New version 0.4.4

Got report that voiceapp no longer compiled correctly. Took a look at the code and made some fixes/enhancements, including:

• Optimized the way Analyzer and Scope draw themselves.
• -height option to set total window height
• -bg option to set background color
• -scope-lineh option to set height of Scope line (better visibility)
• -solid-scope option to draw Scope with lines from axis.
• -nospectrogram option to disable drawing of spectrogram (thanks for suggestion Michael P)
• ESC or 'Q' will now quit.
• Bugs:
  • Fixed compilation (thanks for report Michael P)
  • 255 vs 256 multiplying in color generation.
  • Limit vertical lines to window height
  • make -wlc option really do something useful

Height and width of window are a bit constrained because of the way we get and process data. If spectrogram is enabled, window must be at least M/2 pixels high where M is number of samples we push through FFT (-n -option, default 512). M/2 is also always width of Analyzer, and M is always width of Scope. Window width can be less that Analyzer+Scope, Scope will just not be fully drawn.

Note that even with such simplistic graphics VoiceApp will push your processor.

Download voiceapp-0.4.4.tar.gz.

About VoiceApp

VoiceApp works by reading audio directly from your soundcard (in Linux it's file /dev/dsp), and transforming data via FFT. The result is thrown on the screen in matrixish colors ;).

mpg123 -s -m -4 shaggy-bombastik.mp3 ¦ ./voiceapp -w 600 -s (version 0.4.2)

Screenshots

Version 0.4.2 in action here(220k).

Requirements

Pentium (??) -- developed on PPro200/GF2PCI and eats 10%..
SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) -- www.libsdl.org.
FFTW (Fastest Fourier Transform in The West) -- www.fftw.org.
Linux (www.linux.com) -- VoiceApp sets some linux (OSS/Free??) specific settings, so porting it onto other platform is not easy. (as a side note, I have somewhere sources for same-kind app using DirectSound & MS Windows things..).
To get them under debian/unstable (don't know about stable):
apt-get install fftw-dev (needed to compile)
apt-get install sdl1.2-dev (-''-)
then make and ./voiceapp.

NOTE!
Please verify that your Microphone / line-in is not 'muted'.
VoiceApp needs some data input to work..

Download

Source:

• voiceapp-0.4.4.tar.gz
• Older version.. voiceapp-0.4.3.tgz
• Older version.. voiceapp-0.4.2.tgz
• Older version.. voiceapp-0.3.5.tgz
• Older version.. voiceapp-0.3.tgz.
• Older version.. voiceapp-0.2.tgz.

Fun things

• Power spectrum is shown after 'Bezier -curve' -fitting, use '-red', '-green' and '-blue' command line modifiers to produce more interesting colors.
• For example: ./voiceapp -red 0:0:0.2:1 -green 0:0:0:1 -blue 0:0.1:0.9:1 gives nice result.
• Try ./voiceapp -s < /dev/hda as root..
• Try whistling into microphone.
• Please do make strange voices ;)

ToDo

• Beat Detection (FFT again over power-sum)
• (done-0.3.5)ShiftingView
• ColorPresets
• [even] Better font handling (should be mappable directly to chars, so we can print anything we want..)
• more printable info.
• esound integration.
• improve FFT from a file. (slow-pace)
• pausing & snap-shotting.
• display of conventional tone when over some freq (440Hz = C₁)
• tons of things I've ever dreamt of =)
• directionality of new data.
• data interpolation on higher sample-counts. theoretically we have the horsepower, this would also soften out FFT-jungies..

6-May-2002

Long time no news. Well, I found out that there's plenty of this kind of programs on the net.. And still some people come for voiceapp. Thank You, you know who I mean =)
Some goody for you: I made (long time ago) a preliminary XMMS plugin. Only basic functionality is there but you can see what it does. If you're feeling adventurous, try it. You need a xmms-dev package (it depends on libgtk-dev..).
xmms-vaplug notes (for adventurer):

./configure && make
DON'T 'make install'.
Copy vaplug/src/.libs/libvaplug.so to ~/.xmms/Plugins.
Copy vaplug/src/vaplug_font.bmp to ~/.xmms (hard coded into code, even if not used..)
Then Use!

25-Oct-2001

Version 0.4.2 released. This adds many new features & bug-fixes.

• Added "-sleep" switch which makes VoiceApp sleep for a while, this helps if you know the rate at which data is coming in.
• Added "memory-manager", now we can FFT in as small steps as we want. (overlapping as wanted).
• Re-organized source, so XMMS plugin is possible (yes I got it running, but don't know how to compile on other's systems, so it's not available now.)
• Only half of inputted data was actually FFT'd, (I shall remember that read() reads bytes, I shall remember that read() reads bytes.. ;)
• Made a move to autoconf & automake, now just ./configure && make. Don't make install, however, as it does no good.
• Added "slice" display of FFT (some call it analyzer), and also dislpay of raw sound-data (scope).
• Added "angle" display of FFT (calculated from FFT, it's angle at which data is left to point out.) At the moment it looks pretty meaningless, but may prove handy.
• Switched from "square-root" -system to real desibels. I think I got it this time somewhat right.
• Many smaller tweaks.
• Oh yeah, while you're 'root', try voiceapp -s < /dev/hda, sure looks fun ;)

5-Nov-2001

Day of brown paper-bag. 0.4.3 out.

• Fixed (hopefully) configuration issues, configure.in was horribly mutated.. Thanks go to Steve Manley and Heiko Beiküfner for pointing these out.

29-May-2001

Version 0.3.5 out, highlights of this release are:

• New command-line options (don't fit in --help anymore, there's only reminders now).
• Colors are now configurable (You may find it interesting to get to know what bezier curve is)
• Font is now bitmapped and is in voiceapp_font.bmp, it's 7x8 for now, but i'll make it configurable.
• Some speedup because font is now blitted directly to the screen.
• New display mode called ShiftView, as the name says it just shifts view from right to left, use it if you have cycles to burn, as currently it's a processor-hog.