[ dsp ]

My weirdly specific hobby is coding visuals that react to music. (See here or here.) I thought I would share some of my audio processing and animation tricks. Most of my techniques for synchronizing animations to music start with envelope followers. In this article, I’ll explain what an envelope follower is and how it works. In a future article, I’ll give some examples of how to use one.

Sound-reactive animation is my useless superpower. I’ve always loved graphics programing, and I’ve always loved music. I’ve been making these animations over the years to add some visual appeal to my shows. (Not that I play many shows these days…) All these animations respond to incoming audio, and can run in real time on a Raspberry Pi. Then I can throw the Pi in my bag and set it up at a gig if the venue has a projector.