visualizer posts

TUAW Tip: Control the iTunes visualizer

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Oct 3rd, 2008

By now you've probably had the opportunity to play around with the new iTunes Visualizer in iTunes 8. It's pretty cool, eh? Just like the previous visualizer, you can control this one with a few, simple key strokes. By pressing "?" while the visualizer is running, you are presented with a list of keys that customize the visualizer.

? - Shows/hides the help screen
M - Changes the mode
P - Changes the color palette
I - Displays the track information for the currently playing song
C - Toggles "auto-cycle" (which is turned on by default)
F - Toggles the "freeze mode"
N - Shows/hides the "smoke" in the background
L - Toggles camera lock

Know of any more cool key combos for iTunes visualizers? Be sure to tell us in the comments!

Thanks to Luke and others for the tip!

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and TUAW Tips sections.

Tags: control, iTunes, itunes 8, Itunes8, tips, Visualizer

Filed under: Tips and tricks, iTunes

Splash that iTunes visualizer across multiple monitors

by Robert Palmer (RSS feed) on Sep 11th, 2008

iPodHacks has a very easy way to display your iTunes visualizer across multiple monitors using Mac OS X's built-in accessibility zoom feature.

The instructions show you how to enable Zoom in the Universal Access system preference pane. When the visualizer is playing, you can zoom in on the iTunes window, and the image of the window is spread across all your screens.

The quality of the zoom, of course, is a bicubic interpolation of the screen image, so it's not as crisp as it could be. Also, the fluidity of the display depends greatly on how powerful your video card is, and how it's connected to your computer. Multiple video cards also don't necessarily help, unlike with the original Magnetosphere visualizer.

For a party, though, it's a neat trick. If you have other ways to make this happen, feel free to leave a comment!

Tags: itunes, magnetosphere, multiple monitors, MultipleMonitors, universal access, UniversalAccess, visualizer, zoom

Filed under: Audio, Multimedia, Rumors, iTunes

Rumor: new visualizer in iTunes 8 to be Robert Hodgin's Magnetosphere

by Joshua Ellis (RSS feed) on Sep 5th, 2008

On the heels of our earlier post about new features in iTunes 8 comes this post from video producer and designer Allan White, speculating that the new visualizer in iTunes might be Processing artist Robert Hodgin's amazing Magnetosphere, which was available up until a few months ago from The Barbarian Group (aka Robert's design company) as an iTunes plugin.

As Allan points out, there are two very strong pieces of evidence for this: 1) Allan emailed Robert, who told him Magnetosphere had been sold to a "third party", and 2) a twitter from Digg founder (and amateur Apple rumor mill) Kevin Rose on Sept. 2nd describing the new visualizer as "planet like objects wrapping around each other w/stars/light streams". As you can see in the image above, this sounds like a pretty apt description of Magnetosphere, which visualizes sound as particle explosions like supernovas. The Barbarian Group website's page for Magnetosphere says that "We've had a ton of interest in it, and we've got some exciting plans, but it's gonna take us a couple months to make it all happen."

Of course, nothing is confirmed, but it all points in the right direction. Personally, I'd love to see Magnetosphere on every iTunes user's screen, and not just because Robert is an amazing artist and also always gracious and helpful when I email him because my Processing particle system animations don't look as cool as his. The world just needs stuff this cool-looking everywhere.

(Thanks to Poopie for noticing that I'd accidentally added an "s" to "Hodgin"!)

[via Create Digital Music]

Tags: itunes8, processing, visualizer

Filed under: Audio, iPod Family, Multimedia, Software, iPhone

Create Digital Music rounds up iTouch / iPhone music apps

by Joshua Ellis (RSS feed) on Sep 3rd, 2008

The lovely and talented Peter Kirn over at Create Digital Music has posted a round up of music apps for the iPod / iTouch platform. The list includes tools for using your iPhone as a MIDI/OSC controller, making random weird digital art, visualizing your music and, er, listening to Snow Patrol's next album, amongst other apps. Peter's a thoughtful critic and his evaluations are pretty detailed and thorough.

If you're an aspiring iPhone musician / DJ/ sound designer, this is definitely a good place to start finding useful apps.

Tags: audio, dj, iphone, ipod-touch, midi, music, sound, visualizer

Filed under: Audio, Software, iTunes

Eyephedrine iTunes visualizer

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Jan 31st, 2006

So the built in iTunes visualizer just isn't doing anything for you? Check out Eyephedrine, the visualizer plug-in that makes use of OpenGL 3D. Enjoy the multiple layers blending, realtime cube mapping, reflections, motion blur and light bloom fun across more than 70 visualizations. It also displays album art and track information. Who knew the Crystalline Entity could move like that?

Eyephedrine requires Mac OS 10.3.9, iTunes 4.7, a G4 400MHz or above and a GeForce 2 / Radeon 32DDR, though the recommendations (OS 10.4.3, iTunes 6.x, G5/Intel 1GHz or above, GeForce4 / Radeon 8500 or better) are a bit higher. Eyephedrine is $8US shareware.

Tags: eyephedrine, itunes, openGL, visualizer

Filed under: OS, How-tos, Internet

Multiple Feeds Combined in RSS Visualizer: An Answer for Laurie

by C.K. Sample, III (RSS feed) on May 27th, 2005

Several weeks ago, Laurie asked "What if I want more than one RSS feed in my Tiger screensaver?"

Today, thanks to this Mac OS X Hint, I have an answer. Go to FEEDcombine, click on the link to Make Feed, and then fill the list with up to 10 feeds and click on go to feed. Add the feed to Safari and then select the feed in your RSS Visualizer preferences in the ScreenSaver tab of the Desktop / ScreenSaver control panel.

Unfortunately, the RSS Visualizer caps its display at 10 stories, so you should do no more than 10 feeds at 1 story per feed, but you could do 2 feeds at 5 stories per feed, or 3 feeds at 4, 3, and 3, etc. If you need help with the math, Laurie, feel free to ask. ;-)

Tags: rss, screensaver, visualizer

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