Song Visualizations with Echo Nest
Philip Glass String Quartet #5, 2nd Movement
We recently came across Anita Lillie’s beautiful music visualization and MusicBox projects. The music visualization project was especially intriguing to us, since it was the only music visualization project we’d seen that did not require video playback—the visualizations were strictly in 2D. Unfortunately, the source code for Lillie’s visualizations was not available, so we decided to build our own.
Our goal was to build a 2D visualization that could be approached like one of Edward Tufte’s sparklines: a quick, snapshot overview with high information density. In addition, having an image snapshot of a song could be useful for visually-minded people who often find themselves thinking of music as in spatial or pictorial terms. In the same way that Cicero used different rooms in his home to memorize different sections of his oratories, a 2D song-picture could provide a memorable structure for interpreting and contextualizing moments in a piece of music.
Here is the fruit of our labors. The top segment represents volume across the duration of the song. The bottom segments represent the 12 pitches of the song’s primary key, and the weight of each block corresponds to that pitch’s volume at that point in the song. Details, including Echo Nest integration and source code, are below.
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, "Speak to Me/Breathe in the Air". The opening crescendos of this album are clearly visible.
Crystal Method, Vegas, "High Roller". We like the seeing that perfect volume curve at the beginning of this song. There's a pronounced industrial feeling here.
John Williams, Star Wars: A New Hope, "Imperial Attack". This visualization should probably be in black.
Goldfrapp, Supernature, "Ride a White Horse". Volume leveling clearly visible. Pop at its finest.
Mozart, Requiem, "Kyrie"
George Maasry, "Permutations". Mathematical permutations on a theme.
