wave vessel: audio visualization

Posted Mar 19th 2005 3:02AM by Jason Striegel
Filed under: misc hacks

this is really fantastic. christiana yambo over at censtron wanted to show us how to make a wave vessel -- a television-turned-audio oscilloscope machine.

their documentation shows you how to take an old television set and hook it up to your stereo for audio/visual effects the likes of which most people only see in winamp. a switch on the side of the tv allows you to choose between two visualization modes.

you can see a video of the wave vessel in operation on their site, complete with a 'you spin me round' dead or alive soundtrack. my opinion: pete burns looks much better on the wave vessel.

Reader Comments

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1. ok thats cool... I think I might try and make it work with an old SE/30 with a fried logic board. it would be a nice stereo add on...

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Pat

2. That is pretty darn cool. Great way to squeeze a little more usefulness out of an old TV set. I'd like to repeat the warnings found on the site: TVs contain high voltage circuits that store enough of an electrical charge to kill you. Even TVs that have been sitting in a dump, or otherwise unplugged for a long time can still retain enough of a charge to kill you, or at least knock you on your ass but good. It hasn't happened to me, and I don't want it to happen to anyone else, either. Aside from that, rock and roll! Some sort of bar or club with a bunch these on the walls would be interesting to see. Any way to utilize a stereo signal in this project to enhance the effect?

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by strider_mt2k

3. trying again, sorry if its a double-post: i am SO doing this once i free up one of these old tvs. i cant wait now. i doubt you can much with stereo, other than have left on horizontal and right on vertical? might look stupid and confusing tho, mono is fine.

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Jessevd

4. strider_mt2k... since the two v lines are only used with the switch, maybe you could try putting one sound channel in H and another sound channel in v? not sure what you might come out with, it's possible you'd get something along the lines of an osciliscope that would probably display a circular wave form.

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by anybody

5. RE: stereo, I saw a guy who had done this with some old b&w TVs (What's a B&W TV? Well kids, back in the old days, before the world turned day-glo...) - he had one on top of his left speaker and one on top of his right. Something tells me with a color tube you could do the same thing in one tube, since don't they have multiple ion guns?

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Phil

6. Here is my Dance Visuliser I add to the front of my Arcade?MAME/Jukebox cab. Click on THE MACHINE's special feature: http://home.indy.rr.com/voodoomachine/

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Ray

7. Oh BTW don't try the email link...doesn't work

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Ray

8. I've been looking for this hack every since I saw it in action at a friends house years ago.

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by mollyhackit

9. NOOOOO!!!! Someone posted this hack before I did. Been doing this for years. Ah well, the secret is out. Crazy TVs for all!

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by edbury

10. NOOOOO!!!! Someone posted this hack before I did. Been doing this for years. Ah well, the secret is out. Crazy TVs for all! ps - I've used TVs up to 2004, and they work perfectly. Life is better in color.

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by edbury

11. i didnt even notice the B&W part. the one i'll be doing it on is colour (still old tho). it is a mitsubishi cs-1972c. is there anything i need to consider specially for a colour tube?

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Jessevd

12. dang... this really makes me hate my parents for deciding to "spring clean" out my room(throw all my cool electronic stuff out)... i guess i'll just have to buy a new sears 1978 tv

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by John

13. Yay! Dangerous! I was already aware of most of the potential uses for tv tubes... But, I think I'll stick with "target practice" and simply use computer-based visualizations for now. Surely someone out there could build a set-top box music-visualizing system?

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by greg

14. uhh...i thought we just did?

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Jessevd

15. Does anyone know if its possible to do the same thing with and old computer monitor?

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by jimmy

16. a crt monitor would probably work although i cant be certain very cool, i have an old tv lying around i could use for this if you want to be really safe take it to a tv repair shop (or computer shop that works on monitors) and get it dicharged, just ask them to do it for some money and then you can be safe while doing this.

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by CaptSnuffy

17. I did it with an old yellow screen monitor.

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Patrick

18. I didn't know Elvis knew how to work with electronics.. And why does he look so young and thin?

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by subzerostang

19. http://www.ftrain.com/seeing_sound.html there ya go #15, proof

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Jessevd

20. I'd like to see both horizontal and vertical connections from the tv board and the tube brought out to banana plug sockets on the side of the tv. They could even be colour coded. Then you could wire from the output side (tv signal and your stereo jack -> banana sockets) to the tube inputs with a patch panel idea. It leaves room for far more effects and experimentation. I'd also be tempted to add a small signal amplifier with a few channels and gain for each channel that you could patch in

Posted at 3:36PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Tim Kerby

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