov·123 videos

http://warmplace.ru/soft/phonopaper

The software is currently available for Android. Note this is based on Virtual ANS which is also available for iOS. See the details below.

PhonoPaper: How to Print your Voice and Play It Back


"What is PhonoPaper

PhonoPaper is:
format of graphical representation of the sound (music, human voice, etc.); in other words, it is the 2D audio barcode (by analogy with the QR-code);
real-time PhonoPaper-code reader (using the camera);
PhonoPaper-code generator (sound to image converter).

Key features:
PhonoPaper-code is analogue, so it is not so sensitive to different types of the image distortion (bad camera, dark picture, wrinkled paper, etc.); at least you will hear the "silhouette" of the original sound;
PhonoPaper does not require access to the network; its code is self-contained;
PhonoPaper-code can be played in real-time with hand-controlled speed and direction;
PhonoPaper-code can be drawn by hand (paper version of the Virtual ANS synth);
PhonoPaper is free!
Examples of usage:
voice messages (or pieces of music) on the billboards, posters, postcards, goods;
audio labels for phonorecords;
audio examples in some textbooks;
art-experiments;
learning the basics of the spectral music.
PhonoPaper is based on the Virtual ANS engine - it is a software simulator of the unique Russian synthesizer ANS.
So if you want to make more complex PhonoPaper-codes - use the Virtual ANS."

iTunes: Virtual ANS - Alexander Zolotov - note this is for Virtual ANS, not PhonoPaper.

Как звучат круги на полях (Sounds of the Crop Circles)

Published on Mar 31, 2014 Alexander Zolotov·120 videos

iTunes: Virtual ANS - Alexander Zolotov

Загадочные послания на полях, преобразованные в звук при помощи спектрального синтезатора Virtual ANS. Предполагаемое воздействие - на уровне подсознания. Диапазон частот: 16Гц - 16кГц (10 октав).
Информация о программе:
RU: http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/index_ru.php
EN: http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/
Подробности о знаках: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Круги_на_полях

Virtual ANS: Making a Brush from the Voice

Published on Dec 10, 2013 Alexander Zolotov·115 videos

"Virtual ANS is a software simulator of the unique Russian synthesizer ANS - photoelectronic microtonal/spectral musical instrument created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin from 1938 to 1958.
The app is cross-platform and available for iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and OSX.
More info: http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans"

iTunes: Virtual ANS - Alexander Zolotov

Virtual ANS for iOS Update

iTunes: Virtual ANS - Alexander Zolotov

"What's New in Version 2.1
* layers;
* multi-level undo buffer (default number of levels - 2, but you can change it in the app Settings);
* improved brush manager (with such options as Load From JPG/PNG/GIF file, Save to PNG);
* now any selection can be converted to brush;
* new effects: Gain, Noise, Vibrato;
* added Panic button (in the Project menu) - press it to stop all audio and MIDI tasks;
* new Visualization settings: Pitch Panel (Show/Hide), Time Panel (Show/Hide);
* additional File Browser functions: Remove, Rename, Cut, Copy, Paste, Create Directory;
* now you can see the file size in the File Browser;
* iOS: Audio Copy/Paste (Project -> Export/Import -> ...);
* progressive JPEG support;
* AIFF support (load only);
* bugs fixed."

Virtual ANS Test Drive

Published on Sep 20, 2013 stexe·82 videos

"Getting comfy with the gradient drawing tool on a bamboo tablet and the newly released Virtual ANS synth."

Virtual ANS - New Cross Platform Synthesizer From the Creator of Sunvox

Published on Sep 19, 2013 Alexander Zolotov·113 videos

"Virtual ANS is a software simulator of the unique Russian synthesizer ANS - photoelectronic microtonal/spectral musical instrument created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin from 1938 to 1958.
The app is cross-platform and available for iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and OSX.
More info: http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans"

Playlist:
Virtual ANS: Intro
Virtual ANS: Sound to Image and Vice Versa
Virtual ANS: Image to Sound Conversion
Virtual ANS Universe
Virtual ANS Live Jam: iPad + Android Phone + Monotribe

Update: If you are not familiar with the ANS, be sure to see this post. It is an incredible pice of synth history. "The ANS synthesizer is a photoelectronic musical instrument created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin from 1937 to 1957..." Also see the ANS label below.

TONEWHEELS HURDY-GURDY(VIELLE A ROUE OPTOÉLECTRONIQUE)

TONEWHEELS HURDY-GURDY(VIELLE A ROUE OPTOÉLECTRONIQUE) from macumbista on Vimeo.

"This optoelectronic hurdy-gurdy was commission by the Acces(s) Festival, Pau France in October 2012.

TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions, such as the Light-Tone Organ (Edwin Emil Welte, 1936 Germany), the ANS Synthesizer (Evgeny Murzin, 1958 USSR), and the Oramics system (Daphne Oram, 1959 UK). Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive electronic circuitry similar to that used in 16 & 35mm motion picture projectors to produce sound.

The TONEWHEELS Hurdy-Gurdy presented at Acces(s) is not an "interactive" artwork in the common sense. While it does not reward the impatient museum visitor with flashing lights and noises at the simple touch of the button, it does invite participation in the process of technological music creation. Although it first appears to be a very traditional instrument known to many folk-music cultures, it functions in a very different way which can only be discovered by playing it.

The artist would like to thank Tobias Traub of Oroborus Customs e.K. and Carlo Crovato for their invaluable assistance in creating this instrument. Circuits designed by Jessica Rylan and Eric Archer are also used within the system.

More information on this project can be found at http://macumbista.net/?p=3020"

Unique Soviet Synth ANS (BBC The Soundhunter 4)

YouTube Uploaded by toitoitoy on Oct 27, 2011

See Eduard Artemyev, Coil, and the ANS Synthesizer for quite a bit more.

"The Soundhunter
4 March 2006
Saturday 4 March 2006 5:45-6:00 (Radio 4 FM)

Isobel Clouter goes on an epic quest around the globe in search of disappearing sounds. 4/5.

Isobel is in Russia hearing about painted sound experiments and learning about early musical inventors.

More info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANS_synthesizer"

Previously:
BBC Radio's The Sound Hunter and the ANS Machine