# Mapping Sound to 3D Terrain generation

**URL:** https://discourse.processing.org/t/mapping-sound-to-3d-terrain-generation/6426
**Category:** Libraries
**Created:** [December 8, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/mapping-sound-to-3d-terrain-generation/6426 "2018-12-08T18:50:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![celine1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@celine1](https://discourse.processing.org/u/celine1)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/mapping-sound-to-3d-terrain-generation/6426/1 "2018-12-08T18:50:25Z")

</div>

Hey everyone,  
I’m just a Beginner in Processing, so I have a question:  
is it possible to map a sound to a 3D Terrain Generation?

With the help of this tutorial: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKB1hWWedMk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKB1hWWedMk) I created a 3D Terrain. So this is the basic code:

```
int rows;
int columns;
int scale = 20;
int w = 1200;
int h = 900;
float [] [] terrain;
float flying = 0;

void setup() {
size(600,600, P3D);
columns = w / scale;
rows = h / scale; 
terrain = new float [columns] [rows];
}

void draw() {  
flying -= 0.05;
float yoff = flying;
for (int y = 0; y < rows; y++) {
   float xoff = 0;
   for (int x = 0; x < columns; x++) {
   terrain [x] [y] = map(noise (xoff,yoff), 0, 1, -160, 120);
xoff += 0.1;
 }
yoff += 0.1;
 }

```

background(0, 0, 100);  
stroke (150, 0, 0);  
noFill();  
translate (width/2, height/2);  
rotateX(PI/3);

```
translate(-w/2, -h/2);
for (int y = 0; y < rows-1; y++) {
   beginShape(TRIANGLE_STRIP);
 for (int x = 0; x < columns; x++) {
   vertex(x*scale, y*scale, terrain [x] [y]);
   vertex(x*scale, (y+1)*scale, terrain [x] [y+1]);
   //rect(x*scale, y*scale, scale, scale);
   
}
   endShape();
}
}

```

 ![45](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/2X/2/211f520aef56ce28b2f434d790546e205b29d38c.png)

The “mountains” of the terrain are moving because randomly because I used “noise”. But now I want them to move to a sound/beat. So I thought the next steps are creating a player and loading a sound. I already know, that I have to analyze the sound with FFT, but I don’t get exactly what to do.  
I thought that I could use this **“terrain [x] [y] = map(noise (xoff,yoff), 0, 1, -160, 120);”** to map the _sound_ instead of the _noise_.

I added a bit, so now I have this code:

```
 import ddf.minim.analysis.*;
 import ddf.minim.*;

Minim minim;
AudioPlayer player;
FFT fft;

int rows;
int columns;
int scale = 20;

int w = 1200;
int h = 900;
float [] [] terrain;

float flying = 0;

void setup() {

minim = new Minim(this);
player = minim.loadFile("song.mp3");
player.loop();

fft = new FFT( player.bufferSize(), player.sampleRate() );

size(600,600, P3D);
columns = w / scale;
rows = h / scale; 
terrain = new float [columns] [rows];

 }

 void draw() {  
//fft.forward (player.mix );

  flying -= 0.05;
    float yoff = flying;
    for (int y = 0; y < rows; y++) {
    float xoff = 0;
    for (int x = 0; x < columns; x++) {
     terrain [x] [y] = map(noise (xoff,yoff), 0, 1, -160, 120);
     xoff += 0.1;
   
   }
   yoff += 0.1;
   }
  background(0, 0, 100);
   stroke (150, 0, 0);
    noFill();
   
  translate (width/2, height/2);    
  rotateX(PI/3); 

  translate(-w/2, -h/2);
  for (int y = 0; y < rows-1; y++) {
   beginShape(TRIANGLE_STRIP);
  for (int x = 0; x < columns; x++) {
   vertex(x*scale, y*scale, terrain [x] [y]);
   vertex(x*scale, (y+1)*scale, terrain [x] [y+1]);
   //rect(x*scale, y*scale, scale, scale);
   
  }
   endShape();
  }
  }

```

But I really got stucked. Because I’m a Beginner I actually don’t know what’s possible and I couldn’t find anything to map a sound to a 3D terrain.

I found this example:

```
import ddf.minim.analysis.*;
import ddf.minim.*;

Minim minim;
AudioPlayer jingle;
FFT fft;

void setup()
{
size(512, 200, P3D);

 minim = new Minim(this);

 // specify that we want the audio buffers of the AudioPlayer
 // to be 1024 samples long because our FFT needs to have 
 // a power-of-two buffer size and this is a good size.
jingle = minim.loadFile("jingle.mp3", 1024);

 // loop the file indefinitely
jingle.loop();

 // create an FFT object that has a time-domain buffer 
 // the same size as jingle's sample buffer
// note that this needs to be a power of two 
// and that it means the size of the spectrum will be half as large.
fft = new FFT( jingle.bufferSize(), jingle.sampleRate() );

}

void draw()
{
background(0);
stroke(255);

// perform a forward FFT on the samples in jingle's mix buffer,
// which contains the mix of both the left and right channels of the file
fft.forward( jingle.mix );

for(int i = 0; i < fft.specSize(); i++)
{
 // draw the line for frequency band i, scaling it up a bit so we can see it
line( i, height, i, height - fft.getBand(i)*8 );
}
}

```

But I don’t know how to combine

```
flying -= 0.05;
float yoff = flying;
for (int y = 0; y < rows; y++) {
   float xoff = 0;
   for (int x = 0; x < columns; x++) {
     terrain [x] [y] = map(noise (xoff,yoff), 0, 1, -160, 120);
     xoff += 0.1;

```

from the first code with

```
for(int i = 0; i < fft.specSize(); i++)

```

from the last code.

I hope that someone could help me!  
Celine

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![kll](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/kll/32/964_2.png) [@kll](https://discourse.processing.org/u/kll)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/mapping-sound-to-3d-terrain-generation/6426/2 "2018-12-08T19:51:56Z")

</div>

so i understand you want mix

> <https://github.com/CodingTrain/website/blob/master/CodingChallenges/CC_011_PerlinNoiseTerrain/Processing/CC_011_PerlinNoiseTerrain/CC_011_PerlinNoiseTerrain.pde>

with  
processing IDE:  
/File/Examples/Contributed Libraries/Minim/Analysis/FFT/SoundSpectrum  
? but as a start try  
/File/Examples/Contributed Libraries/Minim/Analysis/FFT/SoundEnergyBeatDetection  
looks more easy???

ok i found the one you use:  
/File/Examples/Contributed Libraries/Minim/Basics/AnalyseSound  
and i print:  
fft.specSize() is 513  
so you could use  
fft.getBand(x)  
in

```auto
terrain [x] [y] = map(noise (xoff,yoff), 0, 1, -160, 120);

```

like

```auto
terrain [x] [y] = map(fft.getBand(x), 0, 100, -160, 120); // ?? 0 .. 100 ?? 

```

but only if columns \< 513 or you will get a error

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jeremydouglass](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/jeremydouglass/32/20_2.png) [@jeremydouglass](https://discourse.processing.org/u/jeremydouglass)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/mapping-sound-to-3d-terrain-generation/6426/3 "2018-12-12T21:56:40Z")

</div>

@celine1 – were you able to resolve this issue?

You may find this discussion from the old forum helpful:

> **[Processing 2.x and 3.x Forum](https://forum.processing.org/two/discussion/22210/how-to-make-a-terrain-react-to-music)**
>
> Processing is an electronic sketchbook, a language and a worldwide community. This is its forum.