AvSound is an old experimental DOS-program I've written for the Ensoniq EPS 16+ Digital Sampling Workstation, but it can be of use to anyone who can handle samples in 16-bits wav-format. AvSound is freeware.
AvSound takes a wav-file, and converts it to another wav-file that represents something that could best be described as 'the average sound' of the original soundfile.
AvSound does not use Spectrum Analysis, but a brute force method. The procedure is this :
The destination soundfile ( usually longer than the source ) is treated as an looped tape. The source is mixed in at random starting points. After say 1000 mixes the individual mixes cannot be distinguished and the process is finished.This procedure introduces the following features : The big problem is that all information about attack and decay is lost, so it is necessary to try to recreate it by using envelopes. Secondly the result largely depends on the source. A single tone which fades in and out works best.
To get things really interesting I use the following technique on the EPS:
I take one source wavesample and generate two destination wavesamples. One of 100000 samples and one of say 100093 samples. I pan the first wavesample a little to the left, and pan the second a little to the right. Also I detune the wavesamples a little. Because the wavesamples are not exactly the same, the detuning doesn't create a synthetic sounding chorus. Secondly, because the two wavesamples run with two different loops, it takes ages for the whole sound to repeat, so what I get is a ever changing sound.
After working with the program
for a while, I found that it's best use is to create soft background sounds.
Usually I apply a lowpass- filter to the resulting wavesample.
You can listen to some audio
examples on mp3.com.
AvSound can be downloaded at the download page.