The rings of Saturn resemble a spectrogram, which inspired this experimental sonification of space.
An authentic image of Saturn’s rings was used as a spectral source. A 1-pixel vertical slice of the image was extracted and separated into three color channels. The intensity values of each channel were mapped to the cutoff frequencies of resonant filters—effectively translating the visual data into sound.
Each color plane drives 256 simultaneous sound sources, spatially arranged across the stereo field to mirror their position in the image. Some variations use up to 1024 voices, creating rich, layered textures. Minor frequency offsets per color channel introduce a subtle chorus effect.
The result is an immersive soundscape—an audible interpretation of Saturn’s rings. Original lossless audio files are available on Freesound.
