Visual Sound Waves?

[subbase]

Hi all.

New to this forum and to sublimation printing so sorry if this is a stupid question or has been asked already, but I didn't see any posts about this on the forum so figure I'd ask....I see some people print sound waves of their favorite songs on things like tshirts. Is this illegal being that it is taking a visual sound wave versus steeling the actual audio of the song? Or would one need to include the actual name of the song and artist on the tshirt along with the visual soundwave for it to be legit?

Anyone that could lend some experience, knowledge or advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[webtrekker]

I would imagine it would be illegal if the original sound could be reproduced from the waveform, in much the same way that it is illegal to download the song from the net, even though it exists only as binary 1's and 0's.

The real question is: Without the title of the song or the artistes name, who's to know?

[subbase]

The real question is: Without the title of the song or the artistes name, who's to know?

Ha! Good point! didn't even think of that lol

[pisquee]

If you scanned the wave form from a tshirt, or even something nice like Chromaluxe, there is no way you'd have enough data to create anything musical - it would be a horrible noise to playback.
This isn't to say a record label doesn't have the budget to hire an expensive lawyer to try a case, just it's unlikely at the moment any company that is big enough to be worth pursuing is producing this type of product.
This is something I have been thinking on a few weeks back - it could easily be argued that it is violating IP of the owner of the recording/performance, maybe the composer too, but does need someone to be first to try it

[subbase]

If you scanned the wave form from a tshirt, or even something nice like Chromaluxe, there is no way you'd have enough data to create anything musical - it would be a horrible noise to playback.
This isn't to say a record label doesn't have the budget to hire an expensive lawyer to try a case, just it's unlikely at the moment any company that is big enough to be worth pursuing is producing this type of product.
This is something I have been thinking on a few weeks back - it could easily be argued that it is violating IP of the owner of the recording/performance, maybe the composer too, but does need someone to be first to try it

so what you are saying is,don't even think about trying it unless I have the funds to fight it in court? lol

[pisquee]

I would say, don't try it if you're a huge company who would be appealing for a big multinational record company to sue - if you're an small to average company I doubt you'd have a problem. (we print soundwaves!)

[subbase]

hey thanks for the advice pisquee. I actually have never printed anything or have any sublimation equipment yet. I am still in my research phase but will definitely be pursuing this and printing soundwaves is something that I would want to incorporate as part of my business. Just curious, how do you go about it? Do you use music software to download a song that you export into photoshop or something? Also, do you list the name of the song and artist on your designs as well? I guess I would be worried about getting in trouble if I had advertised this service on a website, ebay, or amazon......I've seen others who offer the same kind of service and always wondered if they would get in trouble for something like that......

[PeteO]

I have a friend who recorded the sound of his babies heartbeat from the doppler while his partner was pregnant.

It took a couple of audio solutions to clean up, extract static and resort to a 'pure' recording.

This was then converted to a single waveform to print to an item

Playing the single waveform in an audio application does not produce an output recognisable as the original recording.

Cant imagine many of these posters etc you see can do the same.

I think its a one way thing only, so the creation cant be seen as a duplication, as you cant convert to the original source from the waveform.

[subbase]

I think its a one way thing only, so the creation cant be seen as a duplication, as you cant convert to the original source from the waveform.

hmmm...that is a good point. thanks for your input!

[pisquee]

We tried Audacity (free) and Adobe Audition (not free) and both produced results as good as each other for taking a screen grab into Photoshop for print purposes.