Three awesome image synths

Synthesisers that focus on the visual side of spectral analysis

Michel Rouzic Photosounder $79

Photosounder is a cross-platform image-to-sound converter that allows you to do exactly that, as well as the reverse. A wide variety of image editing tools and functions are provided to help you draw, paint, shape and shift your pictures and sound into something truly unique. Suggested applications include transmitting pictures via sound or converting existing printed spectrograms into audio. photosounder.com

Image-Line Harmor $149

As with its stablemate Morphine, Harmor is a complex additive synthesiser with all the trimmings. Virtually everything we’ve discussed in this feature can be found in Harmor, ranging from spectral synthesis, additive resynthesis and, of course, imageto-audio conversion (and back again). The VST version is Windows-only, but the FL Studio version can now be used on Macs in FL Studio 20. image-line.com/plugins/Synths/Harmor

Rasmus Ekman Coagula free

Coagula is a fast and fun take on image synthesis from the developer behind the popular Granulab. A Windows-only affair, Coagula presents a blank canvas on which sounds can be drawn or painted. Different colours have different effects on the resultant sound – for instance, red pixels pan right, while yellow pixels pan left. Image import is supported. abc.se/~re/Coagula/Coagula.html