This page discusses and displays some of my Sonic Art. Enjoy!

For my general digital art, click here, or for the Water Dragons, here.

Two of the fundamental aspects of musical sounds are their waveforms, and their frequency spectra:

The waveforms depict how the air pressure (or electric voltage in a sonic signal) vary in time. These patterns correlate to the timbre of the sound in various ways that one can learn with experience. For example, sharp corners indicate the presence of strong, high frequency harmonics (and hence a bright tone).

Alternatively, the frequency spectra tell us how much energy there is relatively at different frequencies, that is, the relative strength of the different “harmonics” that make up the signal. In a mathematical sense, frequency is 90 degrees with respect to time, so way is a complementary way of looking at sound as compared to waveforms.

Frequency spectra correlate quite directly to the timbre of the sound (the subjective quality of musical sounds), and correlate more tightly with timbre than do waveforms. This is because there are many different waveforms that correspond to the same timbre, but not so much for spectra. (This subtle fact is because the human ear cannot distinguish relative differences in timing between the waves making up the different harmonics, which differences cause variations in the waveforms when those waves are all added up, leading to a many-to-one relationship for waveforms).

In any case, the data from these complementary and informatically rich sonic characteristics can be used as input data for the creation of visual images. This can be done either after the fact, or in real time as the music is being created.

The gallery below shows various images I created in this way. The sonic data goes through many transformations to create the final images in most of these cases. But nonetheless there are features in the final images that can still be very directly related to the sound, and the variations in the sound provide endless and profound variations in the images.

The images shown below are of course just snapshots of patterns that evolve in time with the sound. As mesmerizing as they are as stills, they are even more exciting as images in motion. And as they can be created in real time, they provide visual feedback that can then inspire musical improvisation, which then alters the images, which then further inspires the music, and so on…

Note: Please keep in mind that these are low-res versions of these images. Please do not download them or use them without permission. They, or similar images, are available at full res for licensing or in printed form, via the Contact Form on this site: