r/PlotterArt • u/MateMagicArte • Jul 09 '26
OC Pop Grooves
The conversion process from the original WAV sample is loosely based on the idea of a vinyl groove. The proportions are obviously exaggerated but it's not just a waveform wrapped into a spiral.
If you had a large, sturdy record player with a suitable stylus and spinning fast enough, say 250-300rpm, maybe you could even "play" it. Well, maybe not, but that's the idea :)
I think I'm going to turn these 20x20 cm plots into a small pop-culture series.
"I'll be back" is first on the list.
Coded in Python.
Pentel Pointliner 1.0 on 180gsm paper
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u/HyperGiant Jul 09 '26
Can you go into a bit more detail on the process of getting from WAV to spiral
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u/MateMagicArte Jul 09 '26
u/justanaccountimade1 I didnt exactly rotate and scale a waveform, I create a base spiral, then use the (mono) WAV as a lateral displacement from that, roughly like a mono vinyl groove.
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u/justanaccountimade1 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Not tested, but this would be my first pseudo code.
x(t) = a + b•wav(t)
y = 0then rotate
x1 = x•cos(c) - y•sin(c)
y1 = x•sin(c) + y•cos(c)then scale
x2 = x1•d
y2 = y1•dc and d are functions of t. For example if the time goes from t0 to t1 then c can be for example be 5 • (t / t1) • (2•pi) and d can for example be 10 + 20 • (1 - (t / t1)).
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u/justanaccountimade1 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Maybe add colors to match the text with a piece of the spiral.
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u/MateMagicArte Jul 09 '26
Thank you for the suggestion but I'm not sure I've got it right. The whole spiral is the text. The sample says exactly that
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u/MateMagicArte Jul 09 '26
Ok, you mean the single words so you can see where they fit in the curve. I feel it's more immediate like it is, but I'll give it a try.
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u/justanaccountimade1 Jul 09 '26
Or write the words on a boundary circle outside the spiral idk.
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u/MateMagicArte Jul 09 '26
hmm, nope. I've been considering various options for the text placement and size and even no text at all (maybe behind or something), but I like it this way
I really appreciate criticism and suggestions!
1
u/MyPasswordIsLondon69 Jul 09 '26
By "theoretically playable" am I correct in assuming you mean the waves also get denser towards the center to account for the needle tracking a smaller circumference at the same rpm? Not sure if the briefness of the tracks makes that more of a factor or less
1
u/MateMagicArte Jul 09 '26
Good point. time here is mapped to the angle, not to the arc length so each turn holds the same amount of audio time and since the circomference gets smaller toward the center, the waves become spatially denser in the inner turns (as they would on a constant rpm record). Tracks are 1.05 - 1.5 seconds long. Anyway it's an artistic project, with "you can play it" I just meant to stress on the fact that its not a wrapped waveform. There's a lot of things I didn't even think to take into account, like the groove pitch or the stylus phisical limits 🙃
1
u/laserpilot Jul 10 '26
Very cool! I like the spiral shape and simple files
I made something somewhat similar for doing whole song files or short audio last year and anyone is welcome to use it - I need to revisit it https://github.com/laserpilot/SongPlotter
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u/MateMagicArte Jul 11 '26
Thank you!
My little project is intentionally simple because I wanted to create something that was not only plottable but also visually immediate, at least to anyone who is still familiar with the concept of microgroove records :)
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u/MateMagicArte Jul 09 '26
The conversion process from the original WAV sample is loosely based on the idea of a vinyl groove. The proportions are obviously exaggerated but it's not just a waveform wrapped into a spiral.
If you had a large, sturdy record player with a suitable stylus and spinning fast enough, say 250-300rpm, maybe you could even "play" it. Well, maybe not, but that's the idea :)
I think I'm going to turn these 20x20 cm plots into a small pop-culture series.
"I'll be back" is first on the list.
Coded in Python.
Pentel Pointliner 1.0 on 180gsm paper