[LAU] Text-based sound visualisation?

[S. Massy]

On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 10:17:41PM +0000, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 05:48:13PM -0400, S. Massy wrote:
> 
> > I thought of that: one could split up the frequency range using a bunch
> > of chains with bandpass filters, but here again, how to measure and
> > report in a timely, readable matter?
> > 
> > I'd rather go the simplest route possible, since I don't need anything
> > too fine-grained.
> 
> Before you waste too much time on this: such metering is
> in general pretty useless, unless you are doing sound level
> monitoring to determine acoustic pollution levels to some
> official standard or something similar. And in that case
> you need very strictly specified hardware, filters, meter
> responses and postprocessing algorithms. 
> 
> For musical (mixing) purposes such a display may give you
> the illusion of providing some interesting info but it
> doesn't. 
> 
> Suppose you have a meter that displays the levels in say
> ten frequency bands. How would you use its output ? Try
> to make the levels equal, or fit them to some template ?
> If the purpose is to find which band is responsible for
> some peaks you want to reduce, forget it. Either things
> will be very clear and you can easily *hear* where the
> problem is, or you won't get any reliable output from
> your meter at all. 
Well, doing it by hear is what I already do, but the thought of being
able to see it on display seems academically interesting, not to mention
eliminating some of that cursed self-doubt that plagues us all. :) 

Can you think of a way to produce a more useful information output using
the relatively coarse-grainedness of a 80x25/50 terminal? I've never
seen/used an actual scope, so I'm not sure how it could be textualised
and yet retain its usefulness. 

Cheers,
S.M.