OLI — Cymatics Lab

OLI turns sound into something you can see.

Play a frequency and sand on a vibrating plate organises itself into the standing-wave figure that frequency produces. Point the microphone at music, an instrument, or a singing voice, and the plate follows what it hears, live.

REAL PHYSICS, NOT AN ANIMATION

The plate is a simulation of the actual mechanism Ernst Chladni demonstrated in 1787. Grains migrate down the amplitude gradient — the direction the surface moves away from them — and stick where the plate is too quiet to lift them. That is why the lines are sharp, why the figure settles and holds, and why the same frequency always draws the same shape.

The nodal function is the real one for a square plate with free edges. Nothing is pre-drawn.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Tune any frequency from 20 Hz to 4 kHz, by number or by sweep
• Listen — the microphone drives the plate from any sound in the room
• Pick a figure and get the exact frequency that draws it
• Mix several modes; the plate shows their superposition, as a real plate would
• Watch in Light mode, where the tone is raised about 40 octaves into visible light and the colour is that wavelength
• Projector mode: full screen, no controls, for a room

186 PRESETS, EACH LABELLED WITH WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS

Planetary tones from orbital periods. Pulsar spin rates that are audible with no scaling at all. Schumann resonances. Molecular and quantum frequencies. The tuned granite pillars at Hampi, computed from beam theory. Fungal electrical rhythms. Singing bowls, wind chimes, temple bells and a tuning fork, modelled from their partials rather than sampled.

Every one carries a tag: measured physics, exact mathematics, musical tradition, physical model, chosen for feel, or popular but unverified. Where something is folklore, it says so.

NO HEALTH CLAIMS

OLI makes none, anywhere, ever. It is an instrument and a physics toy. Frequencies named for a tradition are labelled as tradition, not as medicine.

FREE, WITH NO ACCOUNT

The tone generator at any frequency, the full plate simulation, patterns and mixes, projector mode, and the microphone. Sound made visible is not the paid part.

OLI PRO

• The full library of 186 presets across 21 categories
• Instruments and textures: bowls, chimes, bells, gong, conch, throat singing
• The sound builder — design a voice from its partials
• Saving and sync across your devices
• Export the plate as a wallpaper

Monthly $2.99, Annual $17.99, or Lifetime $34.99 paid once. Both subscriptions begin with 7 days free.

Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation. A subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends, and you can manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Any unused part of a free trial is forfeited when a subscription is purchased.

Privacy Policy: https://oli.red-triangle.net/privacy
Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

THE MICROPHONE

Audio is analysed on your device, in the moment, to find the frequencies in it. Nothing is recorded, stored, or sent anywhere. OLI stays silent while listening — a live microphone routed to the speakers it is hearing would howl — so play your music from anywhere and watch the plate follow it.