Oszilloskop

A software XY oscilloscope written in pure Rust, intended as an audio visualizer.

Oszilloskop simulates an electron beam against a phosphor screen which is deflected over time by the two channels of a stereo audio signal in orthogonal directions.

Screenshot

Controls

• Beam Strength : how intensely the beam departs energy onto the screen per unit time
• Gain : how much to amplify the input signal, e.g. how much to scale it about the center of the screen
• Logarithmic : if enabled, apply logarithmic scaling on the signal magnitude
• Logarithmic Range : if Logarithmic is enabled, the size of the dynamic range to include (in powers of two)
• Decay : how rapidly images on the screen fade
• Rotation : how much to turn the image, in multiples of 45 degrees
• Flip : whether to swap x and y

Remarks

• The line drawing algorithm may be especially slow in debug builds, I recommend compiling with --release at all times.
• The current defaults are chosen to create a vertical line for a mono signal, with the individual channels staggered diagonally. I find this aesthetically pleasing and spatially intuitive when listening, but it's not what other oscilloscopes do. The orientation can be adjusted with the rotation and flip controls.
• Currently, the input audio device can't be chosen through the UI. I use PulseAudio to swap devices, other audio backends provide similar connectivity options but it would be nice to be able to choose from the UI.
• A large square/diamond outline is most likely due to clipping
• A perfectly straight line means you have a mono or single-channel signal. Only stereo signals with significant differences between the left and right channels will do anything interesting.
• Oscilloscope music such as that by Jerobeam Fenderson is best played uncompressed and purely digitally. Compression (such as via online streaming services) and analog effects from traveling over a speaker cable may induce visible rounding, shifting, and general distortion. You may also need to choose rotation=0 and flip=no for the correct viewing orientation.