STRAUSS - A Tool to Sonify the Universe

To create sonfications, we primarily utilise our new code Sonification Tools and Resources for Analysis Using Sound Synthesis (STRAUSS). This is an open source code and we welcome new users and contributors. An article introducing STRAUSS and its functionality appears in ICAD in 2023  (Trayford et al. 2023). 

Briefly, this Python code 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 correctly 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 Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System. We have also created sounds to be used as part of our educational workshops and make virtual reality experiences. 

•  Scientific analysis: For example, we turned the light-curves of stars into sound (see Tucker-Brown et al. 2022) and we have turned galaxy spectra into sound for both 1-dimensional and 3-dimensional datasets (Trayford et al. 2023).  

The STRAUSS code is publicly available on GitHub, which includes some example Python note books. If , instead, you want to get started trying STRAUSS using example Python notebooks within the browser, check our the examples on these pages.

If you want to be kept up-to-date about STRAUSS developments you can join the mailing list by completing this Google Form.