Oscilloscope Music
Preview stereo XY audio, trim it into Animation Studio layers, and export ILDA or video with clear timing and output limits.
What is oscilloscope music?
Oscilloscope music is audio that draws a picture. On an oscilloscope in XY mode, the left channel moves the beam horizontally and the right channel moves it vertically, so the shape you hear is the shape you see. Artists like Jerobeam Fenderson and Hansi Raber (the duo behind oscilloscopemusic.com) compose tracks that play as intricate animations when displayed this way.
To watch it or make your own, open the free OSC-1 online oscilloscope, and follow the oscilloscope music beginner guide for a first figure step by step. This page covers the other direction: turning a finished recording into laser frames.
From a recording to a laser layer
BeamTracer can turn these recordings into Animation Studio layers and ILDA Format 5 animations. The generated layer preserves the decoded XY coordinates in source order. Physical playback depends on your player, point rate, and scanner limits; it is not guaranteed to match a hardware oscilloscope or the original audio timing.
Quick Start
Open Animation Studio and click the Oscilloscope tool in the QUICK TOOLS sidebar — it opens the OSCILLOSCOPE → LAYER dialog
Upload a stereo WAV file containing oscilloscope music. The left channel maps to X and the right channel maps to Y.
The live canvas preview shows the oscilloscope pattern while the audio plays
Use the Waveform Trim Widget to select the segment you want to export
Click Add to Canvas — the audio waveform is converted frame-by-frame into laser coordinates and added as a layer, ready to Download ILDA
Audio loads muted by default — oscilloscope music can be extremely loud. Click the speaker button in the transport to unmute when ready.
XY Point Rate and Frame Rate
After loading a track, XY Point Rate shows its decoded rate in points/sec. This is a readout, not an adjustable scanner speed, and the browser's decoded rate can differ from the original file's rate.
Choose 30 FPS or 60 FPS under Frame Rate. This groups the same samples into fewer or more frames without adding XY detail or reducing the point rate. Keep Animation Studio's Playback Frame Rate matched to the generated layer if an error prompts you to change it.
Waveform Trim Widget
The visual trim widget lets you select a specific segment of the audio:
- Drag handles — set in/out points on the waveform display
- Region drag — move the entire selection by dragging the middle
- Preview playback — audition your selection before export
- Layer duration — Add to Canvas creates a layer for the selected segment
Timeline and Layer Controls
Click Add to Canvas to place the selected segment on the timeline. You can position, resize, and rotate the layer. Keep its time range separate from other visible layers when exporting them together; overlapping XY and vector layers, or multiple XY layers, produce an error.
An XY layer plays its exact samples and timing while it has no keyframes, motion paths, effects, or audio reactions. Add any of them, including an audio reaction set to All layers, and the layer is drawn like any other vector layer with the change applied; remove them to return to the exact samples.
Preview and Export
| Destination | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Canvas Preview | The generated layer's decoded XY samples in source order |
| Video Export | An MP4/WebM of the XY layer |
| ILDA Export | With POINTS: SCANNER-SAFE (the default), each frame fitted to your scanner, keeping one loop of the figure when it repeats. With KEEP ORIGINAL, every decoded sample. Either way, the file adds beam-off travel, dwell, and shutdown points for output. See Choose the points |
ILDA does not contain the audio. Added output points and player settings can change timing, so starting the file with the same track does not guarantee synchronization. Inspect the export in ILDA Viewer and verify playback with your intended equipment.
Continuous XY hardware output is currently unavailable in Animation Studio; vector layers can still stream normally. For live Helios or Bridge output, use the oscilloscope to laser path in OSC-1.
Best Practices
Start with a short selection and inspect its point rate and scanner load. Higher decoded sample rates create more points to play; a clear screen preview alone does not establish that a scanner can follow the recording. See Understanding PPS before choosing playback settings.
Further Reading
Oscilloscope to Laser
Live DAC output from OSC-1, plus ILDA export
Oscilloscope Music on a Laser Projector
What changes between a scope and a laser, shown side by side
OSC-1 Oscilloscope
Play, draw and export oscilloscope music in the browser
Lissajous Generator
Stereo XY mode creates similar oscilloscope-style visuals from any audio
Audio-Reactive Features
How BeamTracer converts audio to animation
Animation Studio
Timeline, keyframes, and layer composition
Where to Get More Oscilloscope Music
Download links for oscilloscopemusic.com and other artists' releases
Sine Wave Tool
Create oscilloscope-style audio-reactive sine wave shapes with traveling animation, rainbow coloring, harmonic stacking, and the Oscilloglow projection mapping effect.
AI-Powered Tools
BeamTracer's AI features — Beam Creator for prompt-to-laser generation, Video Analysis for auto-tuned tracing, and File Diagnostics for corrupt ILDA repair.