BUTCHER
A DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING NODE FOR BUILDING AUDIO-REACTIVE ENVIRONMENTSBUTCHER was created by M.E.A.T to help build audio-reactive environments. It takes the signal flow from a DJ board and analyzes it, converting it into useful data for external devices. Traditionally, this is done by using well-known proprietary software and systems. However, these systems are often stand-alone, costly, and closed-source.
BUTCHER aims to create an open source solution for converting audio signal data into meaningful data that can be used by many different types of external devices (lights, lasers, projectors) to create audio-reactive environments. Instead of each singular device having its own processing node, BUTCHER pushes the work upstream and allows external devices to share one processing node over a shared network.
As a DJ is playing a mix, BUTCHER is performing real-time audio analysis. BUTCHER looks for many different data points such as genre, frequency bands, pitch, and spectrogram data among other things. While BUTCHER analyzes the incoming audio signal in real-time, it generates useful data and packages it into a dictionary of useful information.
This dictionary is updated every few hundred milliseconds. Every time the dictionary is updated, it sends an OSC (Open Sound Control) message over a shared network. External devices that are connected to the network can listen for messages.
When a message is received, the external device interprets the message and acts accordingly. This may mean strobe lights flickering, a projector wobbling, or a laser displaying the M.E.A.T. logo. Each device can decide how it would like to interpret the data and what actions will come from it.
BUTCHER was inspired by the process of an everyday butcher. A butcher takes a large cut of meat and carefully trims it, leaving only the most important and nutritious parts of the cut. The work of a butcher saves a lot of time and trouble for every day people. BUTCHER aims to be useful in this way.
This proejct is currently under construction and updates will be made to this page.