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Awesome Mac OS X Screensaver: Soundstream

pcheese.net — Soundstream 1.5 consists of a randomly moving particle generator that responds to the sound level picked up by your computer ’s microphone. It can also be used as a replacement to the sometimes boring iTunes visualizer. I totally recommend it, you will love it!

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  • ruslanr, on 10/12/2007, -12/+13Here's a video demo: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DDcp-l6Rqoc
    It's totally awesome!
    • decile, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Love it.
    • magicmarc, on 10/12/2007, -6/+31I think that animation on the site itself is a live demo. Or its a coincidence that when I clap my hands, it does seem to work.
    • ruslanr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Try blowing at it (making noise, obviously). You'll scare the crap out of your friends.
    • xyphur, on 10/12/2007, -28/+6Buried, Dupe...

      http://digg.com/software/Soundstream_THE_coolest_screensaver_for_OS_X submitted 191 days ago.
    • sych0, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3"totally" overload. Is this the early 90s again? That youtube demo sucked. The live demo on the website is much better.

      191 days is not a dupe. HEY THIS WAS POSTED THE FIRST DAY DIGG WAS ACTIVE! DUUUUUUUUPE!
    • andrewcod, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Mirror:
      http://web.archive.org/web/20060827203638/http://www.pcheese.net/software/soundstream/

      Alternate download link:
      http://homepage.mac.com/pcheese/external/soundstream/get/Soundstream15.dmg
    • PCheese, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Additional mirror site: http://dl.pcheese.net/software/soundstream/
    • ROFLance, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6There's a demo on the homepage, that actually works...
    • PathDaemon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5It's quartz, another reason QuickTime pwnz. Allows full 3D, interactive shiznit to run in any QuickTime movie.
    • cyclopsface, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15The live demo is scary: does that mean that websites can record my computer's microphone?

      um, "Helllloooooo websiiiiiteeee!!"
    • PCheese, on 10/22/2007, -2/+18Apple has a strong security model in place to prevent Quartz Compositions from being used nefariously. The demo on the page runs locally on your computer; and nothing is being recorded. (It would be impossible to do so.)

      There's a similar trick where a Quartz Composition on a website can display the video feed from your iSight; it looks scary, but again the video is only visible to you and cannot be recorded.
    • Drewboy64, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I like it but it's defiantly NOT the best (not trying to dis soundstream. Soundstream is still really cool). The coolest screensaver that I've ever seen and that I have used for the passed 1 1/2 years would be the Electric Sheep Screensaver. I can't watch movies in my room with friends with the computer on because it's so distracting. I highly recommend you check this one out as well at http://www.electricsheep.org/
    • CarbonFree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'd use electric sheep if it was in HD. (And don't tell me about the high fidelity one; they want money, or processor usage, and that's dickheaded of them)
    • thatgirlismine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Another sound-responsive Quartz Composer OS X saver: http://www.doomlaser.com
  • psycx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Alternate download link - http://homepage.mac.com/pcheese/external/soundstream/get/Soundstream15.dmg
  • qshady, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4Doesn't compare to Electric Sheep
  • digger_twit, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3I installed this right away when I bought my MacBook 2 weeks ago. Pretty cool I guess.
  • ers35, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6Isn't the point of a screensaver for when you are away from the computer, thus not making noise?

    I suppose other noises could affect it. Cool nonetheless.
  • Systembomber, on 10/12/2007, -8/+19Don't digg me down for asking since this is for Mac OSX but is there something like this for WIndows / Linux?
    • TannerLD, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9There is Electric Sheep which looks cooler, but doesn't respond to anything.
    • ruslanr, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6The cool thing about this screensaver is it responds to sound. Plus you can change the settings like size and number of streams, their speed and how sensitive it is to noise. I won't say anything about Electric Sheep because I've never seen it.
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6http://www.maddogsw.com/flurry/
      Not sound-responsive, but it's the Windows version of the default OS X screensaver (Flurry). I don't think it would be too much more work to make it respond to sound-levels - The source code is provided with the screensaver so if someone who knows C++..
      - Ben
    • livejamie, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1geiss
    • benitojuarez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2theres the psychedelic screensaver for windows which reacts to sound, its quite old however , i first ran it on windows 98.

      http://synthesoft.com/

      All 3 of those react to sound. I think you have to use the bundled media player called cdspectrum pro. God its been years. But it for sure racts to microphone input as well.

