Although i2sm comes with a help file, I am including the same information here so you can see some of the details of how i2sm works.

Analysis Settings

Smoothing

When you look at an image, you take in large amounts of the image at once. You do not examine a square centimeter at a time. However, i2sm examines each pixel individually and this tends to produce songs that sound like crap. To make the songs more melodic, i2sm can smooth out the transitions between notes preventing sudden, intense changes in pitch (if you want it to).

A value of zero means the song i2sm creates will be the raw data from the image file. As the smoothing factor increases, the song will become more and more like someone playing musical scales. That is, up to a value of 127. If you set smoothing at 128, every note will be identical to the first note of the song.

Min Note

This is the shortest duration a note can possibly take. The values range from a 1/16th note to a whole note. This value cannot be larger than the Max Note value.

Max Note

This is the longest duration a note can possibly take. The values range from a 1/16th note to a whole note. This value cannot be smaller than the Min Note Value.

Resolution

Resolution ranges from 1 to 99. At 1, i2sm will analyze every pixel in the image. At 10, it will analyze each 10th pixel. So increasing the resolution increases the number of notes in the song and of course, the time it takes to play the song.

StartX

This is the x coordinate of the point within the image where i2ms will begin analyzing image data.

Start Y

This is the y coordinate of the point within the image where i2sm will begin analyzing image data.

You can set the StartX and StartY values by either entering them directly into the boxes or by clicking the left mouse button anywhere within the image. By default, when you load an image, both StartX and StartY are set to zero which is the upper left hand corner.

Scale Low and Scale High

Scale Low and Scale High limit the range of possible notes in your song. The MIDI standard defines 128 notes with middle C defined as note number 60. Notes on the extreme ends of the scale can sometimes sound like crap on a PC with a less than stellar sound card and speakers. Thess two settings allow you to clip the ends of the scale.

Voice Settings

Instrument

You can select any one of 128 midi instruments to play back your song.

Main Vol

This is the volume of all non-chord notes.

Chord Volume

This is the volume level for all the notes of a chord.

Tempo

This setting adjusts the spacing between notes of the song. Basically is speeds up or slows down the song. The value can be negative or positive.

Mid C

This shows the color that will be mapped (more or less) to middle C. This is set by holding down the shift key while clicking the left mouse button anywhere in the image. You may have to move the mouse slightly when you do this to get the exact color you want because it actually averages a 10 pixel square around the spot you picked. It does this because its possible and common to have two very differently colored pixels side by side and its hard to hit the exact pixel you want with the mouse.

If you prefer, you can click the right mouse button on the MidC color swatch and a pop-up menu will appear allowing you to ask i2sm to pick a middle C color for you based upon either the dominant color in the image or the average of all the colors in the image.

Enable Verses

In an attempt to make the output from i2sm sound more song-like without changing the actual notes, I taught i2sm to split the raw data into a chorus and verses. When this option is selected, i2sm assigns the first third of the raw data as the chorus. It plays the chorus twice, then plays the second third of the data as the first verse. It then plays the chorus again, then the final third of the data and finally another copy of the chorus. This gives the song a bit more structure and usually makes it a bit more pleasant to listen to.

Enable Chords

When this box is not checked, i2sm will not play any chords in the song. When this box is checked, any notes whose duration equals the Max Notes setting will be played as a chord. Also, a chord is added at the end of the song just to pretty things up.

Menus

While most of the things you will do with i2sm are accomplished through the main screen, there are some things you must do using the main menu.

File

About

Displays an informative information screen about i2sm.

Load

Configuration

This loads a previously saved configuration file. If the image file associated with the configuration file cannot be found, i2sm will prompt you for the location of the file.

Image

This allows you to load an image in to i2sm for analysis.

Save

Configuration

After you spend hours or weeks getting the song that your favorite kitten picture produces perfected, you may want to save all the settings that produced the image. This option will save all the settings and the location of the image file. It will not save a copy of the image.

Midi

This allows you to save you work a acoustical art for playback wherever you can play back midi files. The nice thing about midi files is that they are really, really small and they can be played back by most keyboards and Windows Media Player.

Middle C Menu

The middle C menu is accessed by clicking the right mouse button on the Middle C color swatch.

Average

When you select this option, i2sm will calculate the average of all the hues in the analysis rectangle. It then calculates the average of the brightness and saturation of each pixel. Because these are numerical averages, the color it selects may not be in the actual image however, this can be useful for giving the song a more balanced, middle of the road tone.

Dominant

When you select this option, i2sm will calculate which hue appears most often in the analysis rectangle. It then takes an average of the saturation and brightness of all the pixels in the analysis rectangle.

Auto

The auto button sets the song parameters to a default setting and sets middle C to be the average of all the colors in the image. It is a good starting point from which you can tweak the settings to get the sound you are looking for.