#mprocesszine

Between Lines — IMAGE→SRT (photos that sing)

I’ve added another new sister-tool to Between Lines: Image → SRT. Upload a still image, and it writes a subtitle file whose timings and “words” are derived from the picture. Feed that SRT into Between Lines and you get a playable score.

Below: a short render of Beksiński’s 1973 “Night Creeper” using my “Ritual Dread” settings, plus the, SRT output, mosaic preview and the app screenshot.

How it works (quick)

Grid the image into rows × columns (like a page: left→right, top→bottom).

Average each cell to a single shade/colour.

Map that value → a note:

grayscale: darker = lower pitch / longer sustain; light = higher; pure white can be treated as silence (invert for the opposite).

colour (hue) mode: hue picks pitch region, brightness can gate silence.

Timing: each cell = a fixed duration (e.g., 0.12 s). Optional row gap adds breath between lines—very phrase-like.

The tool writes two things:

an .srt file (the “score”), and

a mosaic preview PNG showing the exact grid the music came from (optionally with grid lines / silent cells marked).

Then open the SRT in /Between Lines/ and choose scale, stereo width, chord pad, reverb, etc., to match the image’s mood.

Pipeline: Image → SRT → /Between Lines/ → WAV (+ Mosaic)

Why SRT again?

SRT is the project’s “limbo layer.” Everything—speech, music, images—passes through it. Timing + minimal text become a neutral score that can be re-interpreted: seen (spectrograms), heard (sonification), or re-written. It’s the gap where meaning suspends… and forms.

Case study — Night Creeper

I ran the painting through Image→SRT (70×40 grid, 0.12 s/cell, hue with white→silence) and sonified it with a slow, heavy preset:

Scale: phrygian

Note band: 90–520 Hz

Articulation: 0.95 (legato)

Sustain (×): 2.8

Stereo width: 0.75

Caption chord pad: 0.08

Floor (drone): 0.05 @ 50–85 Hz

Reverb: 0.22 • Saturation: 1.03

Result: a crawling, heat-haze drone that fits the sodium-orange, rusted dread of the piece.

Knobs that matter

Rows / Columns — resolution of the “reading.”

Seconds per cell + Row gap — pace and phrasing.

Silence threshold (+ invert) — which parts of the image become rests.

Mapping — grayscale or hue.

Word-length range — acts like sustain inside /Between Lines/.

In /Between Lines/ — scale (chromatic, phrygian, aeolian, dorian, lydian…), stereo width, caption-chord pad, smoothing, reverb, saturation.

Where this is heading

All the tools are converging into a single space: Between Lines Studio — a desktop (or web) app where SRT is the spine, and you can go:

Audio → SRT (beats/bars/onsets)

Image → SRT (grid reading)

Text → SRT (write your own score)

then SRT → Music / Spectrogram / Image mosaic, and (for me) onward into signal // noise.

Upload a photo. Get a composition.