AudioSpace News

AudioSpace 7.2 has arrived, celebrating the spring by joining the Steam Spring Sale! 🌸

The highlight of this release is a versatile arpeggiator for the synth. Each step can contain up to 8 notes (as a chord), with up to 16 steps per sequence. There are controls for groove, velocity dynamics, octave range, note length, repeat logic, and sequence ordering. The velocity of each step can also be adjusted individually.

There's a bunch of new synth presets too, including some arp patterns. They now provide a solid set of sounds to explore and experiment with. I hope you’ll make great use of this synth’s creative power — it’s lightweight only in price! 🎹🎵

If you want the backdrop for all visualizations be something other than the Milky Way, simply drop your custom environment texture into Documents/AudioSpace/media and name it "space-sphere". HDR is also supported via .exr files.

The full list of changes is below. If you have any feature ideas or wishes, let me know! I'd love to hear about them.

To set you on the right wavelength, here's a video from interstellar space: https://youtu.be/95_BsbpBKq8
(link may not work if you view this in What's New / Activity feed, but it works in the Community Hub)
On this video, both the audio and visuals are created by AudioSpace; the music is played with the "piano space" preset for incoming MIDI stream from a DAW via loopMIDI.

Enjoy! ✨

Kari / Ferrit


New in version 7.2:

SYNTH

• added a pattern arpeggiator (each step can contain multiple notes)
  
• each key zone can have its own arpeggiator (for max 16 zones)
  
• added arpeggiator sequence presets: harp arp, jazz swing, overload, syncopated, tangram
  
• other new presets: church organ, electric organ, noise of ocean, noise of storm, laser
  
• synth overlay-UI now auto-opens & closes with synth mode, on left wall by default (configurable)
  
• added mouse wheel support for the synth UI
  
• key zones can now be added & removed with Alt+click on the synth UI MIDI keys
  
• added support for drag & drop for synth presets and waveforms
  
• much smoother reverb, also improved the shimmer
  
• quality improvements for chorus/flanger
  
• better DC control for pink & brown noise

VISUALS

• added support for custom environment textures (equirectangular sphere maps): just copy a file named "space-sphere.png" (or .jpg, or .exr for HDR) in Documents/AudioSpace/media -folder to replace the normal Milky Way background with anything you like! (to try it out, rename "constellation figures.png" in the media folder to "space-sphere.png")
  
• visual immprovements to black hole photon ring and lensing (now smoother)
  
• compiled shaders are now cached for much faster loading
  
• no more light leaking through the corners of opaque room walls

ENGINE

• much better music tempo estimation, now pretty stable from ~90 to ~150 BPM
  
• fixed unresponsive media player controls when an audio stream is offline
  
• fixed an issue with saving nebula wavefronts in presets
  
• removed one item from the radio playlist (no longer broadcasting)
  
• several stability and performance improvements

[p]Just in time for 🎁Christmas✨, presenting AudioSpace 7.1: not only a visualizer, but now also a software synthesizer. Play your favorite tunes and see them visualized right away!

The synth sports 4 primary oscillators and 8 LFOs with a good variety of assignment options. Oscillators supports the usual waveforms & wavetables, several physical instrument models, FM synthesis, samples, and also user-defined math functions for generating audio. Each has their own envelope and set of (chainable) filters. Effects include unison/detune, bit crushing, vocoding/morphing (form input audio too), saturation, phaser, chorus/flanger, delay, and reverb. There's a small set of sound presets available, more will come with future updates. Thus, it's the perfect time for you to make some killer sounds and share them! Presets are found under Documents\\AudioSpace\\synth\\presets, and are simple text files for easy sharing.

MIDI input works directly from MIDI keyboards and other controllers, with user-mappable CCs and solid support for pitch bend, mod wheel, aftertouch, expression, foot & breath controllers, pedals (soft/sustain/sostenuto/legato), portamento, and mono/poly mode. Keyboard can be split up to 16 zones (each playing a fully separate sound), and there's even OMNI mode for listening to all 16 channels (each with separate, configurable sound preset). To feed MIDI from a DAW to AudioSpace, use a virtual MIDI driver such as loopMIDI.

Naturally, a powerful CPU is required for complex sounds, and a bit of patience for loading the interactive "synth" UI shader (under "overlays") which can take a few seconds to come up. That shader responds to mouse/controller, so in VR version click outside the synth shader area (or on another wall) to bring up the menu when you need it.

