Best size for Imagillator pics (MBA)?

For discussion of the Voltage Modular synthesis ecosystem.
Post Reply
sdv
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 7:21 pm

Best size for Imagillator pics (MBA)?

Post by sdv »

Just picked up Imagillator and am finding it quite groovy. I want to port some MetaSynth pics over and am wondering what your stretch algorithm is like. Should I resize these myself in say Photoshop to get the 'cleanest' quality image? Also, when creating new images - if 2048 x 256 pixels - is the module's internal processing size is it best to create images at that size or some smaller ratio size?
User avatar
honki-bobo
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2019 1:18 pm

Re: Best size for Imagillator pics (MBA)?

Post by honki-bobo »

Hi sdv,
sdv wrote: Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:31 am Just picked up Imagillator and am finding it quite groovy.
Thanks, glad to hear that.
sdv wrote: Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:31 am I want to port some MetaSynth pics over and am wondering what your stretch algorithm is like. Should I resize these myself in say Photoshop to get the 'cleanest' quality image? Also, when creating new images - if 2048 x 256 pixels - is the module's internal processing size is it best to create images at that size or some smaller ratio size?
To create the audio data from the image I use a Graphics2D object to scale the image to 2048x256 pixels (256 waves in the table, each 2048 samples long). The rendering settings are set to bilinear interpolation and quality rendering. I found these settings produce the smoothest waveforms with least aliasing. When scanning through the wavetable I use linear interpolation to blend between the waveforms. How each waveform is scanned depends on the warp mode and its amount.

To answer your question: The quality of the internal algorithms of the Graphics2D object might be a discussible topic, but I find they do a very good job for what it is needed for in this application. As always you will get the least amount of artifacts or aliasing if the original data is untouched. If you load a 2048x256 pixel image you will get exactly that image passed through the internals of Imagillator. So, yes, you can use your favourite image processing software to prepare the image and scale it to size with the software's scaling algorithms, but you don't have to, at least for my ears.

Please, feel free to experiment with different rescaling algorithms, compare the sound and maybe post your results :)

Hope this helps.

Best regards and stay safe,
Martin
Image
Monkey Business Audio
Modules - Music - Twitter - YouTube
sdv
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 7:21 pm

Re: Best size for Imagillator pics (MBA)?

Post by sdv »

honki-bobo wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:09 am
Please, feel free to experiment with different rescaling algorithms, compare the sound and maybe post your results :)

Martin
Thanks, for your input, Martin! I'll work with different image sizes and see what I come up with. As you allude to, the absolute quality of an image may/may not have any discernible sonic enhancement by a listener (especially if the sounds been post-processed) but it's still nice to know how the algorithms work so I can create accordingly.

Stay safe and creative as well,
Scott
Post Reply

Return to “Voltage Modular”