We could probably all use a firm, soothing massage about now – but why not give the treatment to your sound? It’s a new, free Max for Live device for the Sensel Morph (or mouse/touchpad).

I’ve been waiting for this one for a while, ever since I saw in a short video demo by Sensel’s Peter Nyboer. For the ultra-sensitive multi-touch Sensel Morph controller, it’s pure genius – but if you don’t have one of those handy, they’ve also been kind enough to support mice and touchpads, too (which means still more to play around with).

Step one: load a sound file or any image file into Spectral Shiatsu.

Step two: watch as Spectral Shiatsu makes a sonograph of the frequency content of the sound (or a frequency translation of the imported image) – and maps to your input device.

Step three: massage the sound! On Morph with pressure, you can not only finger-paint and knead your way through the spectral content but even use gentle gestures and pressure for added nuance.

It’s all free and available on GitHub – plus that means intrepid Max for Live patchers could hack some other capabilities here or input/output.

A full tutorial:

Examples:

Grab it from Sensel:

And check GitHub for the full source:

https://github.com/sensel/C74-Max-Examples/tree/master/Spectral%20Digits