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    Presentation

    Coagula is an image synth. It is both a simple image editor, and a program for generating sound from images (using additive synthesis).

    You can use Coagula to generate rich and complex synth sounds. There are special drawing tools to help you create the pictures. Some are not so common in other image editors. Lots of stuff that would be really useful is also missing. The program is still under development.

    System requirements: Windows 95 or later. A Color monitor is highly recommended.
news?
    newsflash
    (sept 2008): Minor update: Now loads JPEG, GIF files (still save only to BMP). Recents files menu and cute selection.
    (may 2003): Blue = Noise. Bandlimited noise, unlimited variation. Rumble, grumble, roar, screech, buzz, hiss, and susurration.
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    Now You Can Hear the Light

    Coagula reads image data and adds up masses of sine waves -- each line in the image controls the amplitude of one oscillator at a certain pitch. The vertical position of a pixel decides the frequency, while its horizontal position corresponds to time.
    You can of course freely set the total time and the frequency range for your image.

    Red and green control stereo placement: Red is sent to left channel, while green controls amplitude of the right channel. The brighter the colour, the louder the sound.
    ("Pixel" is short for picture element, ie. a single coloured dot in an image or on the screen.)

    So, the basic sound generation formula in Coagula is:
        Each dot = one blip.

        The principle of light-to-sound conversion
        In the diagram, the squares in the left part represent single pixels on your screen.

    Orange = much red, a little green; this means loud left channel signal, softer right.
    Yellow = max red and max green; this means equal left/right intensity.
        A dot that is vertically higher in the image generates a higher-pitched sine blip.
    Green = ...well, you get the idea... here the left channel stays quiet.

    Blue is used to smear the blips to dirty, noisy blotches. (since v1.6, May 2003)
    This new feature means that
        One blip + blue = a blotch.

    The principle of blue-to-noise conversion
    Generating sound from a small image. Click image for large view.

    The right-hand spectral views were made with a spectral analysis program (vertical is pitch). But they look much compressed downward since spectral analysis commonly uses linear frequency representation. Coagula uses exponential pitch, similar to hearing, and musical tones.
    (Coagula will also have exponential frequency analyis, sometime soonish...)

    Coagula old and new spectrum
    Click the images to go to a page with some cute measurements...
    Here pitch is shown horizontally, to get more detail. An all-white image (musically limited, good for taking measurements) was rendered to sound, and the sound was analyzed. This just goes to show: Coagula can fill your spectrum, and some of your needs, or leave any size holes in it.  
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    New Features and Future Plans

    v1.666, May 25, 2005 (released Aug 2008 - sorry about that):
    • Can now load gif, jpeg or metafiles (emf, wmf). Still only saves to bmp though.
    • Brightening lamp (icon in middle of toolbar) shows image brighter, making it easier to see where stuff is.
    • When selecting the image is temporarily brightened or inverted. Configure under Options menu.
    • The 8 most recent files are listed in File menu, for quick access.

    v1.6, May 8, 2003:
    Major upgrade: The noise generator is changed to do some real work. Add some images to filter pack.
    Overlays fixed to work better. Also change menus for clearer layout.

    v1.5, March 13, 2003:
    Minor update fixing some bugs in image browser and info-file management.
    v1.5, Jan 3, 2003:
    Blue is used to control the spectrum of any red/green signal at the same pixel. As the intensity of blue increases, the waveform of the affected oscillator will sweep from sinewave into a narrow noise band, so that white (pink, turquoise) areas in the image will yield a dense spectrum.

    Please note that no retail version of Coagula exists yet!
    Planned features in the future retail version of Coagula:

    • Analysis of soundfiles, creating an image from any WAV file (this is the tricky one).
    • Select among several synth methods to generate sound -- not just sine-waves and noise.
    • Real-time playback while scrubbing the image.
    • Filter design tools, with vowel and chord parameters.
    • Work with multiple image layers.
 
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    Pricing Information

    The version that you can download from this page is freeware for individual home users.
    Any commercial use incurs a license fee. Commercial use includes
    -- using any of the Coagula binaries to decorate your magazine's cover CD-rom
    -- installing Coagula to a machine which people have to pay to use,
    -- using Coagula extensively in commercial music (meaning albums selling more than say 5000, and/or concerts with more than a few hundred paying visitors).

    Hint: The fee may vary from fair write-up (fair as in printed space, not in fawning content) or sending me a CD through to paying a regular licence fee, depending on type of product and the intended use.

    Just for negotiation (no, you won't be robbed - I don't do legalistics).

 
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    Download Section

    If you find bugs I would appreciate getting a about it.
    about features and the interface are very welcome. (Note: Converting sounds to images will be in the retail version.)

    When the full-featured version is ready, there will be a link to the distributor here.
    If you want to be notified about updates you can .

    Distribution files

    Download program. Images for filtering included.
    Coagula Light, v 1.666 (with filter images) (Sept 19, 2008, size 1.55 MB).
    Make sure that Winzip (or what you use) is set to use folder names when unzipping files.
    The folders "Filter", "Filter\BW", "Filter\Colour", and "Filter\Misc" should be created in the folder to which you unpack Coagula.

©
     
    Thanks to (mainly) Mikael Konttinen and (also) Wout Blommers for the filter images.
    See copyright notice inside the package. (Image pack date: May 8 2003)
 
         
  GRANNY  
    If you like Coagula, you may want to try GranuLab.
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Document date: June 7, 2003
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