As for visualization, there's now a brand new spinning Kerr black hole with a dedicated visualization mode "gravity". Here's what it looks like:
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]

If you wish to support development of AudioSpace, a positive review is the best gift you can give. Just a simple thumb-up is plenty.[/p][p]
Enjoy, and have a peaceful Christmas time! 🎍

Kari / Ferrit


New in AudioSpace 7.1
[/p]

• [p]MIDI support, complete with an experimental software synth[/p]
• [p]"Black Hole" location now has a Kerr black hole, complete with accretion disk and 3 moons[/p]
• [p]a new location, "The Void", is now there when you want total blackness without stars[/p]
• [p]new SPACE mode, "gravity", based on the new black hole[/p]
• [p]new shader: seagrass[/p]
• [p]shader and script editor can now be launched from the menu (with a pen sub-button)[/p]
• [p]shader compile errors are now displayed directly on the respective panel[/p]
• [p]vectorscope enhancements (rebalanced params, more dynamic behavior)[/p]
• [p]menu layout improvements; now 3D models and automation scripts are always available, as primary shaders are merged under one button & list[/p]
• [p]improved auto-camera logic with with 3D models and side walls[/p]
• [p]re-clicking element group name in the menu now switches focus to the next active element of the same group (including the next panel on a multi-panel wall)[/p]
• [p]mouse wheel scrolling now works in menu lists without clicking the list first[/p]
• [p]improved title bar visibility[/p]

AudioSpace 7.0 has been released, with a whole lot of new shaders (a head-nodding cat included 🐱) and the possibility to stack multiple shaders as an effect chain. Video and text are now available in shaders as well, both through shader file comments and the new media player / automation scripts menu intergration. All new features are demonstrated with the included shaders.

Thank you so much for your continued support! ❤️
If you have any feature requests or ideas for future development, do share them in the community forum. And remember to give AudioSpace a positive review (just a thumb-up is plenty) if you wish to support its development.

Enjoy!

Kari / Ferrit

• VISUALIZATION
  
  
  
  • multiple effect shaders can now be selected, to be applied one after another
    
  • new shaders: 3D waveform, blur, brightness & contrast, cat, clouds, color fill, disco ball, flames, game of life, hue & saturation, marble & cube, RGB filter, RGB threshold, smoke & lights, rotator, media layers, text overlay
    
  • video texture support added for shaders (user texture 0), playback is controlled with media player
    
  • media player now has its own file browser, including buttons to select background and foreground textures from picture files; these will be passed as overrides to any shaders using user textures 1 and 2 (in that order)
    
  • max. 8 user textures are now available for shaders, including one Texture2DArray and one Texture3D (.DDS files supported)
    
  • both 2D and 3D RW "memory" textures, as well as a general-purpose state buffer, are available for writing the coolest shaders this side of the galaxy
    
• UI
  
  
  
  • new style for selecting visualizations: choose the category with button, and the exact mode from a list
    
  • shader files are now moved under category folders (any shaders in old presets need to be reselected)
    
  • enabled frequency bands can now be selected individually for each element mode
    
  • console text lines are now scrollable with mouse wheel & controllers
    
  • new feature: press i to show system info on console and log it to file
    
• ENGINE
  
  
  
  • beat probability is now available for shaders (per frequency band & channel), see "smoke & lights" and "game of life" shaders for usage examples
    
  • experimental: music BPM estimate, demonstrated in "text overlay" shader and also displayed on the console (2nd page, zap to toggle)
    
  • major performance optimizations for multiple simultaneous visualizations
    
  • new config option: extended keyboard controls allow triggering randomizations (numpad 0), adjusting params (numpad 1..9) and selecting color palettes (F1..F12) without opening the menu
    
  • new config option: waveformStabilization (for ultimate control of multiband waveforms under the hood)
    
  • new config section: [FAVORITES], for configuring the visualization mode which is turned on by default for buttons with more than one mode under them
    
  • some preset file format changes were introduced to support new functionality
    
• AUTOMATION
  
  
  
  • now only menu open & close trigger auto-camera movement during automation script execution (N/A for VR)
    
  • removed the obsolete "pp" automation command
    

Rest of the 2024 development work of AudioSpace is now packaged 🎁 and released for your enjoyment, together with a demo reel video 🎞️ highlighting some of the best bits.

Most significant new feature is the possibility to add text on top of the visualizations (for titles, lyrics, credits and so on). Custom fonts are supported, both .ttf and .oft files. Other changes were mostly related to rendering quality and automation. Complete list can be found below.

