Screen capture from an improvisation with Paul Hertz’s work DeadBodyWorkFlow.

PixelAudio Workshop @ Experimental Sound Studio by Paul Hertz
December 12, 2024

6:30pm gallery, 7:00pm workshop

PixelAudio is an open source software library created by Paul Hertz for the Processing (Java) development environment. As its primary feature, PixelAudio maps images onto audio signals and audio signals onto images. You can turn images into sounds, turn sounds into images, and run processes on images and sounds in parallel. PixelAudio example applications include a real-time performance instrument where you can draw on an image to trigger samples in an audio buffer. To see some examples, check out https://vimeo.com/1030524407.

Though the workshop will introduce the features of the library for people familiar with Processing or other programming languages, you can learn to use the real-time performance instrument and the visual music animation application without having to program. Features of the library include:

    •    Additive synthesis for images and audio 

    •    Fast Fourier Transforms for images and audio 

    •    Simplex noise generation and filtering 

    •    Audio and image capture and file i/o 

    •    Real-time drawing with point reduction and Bezier curve generation 

    •    Visual music animation using JSON files 

    •    Network communication with Max, PureData and other audio/media applications


An extensive suite of examples is available on Github, where you can download the library: https://github.com/Ignotus-mago/PixelAudio. 
The ESS gallery is now showing Paul Hertz’s digital prints made with PixelAudio. Come to ESS at 6:30 and you’ll have time to see the show. Email info@ess.org for other viewing hours.


Processing is free, open source software. We recommend you bring a computer with Processing already installed: https://processing.org/download. Bring some sound files, too.