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I have to create a video. Part of it involves "showing" a radio interview. Rather than just having a black screen and listening to the audio, I'd like to have a varying waveform on the screen and a caption.
Is there any free or cheap tool I can use that will do this?
If I ask a friend to do it, is there anything in the Adobe Creative Suite that can do the job?
You can use ffmpeg to create video from audio using several filters.
Convert input audio to a video output, displaying the volume histogram.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.flac -filter_complex \
"[0:a]ahistogram,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.flac, asplit [a][out1]; [a] ahistogram [out0]"
See the ahistogram documentation for more options and examples.
Convert input audio to a video output, displaying the audio phase.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.wav -filter_complex \
"[0:a]aphasemeter=s=1280x720:mpc=cyan,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.wav, asplit [a][out1]; [a] aphasemeter=s=1280x720:mpc=cyan [out0]"
See the aphasemeter documentation for more options and examples.
Convert input audio to a video output, representing the audio vector scope.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -filter_complex \
"[0:a]avectorscope=s=1280x720,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.mp3, asplit [a][out1]; \
[a] avectorscope=zoom=1.3:rc=2:gc=200:bc=10:rf=1:gf=8:bf=7 [out0]"
See the avectorscope documentation for more options and examples.
Convert input audio to a video output representing frequency spectrum with musical tone scale.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:a]showcqt,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.mp4, asplit [a][out1]; [a] showcqt [out0]"
See the showcqt documentation for more options and examples.
Convert input audio to video output representing the audio power spectrum. Audio amplitude is on Y-axis while frequency is on X-axis.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:a]showfreqs=mode=line:fscale=log,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.mp4, asplit [a][out1]; [a] showfreqs=mode=line:fscale=log [out0]"
See the showfreqs documentation for more options and examples.
Convert input audio to a video output, representing the audio frequency spectrum.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.oga -filter_complex \
"[0:a]showspectrum=s=1280x720,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.oga, asplit [a][out1]; \
[a] showspectrum=mode=separate:color=intensity:slide=1:scale=cbrt [out0]"
See the showspectrum documentation for more options and examples.
Convert input audio to a video output, representing the samples waves.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.m4a -filter_complex \
"[0:a]showwaves=s=1280x720:mode=line:rate=25,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.m4a, asplit [a][out1]; [a] showwaves [out0]"
See the showwaves documentation for more options and examples.
Convert input audio volume to a video output.
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.mka -filter_complex \
"[0:a]showvolume=f=1:b=4:w=720:h=68,format=yuv420p[vid]" \
-map "[vid]" -map 0:a output.mp4
ffplay
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=input.mka, asplit [a][out1]; [a] showvolume=f=255:b=4:w=720:h=68 [out0]"
See the showvolume documentation for more options and examples.
See FFmpeg Wiki: H.264 Encoding Guide for more detailed information regarding output quality.
format=yuv420p makes sure that libx264 uses a pixel format that is compatible with crappy players like QuickTime.
Instead of re-encoding by default, you can use -c:a copy to stream copy the audio if your output container format supports the audio format. Think of stream copying (re-muxing) like a copy and paste – no re-encoding.
ffmpegYou should always use a recent version since development is very active. Links to builds of ffmpeg for Windows, OS X, and Linux are available on the FFmpeg Download page. Or you can follow a step-by-step guide to compile ffmpeg.
sudo apt install ffmpeg. It includes ffplay and ffprobe which is all I needed for now. Your visualization techniques look promising for when playing song. When song paused the album artwork will be displayed instead.
Jul 26, 2020 at 16:31
I understood your question quite well. If you are trying to make a waveform pattern that moves according to the pitch and bass of your audio, then you can try this link.
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/audio_to_animation/
Adobe After effects lets you do it easily. You can play along with the particle effects to get a more solid looking waveform.
Good luck!
Many music players have visualisers. Play the audio in one of them and use a screen-grabber to record the video.
You could also try to use gstreamer as described at http://www.vidarholen.net/contents/blog/?p=23
Another option is Sonic Candle, http://sourceforge.net/projects/soniccandle/
After reading the great answer from LordNeckbeard I went on created a small script to make a visualization with ffmpeg and the showspectrum filter. I also added an upload option for myself to encode directly to my remote server that has a better connection than at home to upload big videos. It also uses the great script youtube-upload!
EDIT: uploading directly slows down the encoding process significantly!!
#!/bin/bash
# ffmpeg spectrum maker
action=$1
infile=$2
outfile=$3
upload_server="sftp://cloud"
upload_location="/home/master/videos/"
remote_command="youtube-upload --title=\"Remote_upload\" --privacy=\"private\" $upload_location$outfile"
#simple spectrum
filter1="showspectrum=s=1920x1080:slide=scroll:mode=combined:color=intensity:scale=cbrt:saturation=1:win_func=hann[tmp]"
#vertical mirror
filter2="[tmp]crop=iw:ih/2:0:ih/2-3,split[up][tmp];[tmp]vflip[down];[up][down]vstack[tmp]"
#horizontal mirror
filter3="[tmp]crop=iw/2:ih:iw/2:,split[left][tmp];[tmp]hflip[right];[left][right]hstack[tmp]"
#fisheye effect VERY SLOW!!! if used make change the size of the spectrum to (1920*11/10)x(1080*11/10) and use the crop filter below
filter4="[tmp]frei0r=filter_name=defish0r:filter_params=1.5|n[tmp]"
#make sure the resolution has the desired size
filter5="[tmp]crop=1920:1080"
#pass the stream to the output for ffplay
testpass="[tmp]copy[out0]"
vcodec="-codec:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -tune grain -crf 21 -preset medium -bf 2 -flags +cgop -r 25"
acodec="-codec:a libfdk_aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart"
#acodec="-codec:a copy"
extraflags="-movflags +faststart "
if [ "$action" = "test" ]
then
ffplay -f lavfi "amovie=$infile,asplit[a][out1];[a]$filter1;$filter2;$filter3;$testpass"
fi
if [ "$action" = "make" ]
then
ffmpeg -i "$infile" -filter_complex "[0:a]$filter1;$filter2;$filter3" -map [tmp] -map 0:a $vcodec $acodec $extraflags "$outfile"
fi
if [ "$action" = "upload" ]
then
ffmpeg -i "$infile" -filter_complex "[0:a]$filter1;$filter2;$filter3" -map [tmp] -map 0:a $vcodec $acodec $extraflags "$upload_server$upload_location$outfile"
ssh cloud $remote_command
fi
exit
If you have access to After Effects, there's a plugin called Trapcode Keys that can do this very effectively. The results look really nice - I've used it on many projects for exactly what you've described, but it's not cheap - $150 on it's own, or $899 for the full Trapcode Suite.
You can do it for free using VEED.IO, this video explains how to do it (Disclaimer, I am the developer of VEED.IO)
ffmpegto convert directly - ffmpeg convert audio into video Using filters you can get an aesthetically pleasing video.