Remember to give AudioSpace a positive review (just a thumb-up is plenty) if you wish to support its development. Thanks, and have a happy new year!

Kari / Ferrit

• new feature: text overlays
  
  
  
  • define font properties, texts, timings and animations with the automation feature
    
  • custom fonts can be used, both .ttf and .otf supported
    
• rendering:
  
  
  
  • VSync is now turned on by default
    
  • removed bloom shafts from the stars of the space sphere
    
• automation:
  
  
  
  • added support for showing / hiding a model
    
  • new commands: "pause" (visualization), "unpause" and "exit"
    
  • new command "rt" for rotating around a point on the XY-plane
    
  • expanded functionality for "mv" command
    
  • shader name (or list index) can now be defined with the "on" command
    
  • longitude animation uses now the shortest rotation, and starts with current longitude if start and end are equal
    
  • palette change is reflected in the menu if it is open for the affected element
    
  • when automation is terminated with Escape key, ongoing movement animations are now correctly stopped
    
• new visuals: Shape of Sound has now particle shape adjustment with param A < 0
  
• media player volume and muting is now separately handled for each player
  
• changed button text from "media layers" to "media player"
  
• 3D spectrum columns paramA now acts as magnitude limiter when < 0 (instead of lowering brightness)
  
• toggling model visibility no longer forces a camera animation in AudioSpace VR
  

Just in time for the season of celebrations, here's the latest AudioSpace for your delight 🎁. Level up the ambience and display beautiful visualizations for your playlists - the bigger the screen 📺 the better!

With the added texture support for shaders, AudioSpace is now not only a visualizer and a media player, but also a full-blown HLSL shader toy with Unreal Engine 5 visual fidelity (e.g. great blooms and reflections), comprehensive set of real-time audio data easily available, and runtime compilation just by re-selecting the shader in the menu. You won't find this anywhere else, and by itself the feature has indeed all the makings of becoming a separate application at some point.

To share your shaders and try our shaders created by others, visit the new shaders sub-forum. There's already something that's not included in the installation packet. ✨

There are also two new sub-forums that are long overdue, really:
Ideas & Feature Requests, and Bug Reports. Make good use of them.

As always, this update is free for current owners of AudioSpace. If you like AudioSpace and wish to support further development, give a positive review so that others can find it too 👍.
Enjoy! ❤️

Here's the full list of changes:

• added support for user textures in shaders, completing the shader functionality;
  accepted file types include BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and GIF (but not DDS)
  
• level meter can now be customized with a full variety of colors and styles
  
• menu:
  
  
  
  • new preset buttons with +-10 preset range selection
    
  • improved clarity with dynamic opacity, esp. with media player
    
  • added visual feedback for clicking the prev/next buttons in the menu
    
  • better parameter slider & color adjustment help texts
    
• AudioSpace window:
  
  
  
  • position is now saved and restored correctly (as applicable)
    
  • in VR, window tries to get keyboard focus and is switched to real full-screen mode
    (instead of borderless window) on startup and always on reset to reduce stuttering
    
  • maximize/restore button in title bar is now correctly updated after Alt+Enter
    
  • added "AudioSpace" to the title bar
    
• auto-camera:
  
  
  
  • auto-saving viewpoints is now done only when menu is closed, to avoid unnecessary overwriting of manually saved viewpoints
    
  • any media player wall is now brought to view if no visualizations are active in the room
    
• in VR, HMD centering is now checked on startup and followed by auto-centering (if very wrong) or hint message (if somewhat wrong)
  
• change of audio device (e.g. speakers headphones) is now handled gracefully without need to restart application
  
• traveling to another location is now appropriately animated
  
• improvements to planet rendering and animation, especially regarding Earth
  
• visual improvements to nebula wavefronts (fog fade in/out, expanse to the sides)
  
• better and more stardust with aurora, warp tunnel & trinity flux (much more with only the high frequency band enabled!)
  
• improved kaleidoscope edge fadeout and added "spiralizer" under param B
  
• improved media player pause & stop handling
  
• fixed an issue with the floor grid audio status color not always updating correctly on startup
  
• anti-aliasing options are now either 2xMSAA or 4xMSAA, as UE5's masked opacity doesn't work with anything else
  
• automation with program scripts:
  
  
  
  • time codes can now be also relative (with a "+" prefix)
    
  • revised, fully documented example program is now included
    
  • updated documentation available here