Inspiration
A few oscilloscope plugins have been developed for high end digital audio workstation software. While they provide lots of functionality, these programs are very expensive and difficult to use. We aimed to bring this awesome technology into the hands of many more people by creating a far more accessible application.
What it does
Aura allows users to use different sliders to create shapes on a display. The sliders correspond to different sounds that when plotted according to the direction of the audio forms shapes. An oscilloscope plots left audio on the x-axis and right audio on the y-axis. The user can also add different audio effects like reverb to change the display.
How I built it
Using an opensource framework called AudioKit, we created oscillators with sine, cosine, square, and sawtooth waves. Transforming the phase, amplitude, as well as combining the sound waves together, we were able to create beautiful images on an open source Oscilloscope! We made a kind of playground to let users explore the excitement of making art through math.
Challenges I ran into
Okay so first we went to the CULC, settled down, and then the fire alarm went off! So we moved to the Student Center, settled down, and then the fire alarm went off! While we initially tried to port the oscilloscope to iOS, we found that the libraries we were using were no where near ready for that given our time constraints. We decided to focus on making a desktop application.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Despite all the time spent working on porting to mobile, we were able to turn around and finish the desktop application.
What I learned
One of our members used Xcode, Swift, and Interface Builder for the first time to build the UI. Our other members deepened their familiarize with the Openframeworks library and the AudioKit toolkit. which will enhance their ability to make and understand digital music.
What's next for Aura
We hope to be able to port the project to mobile and expand functionality. We would like to be able to draw shapes on the screen have produce audio as a result.
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