SonicDraw is an interactive web app that translates drawings into sound in real-time.
Lines, shapes and airbrushes are intuitively mapped to sound oscillators, noises and filters, enabling visitors to explore visual textures and quickly create looped sound pieces. Visitors are invited to share their finished sound drawings and explore the work of others in an online gallery.
SonicDraw is inspired by the role of sketching in architecture and design as a creative tool for generating ideas and structures. Since Iannis Xenakis’ seminal graphical interface UPIC [1], many compositional tools have been developed that map sketches to sound and generative music. These interfaces have proved successful in the contexts of collaborative [2] and individual music creation [3] and sound design [4].
[1] Bourotte, R. (2012). The Upic and Its Descendants: Drawing Sound.
[2] Bryan-Kinns, N. (2011). Annotating distributed scores for mutual engagement in daisyphone and beyond.
[3] Coleman, W., Cullen, C., Yan, M., & O’Sullivan, L. sonicPainter: Modifications to the Computer Music Sequencer Inspired by Legacy Composition Systems and Visual Art.
[4] Thiebaut, J. B., Healey, P. G., & Bryan-Kinns, N. (2008). Drawing electroacoustic music.