3/18/2016

ANTONIO
ROBERTS

Databending using Audacity | Antonio Roberts

DATABENDING USING
AUDACITY
by hellocatfood 16/11/2009 18 comments

(hellocatfood)

Thanks to some help on the Audacity forum I nally know out

Home

how to use Audacity to databend. Previously Id been using

Blog

mhWavEdit, which has its limitations and just doesnt feel as

Curriculum Vitae

familiar as Audacity. From talk on the various databending

Events

discussion boards I found that people would often use tools

Contact

like Cool Edit/Adobe Audition for their bends. Being on Linux

and restricting myself to things that run natively (i.e. not under

Wine) presented a new challenge. Part of my task was to

STALK ME

replicate the methods others have found but under Linux. My

ongoing quest is to nd things that only Linux can do, which
Im sure Ill nd when I eventually gure out how to pipe data
through one program into another!
Heres some of my current results using Audacity:

SEARCH
Search for:
Search

RECENT POSTS
NARGIFSUS, 19th March
Copyleft presentation at Arts and
Science Festival, 17th March
Exquisite Corpse workshop at
Arts and Science Festival, 15th
March
Live Research & Development:
BOM Fellows Seminar, 7th
March
Black Hole Club | Digbeth First
Friday, 4th March
ARCHIVES
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
http://www.hellocatfood.com/databending-using-audacity/

1/5

3/18/2016

Databending using Audacity | Antonio Roberts

August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014

Just so you dont have to go trawling through the posts on the

April 2014

Audacity forum heres how its done. Its worth noting that this

March 2014

was on using Audacity 1.3.12-2 on Linux. Versions on other

February 2014

operating systems may be dierent. Before I show you this its

January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013

probably better if you work with an uncompressed image

format, such as .bmp or .tif. As jpgs are compressed data
theres always more chance of completely breaking a picture,
rather than bending it. So, open up GIMP/your faviourite image
editor and convert it to an uncompressed format. Ill be using
this picture I took at a Telepaphe gig awhile back.

August 2013
July 2013

Next, download Audacity. You dont need the lame plugin as

June 2013

we wont be exporting to mp3, though grab it if you plan to use

May 2013

it for that feature in the future. Once you have it open go to File

April 2013

> Import > Raw Data and choose your le. What youll now be

March 2013
February 2013

presented is with options on how to import this raw data,

which is where I would usually fall at.

January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012

Import Raw Data

January 2012

Under Encoding youll need to select either U-Law or A-Law

December 2011

(remember which one you choose). When you choose any

http://www.hellocatfood.com/databending-using-audacity/

2/5

3/18/2016

Databending using Audacity | Antonio Roberts

November 2011

other format youll be converting the data into that format.

October 2011

Whilst you want to achieve data modication this is bad

September 2011

because itll convert the header of the image le, thereby

August 2011

breaking the image. U/A-Law just imports the data. The other

July 2011

settings do have signicance but I wont go into that here.

June 2011

When youre ready press Import and youll see your image as

May 2011

data!

April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010

Image as sound

August 2010

Press play if you dare, but Id place money on the fact that itll

July 2010

probably sound like either white noise or Aphex Twin glitchy

June 2010

goodness. This is where the fun can begin. For this tutorial

May 2010

select everything from about ve seconds into the audio. The

April 2010

reason for this is because, just like editing an image in a text

March 2010

editor, the header is at the beginning of the le. Unless you

February 2010

know the size of the header and exactly where it ends (which

January 2010

you can nd out with a bit of research), you can usually guess

December 2009
November 2009
October 2009

that its about a few seconds into the audio. The best way to
nd it out is to try it out!
Anyway, highlight that section and then go to Eect > Echo

September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009

Leave the default settings as they are and press OK

December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008

Youll see that your audio has changed visually. It still wont
sound any better but the magic happens when you export it
back to an image le, which is the next step.

August 2008

Once youre happy with your modications go to File > Export.

July 2008

Choose a new location for your image and type in the

June 2008

proposed new le name but dont press save just yet. Youll

May 2008

need to change the export settings to match the import

April 2008

settings.

March 2008
February 2008
http://www.hellocatfood.com/databending-using-audacity/

3/5

3/18/2016

Databending using Audacity | Antonio Roberts

January 2008
December 2007
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

Tweets by @hellocatfood
Antonio Roberts
Retweeted
hcnt
@headchant

your fav thing about being all

grown up?
work

Change the le format to Other Uncompressed Files and then

taxes

click on the Options button.

deteriorating health
time acceleration
Vote

11 votes 22 hours left

1h
Antonio Roberts
Retweeted
Daniel Keller

Export settings

@DnlKlr

I blame the internet

4h

Change the settings to match the ones above (or to A-Law if

you imported as A-Law). With that now all set you can now

Antonio Roberts

press Save! If you entered a le extension when you were

@hellocatfood

choosing a le name youll get a warning about the le

I've got a fanclub!

extension being incorrect, but you can ignore it and press Yes.
If you didnt choose a le extension, when the le is nished
exporting, add the appropriate extension to the le. In my case
Id be adding .bmp to the end.
Heres the nished image:
3h

Antonio Roberts
Retweeted
Faith Holland
@asugarhigh

anyone know/can point me to

the etymology of the 'drive' in
hard drive? google not helping
4h

Antonio Roberts
Retweeted
CultureUoB
@CultureUoB

Discuss the right to copy, share,

and modify creative works from
6pm. bit.ly/1Uj0ijj
#ArtsandScienceFest

http://www.hellocatfood.com/databending-using-audacity/

4/5

3/18/2016

Databending using Audacity | Antonio Roberts

Freaky!
Theres of course so many dierent lters available in Audacity,
so try each of them out! If youre feeling really adventurous try
importing two or more dierent images and then exporting
them as a single image.
8h

Comments on this post are now closed. If you need help on

Embed

View on Twitter

this try the Audacity forum

Tagged: abstract, Audacity, data, databend, databending,
experimentation, File format, Filename extension, glitch, Graphics,
Image le formats, linux, osx, Ubuntu, windows

:-)

http://www.hellocatfood.com/databending-using-audacity/

5/5