STRAUSS - A Tool to Sonify the Universe

Briefly, this Python package allows the user to synthesise sounds or manipulate pre-recorded audio samples with properties (e.g. pitch, volume, timbre) that are mapped from input data. You can also move objects in artificial space around an ‘observer’ and the code will calculate the relative volumes for the different channels of different speaker setups (e.g. stereo, 5.1 systems or ambisonics).

STRAUSS can be used as a sonification tool for all kinds of data analysis and communication tools. 

• For education and public communications: For example, it was used to create the sonifications in our planetarium shows: Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System and A Black Hole's Journey. We have also created sounds to be used as part of our educational workshops and make virtual reality experiences. 

•  Scientific data exploration: Find out more on our Data Exploration page. 

The STRAUSS package is publicly available on GitHub, which includes some example Python notebooks and codes. We also have some example notebooks and codes below to get you started. 

We've put these on Google Colab, so you do not need to download or install anything yourself! You just need a Google account, and you can easily get started!

The examples below use Version 1 of STRAUSS. In Version 2 (coming in 2027), you will need significantly less code to set up your sonifications!

The only requirement is that you need your own Google Account so that you can save a copy of the notebook into your own Google Drive. Once you have done this, everything will run for you in the browser (no need to run Python/STRAUSS on your own machine) and any edits will be saved to your Google Drive. 

Instructions: 

1. When the project opens in Colab, immediately do File>Save a Copy in Drive. This will save a copy to your own Google Drive, so that you can make your own edits and save them as you explore the notebook.

2. Select Edit > Clear All Outputs.

3. Start reading the instructions inside the notebook.

4. To execute a code cell, click in the cell and then press the “Play” button

5. Feel free to edit the code and explore! For example, you can change the example data that is read in to experiment with sonifying the different examples.

Try the examples bundled with strauss:

1. Sonifying 1D data in STRAUSS: Introduction to basic sonification of 1D data series, using a variety of expressive sound properties

2. Spectral Audification in STRAUSS: Direct audification of spectral data (or "spectralisation"), and how to represent 2D image data 

3. Stars Appearing sequence (from AUTotSS): Creating the stereo Stars Appearing sonification from Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System

4. Earths Oceans sequence (from AUTotSS): How to generate the earth rotation sequence, where we map a musical chord with 'brighter' sound to higher ocean coverage (and hence glare from the sun) as the earth rotates, from  Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System

5. Planetary Orbits sequence (from AUTotSS):  Creating the individual planetary orbit sounds from  Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System, and their stereo spatialisation

6. Day to Night Sequence (from AUTotSS): Provided for completeness, the sunrise to dusk sequence using the custom sun sounds from  Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System.

More extended examples, produced for strauss workshops:

dotAstronomy 2024 workbook:

Link:  https://githubtocolab.com/james-trayford/dotAstro13/blob/main/strauss_dotAstro13.ipynb

An extended example bringing together a number of case studies fomr other notebooks as well as new material. Example data is downloaded in-notebook.

Notebook example with star light curves: 

Link: https://githubtocolab.com/james-trayford/AudibleUniverseWorkbooks/blob/group4/STRAUSSdemo.ipynb 

The data is also stored in the Google Drive in the form of csv files. There are three examples provided: 

GALEX_NUV_LC.csv: Flare stare

tic_lc.csv: Exclipsing binary star

kid11616200_lc.csv: Heartbeat star.

Notebook example with AGN galaxy spectra: 

Link: https://githubtocolab.com/james-trayford/AudibleUniverseWorkbooks/blob/group3/STRAUSSdemo.ipynb  

The data is also stored in the Google Drive in the form of csv files.  These are grouped into three directories "Type1/" (four examples), "Type1.5/" (two examples) and "Type2/" (four examples). 

Section 2 of the notebook explains how to access the data with the different file names. 

Notebook example with multi-variate galaxy simulation data 

Link: https://githubtocolab.com/james-trayford/AudibleUniverseWorkbooks/blob/group4/STRAUSSdemo_bonus.ipynb 

This example accesses the star-formation and metal-enrichment histories of 5 galaxies from the EAGLE simulations. It shows an example of how to sonify multiple properties at once (in a time-series like sonification).