Audiowave plugin

[joojaa]

well doing a node like that isnt realy hard at all... but i dont have the time to scourge for a wav fft transformer... but libreries are free and findable!

[joojaa]

well doing a node like that isnt realy hard at all... but i dont have the time to scourge for a wav fft transformer... but libreries are free and findable!

[doms]

From doing a forum search i can't see anyone who has got this plugin working properly in the last couple of years (including me). Is it just a WIP or is there any point in trying to get it working if you aren't a programmer? Does anyone know of instructions on how to use it/ set it up (other than the gibberish that came with it).

(What took me a few minutes in Max has taken me over 4 years so far in Maya.)

[joojaa]

Define giberish? Its pretty straight forward they even were kind enough to tell the mel commands you need inorder to get it working without using the connection editor. Ok so it doesent have UI... But doing one is not that hard.

first type "createNode audioWave;" to create a audivawe node.

Then all you need to do is connect the default time (time1 or any custom one) to input, connect the output to whatever atribute you want to drive and type the name of your audio file in the audio box of the node (note maya uses unix style directory separators even on windows so c:myfile.wav is c:/myfile.wav)?

Have you ever worked with utility nodes in maya?

Ok so the audiwave plugin doesent feed realy convinient values! But thats a nother story to tach you tell me whan you get the connections working! (i dont realy use audiwave because its a bit lame as it has no selective capabilities for different band areas... also you usaly need to do ops on audio before you get what you want anyway. Importing the data from a audi software takes 10 secs or so....)

do you need ui?

Ps. note this was the fist time i set up a audiWave node and it took me 60 seconds + i wrote this at the same time. another 1 min to track the plug and install it!

[doms]

I have the nodes connected no problem but nothing seems to be happening (connected output to scale and translate of sphere). What is the next part of the lesson? Yes i have used utility nodes before.

I can get the separate track/ channel info from the musician, i just need some very quick way of doing a basic music video for the guy who is doing a free sound track one of my shorts.

[joojaa]

Works fine for me! moves like it should and so on (altough not like i want!)... what version are you using? Did you connect time and a sound clip in too (? just guessing here)

What version of maya... i could only find audiovawe for maya 4.5

Ps. I kindof flipped cos you should have gotten it to work wth the docs!

[joojaa]

This works for me (asuming audiwave is loaded offcourse). Test it on a empty scene (check the path offcourse). if you can get the ball to scale the thats a sstep forward! Could it be that audiwave isnt compatible with your sound dirvers or windows settings?

sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 1 0 -ssw 0 -esw 360 -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 4 -nsp 2 -ch 1;
createNode audioWave;
connectAttr -f audioWave1.output nurbsSphere1.scaleX;
connectAttr -f audioWave1.output nurbsSphere1.scaleY;
connectAttr -f audioWave1.output nurbsSphere1.scaleZ;
connectAttr -f time1.outTime audioWave1.input;
sound -file "C:/WINNT/Media/Windows Logon Sound.wav" -offset 0;
connectAttr -f Windows_Logon_Sound.filename audioWave1.audio;
setAttr "audioWave1.scale" 15;
source "updateSoundMenu.mel";
setSoundDisplay Windows_Logon_Sound 1;

[doms]

I'm using 5.01 with Bonus Tools for Audiowave. I typed in the audio filename first then connected it with the connection editor later when i imported the .wav file.

The scale attribute changes the sphere but no change happens when i hit play (set to real time), also sample attribute has no effect.

The docs talk about ""string"" ??? $ is a variable but what variable? why not say $filename if thats what they mean. (Gibberish is defined as drunk talk or 90% of mel, if like me you try to avoid learning it).

I think it would be much easier to use the Krokodove audio analyser in Digital Fusion (which works) if i could figure out how to export the keyframes back to Maya.

[joojaa]

try my code!

Anyway you mean this step

In reply to:
3. Enter one of the following MEL commands:
setAttr audioWave1.audio -type "string" "soundfile";
OR
connectAttr soundNode.filename audioWave1.audio;

it means either connect the name form a sound node to the string atribute or asing the string atribute to whatever the path to your soundfile is.

Maybe the coutes are confusing you.

setAttr audioWave1.audio -type "string" "soundfile";

-type "string" tells maya its setting a string variable theese two flags are defined together. Its not a variable its a piece of text (thats why its quoted) if the field accepted int variables it would read "int" instead. (you could have found the answer in the docs if you would have read the -type flags definition in setAttr

[doms]

I copied your mel changed the audio/ paths and exectued, it all worked but still no scale change on playback. The problem is there is so little info on Audiowave i don't know how to find out about soundcard/ system incompatability (XP SP1a, 2800xp, Abit NF7 mobo soundcard, 1 Gb Ram, 9500 Pro Ati card, SATA 120gb)

Thanx for your help, i don't suppose you have any other ideas on instant music videos? (never ever mention to muisicians that you do animation!!!!), i suppose i'll have to resort to Arkaos or Winamp (nice to know my skills as a CG director will be tested to the full!!!)

[doms]

There isn't much difficult about this once it has been explained but the docs do assume that you are a TD and not an art director.

If Max can have a ready made modifier for sound input why can't Maya, i thought it was supposed to be more robust but a lot of things just seem 10 times as complicated to get the same result. (no don't bother answering that i'll go find a dog to kick)

[joojaa]

Did the code spit errors? I mean if you had a different wav fie then the audionodes name is different (even caps differ here)!! (yes is hould have made a string out of it but). Thi just to cover all the posibble loopholes.

If the sound loads to the timeline it should be ok!

Hmm it gives me some strange variation between 7 and 10! Its prbably some sort of logarithic operation. try adjusting the sample size wit atribute editor as it appears to ba a bit too big! Values between 2 and 10 give better results. But still pretty bad!

For beter results try filtering out any noise etc etc. problem is that music for instance has litle overall variation usualy if you look at tha whole spectrum! Someone did me a nifty plug for soundforge so that i can export the data to a text file from there while i play with the sound!

[doms]

I didn't get any error mesages and the audionodes name was correct and the audio loaded and played in the timeline OK. I tried changing the sample size as well. Maybe its just 5.01 that is the problem, maybe i'll try installing 4.5 (is that what you are using?).

The trapcode plugin for AFX is good as you can specify wich part of the audio spectrum it will produce keyframes for. Also if you can get audiowave to work try stripping out the bass line and connecting it to a locator with springs instead of adjusting the sample. Thanx again.