For my sixth Impulse, I wanted to try something online. I was hoping to join a free TouchDesigner workshop, but I couldn’t find one that worked with my schedule. Instead, I decided to follow a tutorial to help me with the voice interaction I’m working on for my thesis.
I chose the Abstract Speech Visualisation tutorial by Bileam Tschepe (Elekktronaut). His explanations were easy to follow, and the way he set up the audio interaction was really inspiring. He broke everything down step by step, which made it much easier to understand, especially for someone like me who’s still learning.
I then followed the tutorial and recreated the patch in TouchDesigner. I played around with some of the parameters and experimented with the settings to see how small changes could affect the visuals. It was interesting to see how different audio inputs created various effects, and I had fun testing different combinations. Below is a recording of my experiment with the patch.
What I Learned
- Audio Analysis in TouchDesigner – The tutorial showed how to break down audio into frequencies and amplitudes. This was very useful for understanding how sound can control visual elements.
- Creating Dynamic Visuals: I learned how to use particle systems and shapes to make visuals that respond directly to sound.
- Visualizing a language in a new way, like the Heptapod logograms, can make us question our usual way of thinking about communication.
Conclusion
So this tutorial helped me to practice TouchDesigner to create visuals that react to voice and sound better. Also, it is very important for my thesis, as I’m trying to visualize the unique characteristics of different languages.
→ Watch the Tutorial: Abstract Speech Visualisation by Bileam Tschepe
→ Learn more about TouchDesigner: TouchDesigner Official Website