Introducing JENS. Real-time audio to OSC
JENS captures live audio, analyzes it through a real-time DSP pipeline, and outputs the result as OSC, the standard protocol used by professional lighting desks, VJ software, and creative tools like TouchDesigner, Resolume, and Max/MSP. No coding required. No plugins to install. Just sound in, control out.
Overview
At its core, JENS listens to audio and converts what it hears into numbers that other systems can use. A loud kick drum becomes a value spike. A sustained vocal note becomes a smooth, held signal. The character of the output (how reactive, how smooth, how aggressive) is entirely up to you.
External hardware like DMX lighting desks or MIDI controllers can feed back into JENS to adjust parameters on the fly, giving you hands-on control during a live performance.
Features
Multi-channel audio input from any system device. Each track runs a full DSP chain: gain, filters, RMS, smoothing, response curves, and gate/limiter, all at up to 30 / 44 / 60 Hz for tight, responsive visuals.
Open Sound Control messages over UDP with fully customizable addressing. Define OSC addresses per track and send float values to TouchDesigner, ETC consoles, Resolume, Max/MSP. Anything that speaks OSC.
Receive DMX via sACN or Art-Net, and MIDI CC messages. Map them to any parameter with a dedicated Patch Mode and Learn Mode that auto-detects incoming signals.
Tracks are audio-reactive channels with full DSP. Subs are manual faders for master intensity, RGB mixing, or MIDI-to-OSC bridging. Both support drag-and-drop reordering.
Save your entire setup (all tracks, subs, and patch mappings) as a .jens show file. Load it back next time and you're ready to go. Great for touring setups or switching between different shows.
Under the Hood
Here's the journey your audio takes inside a JENS track. Each step has a purpose, and the order matters.
Boost or reduce the raw signal to get the right sensitivity. Comes first so weak signals get boosted before filtering.
Cut out frequencies you don't want: low rumble, high noise. Isolate the frequency band you care about.
Convert the audio waveform into a single smooth value between 0 and 1.
Control how fast the value rises (attack) and falls (release). Prevents jitter before the response curve.
Shape the feel: linear for direct mapping, logarithmic for gentle response, exponential for punchy hits, or S-curve for a natural feel.
Set the floor and ceiling of the active range. Only output signal within the range you define.
Map the final value to whatever range your receiver expects. Last step so it matches exactly what the receiving software needs.
Applications
Frequency-isolated tracks for kick, snare, vocals, and overall energy. Route to your lighting desk via OSC.
Live Sound drives generative visuals or kinetic lighting. JENS runs quietly, turning environmental audio into continuous control data.
Feed into Resolume or TouchDesigner. Audio-reactive tracks for automatic layers, manual subs for intensity and color, controlled by DMX and MIDI for real-time tweaks.
Gate and limiter for precise triggers. Lights only respond above a threshold. Smoothing keeps transitions elegant, not jarring.
Drive ambient Background from your audio mix.
Bridge audio to any creative tool via OSC. Max/MSP, Processing, openFrameworks: if it receives OSC, JENS can drive it.
Quick Start
Settings → Audio → Add Connection → pick your device
Settings → OSC → Add Connection → set host and port
Select audio and OSC connections, set an address like /audio/level, and enable it
Watch the level meter move, the FFT visualization respond, and the output value update in real time
Adjust Gain for sensitivity, choose a Response Curve for feel, dial in Smoothing for flow, set the Gate to cut noise. Save as a show file.
Technology
JENS is built with Tauri 2, a Rust backend paired with a lightweight web frontend. Audio processing, network I/O, and DSP all run natively in Rust.
Whether you're a lighting designer, a VJ, or a creative technologist: JENS gives you a fast, flexible bridge between what you hear and what you see.