Awards & Nominations
Terrestrial Extras has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Global Finalists Honorable Mentions
Solar Audio Transformer Plugin
High-Level Project Summary
We have developed a plugin for a digital audio workstation (a tool used by music producers to create music electronically) which will consume solar data and influence the song according to the data over a given interval of time. This tool can be used by any music producer to allow listeners to aurally experience satellite sensor data in a new and unique way. We have also created an original electronic song inspired by the sun and created a video with it set to NASA imagery.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Our project creates a plug-in for any digital audio workstation tool (such as Ableton, ProTools, etc) to allow a music producer the ability to transform their songs with solar data pulled from many of NASA's solar datasets. This tool will allow many others to build songs, sound effects, and music which incorporates the data pulled directly from NASA and integrates that unique and organic influence into the music.
This tool works by integrating a plugin into a Digital Audio Workstation tool which allows the user to modify an audio channel with a real-time solar based transformations. This can add a very unique and organic sound to a musical track which are qualities that music producers are often searching for.
The main benefits of this project is to create a plugin that allows other creators to incorporate solar data effects into their music. We didn't want to create a single project, but a tool which others can use to bring scientific data to the public. We are currently using the tool ourselves to create a new, original electronic song inspired by the Parker Solar Probe and our Sun. But the impact doesn't end with this single song. Instead, we hope others will use our plugin to add a unique solar element to their music.
To accomplish this goal, we used Ableton to create an original song inspired by the sun. We also developed a plugin for any digital audio workstation tool written in C++ using a platform called JUCE (https://juce.com/).
Space Agency Data
images and video:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12034
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=20363
raw solar wind data for use in application plugin:
https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-wind/
The raw solar wind data is simplified for a single parameter. We chose density. Then we extracted the values and integrated them into our plugin. The plugin will pull values from the solar data and modify the audio character.
Hackathon Journey
Our team approached this hackathon with the intentions of having fun. We're all experienced engineers who develop software in our daily lives, and we wanted to bring our creative side to the forefront. We had a simple ideation session where we thought about our individual skills, strengths, and interests and ended the session with a good idea of what we wanted to produce. We then divided up the work and went after it.
We resolved setbacks with pair-programming and by partnering up and working together. We have all worked together previously, so we know one another well.
We would like to thank the teams at NASA for gathering such valuable and interesting data and images which we take great personal inspiration from and which we were able to use to make our project a success. Thanks!
References
digital audio workstation plugin code created by Terrestrial Extras:
https://bitbucket.org/merrymarymaguire/nasa_hackathon/src/master/tryAgain/Source/
digital audio workstation tool used for musical composition:
https://www.ableton.com/en/
music video production tool:
iMovie
JUCE (audio workstation plugin tool):
https://juce.com/
sun videos downloaded from:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12034
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=20363
Solar wind data:
https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-wind/
Tags
#art #music #solar #sun #ParkerSolarProbe #software #electronicMusic #vst #plugin