      This gives you an idea of just how old it is.

      All three screen savers now include Synthesoft's new WinAMP* Plugin which allows you to sync the screen saver graphics to music being played by WinAMP*. We also include a plugin for the Windows Media Player 7.
  • tuzziel, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2Just make sure that this thing do not call home while you are off.
  • Dracomantis, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Pritty cool, though i have a cough atm.. so it keeps spazzing out when i try to watch it lol
  • Scotty87, on 10/12/2007, -26/+4small things amuses small minds
    • justinm1, on 10/12/2007, -6/+29Small minds say "amuses" instead of "amuse".
  • darkamster07, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4not that great in my opinion, it dosent look all that pleasing, and at least in my case, I have yell pretty loud to get any reaction out of it, I'm gonna skip this one (I have enough screen savers already.)
    • Dracomantis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Is it installed? if so turn the sensitivity up!

      If its not... and the demo dosnt work without you yelling.. your mic blows
    • ruslanr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2darkamsterou, you can adjust volume sensitivity. It works with me by just blowing at it.
    • SleepJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6You can change the sensitivity in the options if you'd like. Mine is going crazy just from having the TV on.
    • realnebby, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3There is a volume sensitivity slider in the options.
  • n8k99, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2turns your $2000 computer into The Clapper.
  • amystery21, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I just tried it out and loved it. I'd been using plasma tunnel which is addictive but not interactive. This is just fun to watch. Right now it is going and responding to the music I have playing in the room and when I get bored I make some noise and it explodes. It is even picking up the sound of my typing.
  • tuartboy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4I've seen this like 5x on digg and various sites. This seriously takes anyone about 5 minutes to put together in Quartz Composer and I made something nearly identical almost 2 years ago when Tiger first came out.

    If you have Tiger, pop in your DVD and install developer tools. Quartz composer is awesome.

    Not trying to toot my own horn, just pointing out that this is really nothing special.
    • PCheese, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9The first version of Soundstream was up and running rather quickly; that's the beauty of Quartz Composer. Still, tuning it to look the way it does in version 1.5 did take quite some time. It's easy to produce something rough in Quartz Composer, but getting the details right on my first composition was tough. Feel free to look at the source; the macros and links can be rather complex at times.

      I agree with your comment (except the part about it being nothing special ;), and I encourage people to mess with Quartz Composer and see what comes of their experiments! That's how Soundstream was born.

      You may want to glance at the FAQ I put together: http://dl.pcheese.net/software/soundstream/faq.html
  • Hawkeye199, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3about time i found a decent screen saver, i use my MacBook when i listen to podcasts so the screen saver comes on so i need something to look at while I'm listening

    Anyone else come across any interesting screen savers, all the ones I've found are a bit dull
  • capitocapito, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Any Windows or Linux port?
  • FearAndLoathing, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0It's a good time, no doubt of that, the only thing it lacks is built in iTunes integration, so you wouldn't have to leave iTunes running while in order for the screen saver move with the music.
  • dataminer, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3If you think soundstream is good you really should check out " g-Force " it does both PC and Mac.

    http://www.soundspectrum.com/g-force/
    • eMadman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Who was the brilliant mind who thought people would pay money for screensavers? Who was the idiot that decided to buy them? I mean seriously... these are only visual applications that show up when you are NOT at the screen...
    • Dracomantis, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Wow..... You mean i can have such a huge range of lame ass WMP effects on my mac?? and pay for them???
  • senghir, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Also nicely featured on the websites' sound-sensitive quicktime. Coo!
  • HonoredMule, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2So...Apple's first introduction to audio visualization outside the iTunes crap?

