Magnetosphere is an excellent iTunes visualizer that has been recommended by a couple of bloggers whose opinions with respect to cool stuff I regard very highly. As it would happen though, I didn’t wind up thinking it was “an excellent iTunes visualizer” until around 5:15am this morning. See, I listen almost exclusively to rap. And after I downloaded Magnetosphere a couple of weeks ago I tested it out on playlists with names like Grimey Beatz for Rollin’ wit Your Crew…
Things didn’t work out so well. The entire screen was filled with explosions… I mean, it was cool for a minute or two, but it just got tiring after that. But, as I said, this morning at around 5am, things started to click. Considering the fact that I’m a college student, you know I wasn’t awake at 5 because I got up early. So, needless to say, I was a little bit loopy. Well, there I was playing around with the visualizer, when I decided to give it an old school try and threw on Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.
That’s when it happened. That’s when I fell in love with an iTunes visualizer. (Well… That might be a bit of an exaggeration.) And I can tell you why with two words: Dynamic range. The problem was that the types of songs that made up Grimey Beatz were loud, loud, loud. Don’t get me wrong: That’s not always a bad thing—I mean, they are great for rollin’ wit yo’ crew—but when it came to converting them to images, the results were messy.
When I threw on the 5th, though, the results were remarkable. Seeing the visualizer explode with the crescendos was a magical thing at 5 in the morning. And then I realized that as important dynamic range is when it comes to iTunes visualizers, it’s magnitudes more important when it comes to presenting.
You’ve probably heard this saying before: “When is there is no quiet, there can be no loud.” I’ve heard it a thousand times before because I’ve always been terrible when it came to dynamic range. My three volumes were loud, louder, and loudest. Seeing a visual example of a dynamic range similar to mine, though, has really helped solidify in my mind just how much work I have to do.
If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself. Fire up iTunes, start playing something LOUD (I used “Blow” by Rick Ross), turn on the visualizer… And get bored real quick. Try doing the same thing with a piece of classical brilliance, though, and you’ll be mesmerized for hours.
The bottom line is that even the most brilliant and captivating of explosions will bore an audience if the are repeated over and over and over. A wide dynamic range, ranging from barely-audible whispers to practical screams, however, can and will keep an audience intrigued for hours. Dynamic range is something that is critically important in presenting and developing that range is something upon which anyone who wants to take their presentations to the next level ought to focus intensely.
See also
- Garr Reynolds wrote an excellent post along similar lines over at Presentation Zen.
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1 response so far ↓
1 aaron // Sep 2, 2008 at 7:42 pm
this is actually a pretty cool experience. I’ll have to try it sometime.
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