refreq

software Program art and tech experimental

REFREQ – YOUR FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE MUSIC PLAYER

refreq is my diploma project at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design - Media Design MA course.

The original concept (refreq) comes from a small psychedelic story.

One day when I woke up, I had a strong feeling that the track I’d just heard while sleeping would be perfect for a documentary that I happened to be working on -- except that it would have to be rotated 90 degrees. Despite having never worked with sound before, I was so inspired by this idea that I started to dig deep into the physics of sound. Through my research, I discovered aspects of the sound world I’d never heard before -- spectrograms, harmonies -- that only generated more curiosity. All of this lead me to build this audio project, which I’ve called refreq.

VALUE PROPOSITION

With refreq, not only can you load music files into the program, but also images. But what does that mean?

Well, after you’ve imported an .mp3, the program first analyzes the track. Once the analysis is complete, the program can then draw its frequency spectrum -- or, in other words, the image of the music.

Once the image has been created, you can play it back with refreq -- and you can actually hear the original music play!

But instead of just exploring the image you’ve generated, you can now take that image and create a whole new sound. Just export it as a .png, manipulate it with your preferred image-editing software, like Photoshop, and then import it back into refreq.

After you’ve explored your own generated image, try importing a different .png or jpg. See what different patterns sound like, maybe a mandala, the floor plan of your apartment...or even the Mona Lisa! Now you can listen to these images with refreq.

Here are two examples of what the spectrogram looks like in refreq.

Spectral image of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem (K. 626) - Lacrimosa

Sprectral image of Method Man & Redman - Da Rockwilder

I am constantly working on the coding as well as the branding, graphics, and UI design.

As of now, the project is currently in beta, but you can sign up anytime at refreq2.com to stay up-to-date with the progress, and join the test once it’s ready to be shared.