    It makes no sense whatsoever to implement as a screen saver. I dare say Nullsoft still holds the trump card on audio visualization eye candy, too (MilkDrop, AVS, etc.).
  • pantone354, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1loving it..
  • generalsticky, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2God dammit my mac doesn't support Quartz Extreme. :(
    • petereality, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1wtf kind of mac doesn't support QE/CI?
  • cinchel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2i like tha ability to use it as a desktop background...and it doesnt seem to suck up a lot of ram..and i am only using a G4 iBook. very nice...the itunes visualizer is just ok though.
  • cinchel, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0i love the ability to use is as a desktop background..and it doesnt suck up to much ram as i'm only using a G4 iBook...


    opps double post...sorry
  • JMAN123, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2The best part about this screensaver is it becomes an entertainment piece when you have people over, especially if they have never seen it before. The surprise factor of using it has created many interesting moments of surprise and then great interest into how it works.
    • petereality, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1omg, like, r u super popular now?
  • ryanschmidt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I got all excited, thinking it was something new but it's the same one I had awhile ago. I guess I will say though that it's a great screensaver and it will impress the friends. DOWNLOAD IT
  • Royal0rleans, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Joachim! You did it!


    This is awesome, and I'm glad it made front page
  • morcheeba, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If you've got a mac, you can see the source code by opening the soundstream.qtz file. Otherwise, here's a picture of the code (it's in a visual language):
    http://www.glowfoto.com/static_image/25-131811L/8250/png/02/2007/img3/glowfoto

    Apple has been really good at developing core technologies that make it easier to code for their platform.
  • antdude, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Animations look slow though. :(
  • livejamie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1we've had geiss for years now, if you're looking for something similar on windows deffinetly give it a shot
    http://www.geisswerks.com/geiss/index.html

    it's been my screensaver for years, reacts to the microphone and everything
  • LuckyKarma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4My friend and I are having a competition of who can make their computers look better, his IBM Thinkpad vs. my Macbook. I can't wait to hear what he says about this!
    • petereality, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1he might throw a curveball at you and install OSX86, then you'd be screwed...
  • Carleton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This screen saver was created with Quartz Composer. Quartz Composer is distributed on the OS X 10.4 - it is one of the most amazing applications I have ever seen. I have several similar screen savers on my site http://caleb.poeticpublishing.com and there are some more (really incredible) screen savers here: http://www.zugakousaku.com/index.php?m=project&id=quartz&s=sample&p=31_MonaLisa&l=jp

    I'm really surprised that there aren't more screen savers like this floating around out there. You can pull of some pretty stunning effects rather easily with Quartz and to install a Quartz composition as a screen saver you only need to drop it in your screen saver directory.
  • mr3xcellent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3anyone remember cthugha?

    http://www.afn.org/~cthugha/
  • bsippel9708, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow, this screensaver is amazing. My girlfriend was actually really excited about it and this has to be the first time she got excited about something found on Digg - News - Technology - Apple.
  • polo3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Here's some openGL scr's for the rest of us.
    http://www.reallyslick.com/
  • deadbeatpoet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I work with the person who wrote Soundstream! He's just about the nicest kid I've ever met--and one of the smartest. Coincidentally, I donated through his website the day before this post appeared on Digg. If you like this program, please donate a few bucks--he deserves credit for his creativity and resourcefulness. If you don't know already, the address is http://pcheese.net

    Good job, JD!
  • jm1234567890, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I built something like this the other day when learning about quicktime compositor... I thought I was original :(
  • SVPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've just started out goofing with Quartz Composer, it's flat out awesome. It's so simple to use all you have to do is work the logic out in you head and connect the patches up and hey presto! Still, it's on of these things that's easy to be good at but not so easy to be great at.

    I'm especially interested in the sound and video handling in it. There is potential to really easily achieve some great effects, like these.
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