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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.

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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.