Letting Pulsars Sing: Sonification With Granular Synthesis

Abstract

An astronomy sonification project has been initiated to create sound and music from the data of pulsars in space. Pulsars are formed when some stars burn out all of their fuel and emit electromagnetic radiation, which hits earth periodically as the pulsar rotates. Each pulsar has unique characteristics. The source of the data is the online Pulsar Catalog from the Australian National Telescope Facility. The first result is a stereo fixed media composition, From Orion to Cassiopeia, which reveals a sweep of much of the Milky Way, displaying audio for many of the known pulsars. Galactic longitude, rotation speed, pulse width, mean flux density, age, and distance are mapped to granular synthesis parameters. Sound event duration, amplitude, amount of reverberation, grain rate, grain duration, grain frequency, and panning are controlled by the data. The piece was created with the new SGRAN2() instrument in the RTcmix music programming language.