by _def on 11/13/23, 3:54 PM
While I love Love Hulténs creations I think the article (and headline) does not emphasize enough the origin of these ferrofluid visualizers:
https://www.burnslap.me/26by heystefan on 11/13/23, 4:35 PM
That's amazing, went down a spiral of other projects too. Crazy stuff.
Also reminded me of this ferrofluid clock my buddy built back in the day: http://www.hellorhei.com
by leptons on 11/13/23, 5:18 PM
It's kind of boring. It makes the same ring-of-fluid shape, or just random little blobs. It's not as representative of the sounds being played as it is just forming around magnetic lines of flux that don't really display the sound. The device construction is what is pretty neat here, but the ferrofluid display is a bit lacking in coolness unless you've never seen ferrofluids reacting to electromagnets before (and maybe I'm jaded because I've seen it plenty of times, and it's practically always the same effect).
by xattt on 11/13/23, 6:21 PM
Other than looking neat, is there any meaningful information that can be gleaned from an FF display?
You can do the obvious with an oscilloscope, but ferrofluid appears as random blobs floating in space. The artist seems to have acknowledged that, as there is a smaller scope in the bottom right of one of their machines.
by tedd4u on 11/14/23, 3:12 AM
by mr_sturd on 11/13/23, 3:51 PM
Don't ferrofluids break down in to the surrounding liquid over time? Or is that mitigated by treating the glass as was mentioned in the bluetooth speaker video from the article?
by djleni on 11/13/23, 4:00 PM
I would really love to make a ferrofluid visualizer but instead of being part of the signal path, it’s a desk knick-knack with a microphone and wall power… Hmm
by demondemidi on 11/14/23, 3:22 AM
That guy really understands how to get timbre out of his synths. Damn what an ear.
That's really impressive, and just the beginning. Wait until dozens of people have had a decade to fool around with his base concep. I'd like to see the ferrofluid in 3d. It is naturally a 3d material but his displays are ~2.5d. I'm thinking a big sphere in the middle of the room, kinda like at the end of Netflix's "DARK".
by rob74 on 11/13/23, 5:04 PM
Cool! The "ferrofluid drum synth" video is actually more impressive than the "ferrofluid synth" one, that one just seems to produce the well-known "ferrofluid hedgehog" pattern (
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-e6aeab4f37492b0cfec44...), while the drum synth can produce more interesting patterns - same as the Bluetooth speaker (however I wonder how that would handle heavy metal :) ). Now I want one of those!
by qwertox on 11/13/23, 8:46 PM
The Winamp visualization we always wished we'd had.
by croes on 11/13/23, 4:54 PM
Doesn't ferrofluid have a limited stability?
by amelius on 11/13/23, 8:30 PM
I guess you could simulate this on a regular screen, with the advantage that you can show a lot of other things too.
by citruscomputing on 11/13/23, 4:59 PM
I absolutely cannot get into synths, it's such an an interesting way to make music, but can get so expensive.
by nullc on 11/13/23, 8:53 PM
How are they keeping the ferrofluid from sticking to the glass?
by cassac on 11/13/23, 7:09 PM
I think at Disney Worlds Animal Kingdom in the Avatar ride queue they have some pretty cool examples of this. I always wondered how they did it and now I know.
by bsder on 11/13/23, 10:41 PM
Why are these just blobs?
Ferrofluid should be able to visualize all kinds of field lines, no? Why aren't these showing Lissajous-like patterns?
by 3seashells on 11/13/23, 7:55 PM
Now use it with a reflective surface additive and magnetic fields as add hoc camera lense shaped by neural nets.
by demondemidi on 11/14/23, 3:23 AM
Does Love build the electronics too, or just make existing synths into wild art pieces?
by merelysounds on 11/13/23, 4:21 PM
If you’d like to see more regular patterns, I’ve built a browser app for creating and visualizing waveforms:
https://merely.xyz/wavesIt lets you explore the relations between shapes and ratios, less ferro and more Fourier.
by 3x35r22m4u on 11/13/23, 6:38 PM
I was truly expecting a reenactment of Gary vs David Synth Wars! Bummer.
by bitwize on 11/14/23, 12:04 AM
Reminds me of the Kryptonian displays in Man of Steel.
by krunck on 11/13/23, 9:22 PM
It's the white gloves that really make that video shine.
by wly_cdgr on 11/14/23, 12:10 AM
Finally my dream of a physical screensaver is realized
by zbrozek on 11/14/23, 3:10 AM
Huh. The first video causes my Framework 13 AMD running Firefox on Windows to reset.
by Flatcircle on 11/13/23, 9:36 PM
so sick