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Use an oscilloscope-like visualizer in iTunes Apps
Not really a hint, but one thing I've missed since I switched two years ago was Windows Media Player's "scope" visualisation. I'm sure I'm not the only person who enjoyed making the line wobble in erratic ways, or putting on some ambient music and surfing the sine waves. I was searching iTunes visualisations for this feature when I came across iVisualize. While this doesn't have the oscilloscope I was looking for, it did have a visualization that had one in it (iVestream).

Handily, these are just Quartz Compositions, so I tinkered around in Quartz Composer for a while (two nights actually), and through total trial and error, managed to end up with something usable (Scope.qtz - 28KB). Obviously, iVisualize needs to be installed first, then just drop the Scope.qtz file into Library -> iTunes -> iVisualize.

If anyone out there with any knowledge of Quartz Composer wants to tinker further to increase the resolution of the image, then please do so. I tried to to get help from a couple of Quartz Composer forums, but they weren't interested. And to change the colour, open the composition in Quartz Composer and edit the "Sprite" item (#5) -- the info window has a colour chooser box, just change that to whatever's needed. If anyone can whack this into the options menu of iVisualize...

I understand this is barely a hint, more a half-finished bit of code begging to be finished, but I always loved the scope on WMP, and just don't find iTunes visualisations all that great.

[robg adds: I chose to run this one due to the possibilities presented by using iVisualize and Quartz Composer to create your own iTunes visualizers, for those who find the stock versions unsatisfying.]
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Use an oscilloscope-like visualizer in iTunes | 4 comments | Create New Account
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Use an oscilloscope-like visualizer in iTunes
Authored by: lyle on Jan 18, '07 05:31:30PM

Thanks for the hint! This looks like fun.

BTW, you will find a nice oscilloscope and other tools in Amadeus Pro. Fun to play with!



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Use an oscilloscope-like visualizer in iTunes
Authored by: TGV on Jan 19, '07 01:13:10AM

Hi,

I like it, but what's up with the "Check on Fridays only" and following blocks? Does this thing really continously check whether it is Friday, and Friday all day long whether there is an update? Not really efficient, and something you might have written down somewhere (and that does not mean written with invisible ink on a piece of paper in a locked drawer in a windowless room without electric light with a locked door in a cellar with broken stairs with the warning "beware of the man-eating tiger").



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Use an oscilloscope-like visualizer in iTunes
Authored by: PCheese on Jan 19, '07 01:58:23PM
I'm the creator of Soundstream and iVestream. Soundstream is the original screensaver that prompted the creation of the iTunes visualizer, so they share most of the code.

In response to TGV, the Check on Fridays patch is a part of the screensaver that checks for software updates. It only checks based on certain factors (automatic update checking is enabled, it's a Friday, and the composition has been running for at least 5 minutes). Also, since it uses similar RSS technology as Safari, it does not continuously poll the software update server.

In Scope.qtz and iVestream, the automatic update checking is disabled, so these should never attempt to connect to the internet. For simplicity's sake, the other patches were left in there. It is true that they continuously check whether it is a Friday and should be removed for best peformance, but Quartz Composer has several optimizations that minimize the negative effect of these patches.

I have offered to work with knifehandchop and improve the performance and layout of the oscilloscope composition; I expect one of us will post a link to the improved version once it is complete!

Finally, I thought I'd point out a similar compositions-in-iTunes product: Jax by Prosoft.

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Alternative Method
Authored by: CMKProductions on Jul 16, '08 11:19:43AM

I was tweaking around with the default iTunes visualizer and found that a similar effect can be achieved by pressing the [Q] key until the first line of text in the upper-right hand corner reads "Simple Vertical" or "Simple Horizontal," (I prefer the latter) pressing the [A] key until the second line reads "Cyclone Clouds" and pressing the [Z] key until the third line reads "Quicksilver." I think the color selection (the third line of text) may be changed, if you so desire, but Quicksilver was the first I found that allowed me to keep a solid black background. You can then save this setting by pressing [Shift] + [(any number key 0-9)] and recall it by pressing the number key you designated. If you are interested in any other visualizer commands, simply press the [?] key to display help text.



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