Painter 2020: What is Audio Expression

Audio Expression brushes were introduced in Painter 2016, and continue to be available in Painter 2020.

This feature allows brush parameters such as size to be modulated by the amplitude of an audio signal.

Here is a quick tutorial: https://learn.corel.com/tutorials/audio-expression/

You can either use the included brushes (in the Audio Expression Category) or customize new brushes by adding audio expression to parameters such as size, opacity, color variability, etc.

INTERNAL AUDIO

Artists may choose to use their computer’s microphone; however, an artist may also wish to use the audio currently being played by their computer (i.e. streaming audio on Spotify, audio from a Youtube video, etc.) as a source for Audio expression.

Most Window’s PC systems include an internal audio option as part of the audio driver; however, Mac systems do not have such a driver.

Painter versions 2016-2020 installed such a driver on Mac; however, from Painter 2020 Update 1 and onward, Painter will no longer be including this driver.

OPTIONS FOR MAC ARTISTS THAT WANT TO USE “INTERNAL AUDIO” for “PAINTER AUDIO EXPRESSION”

If you have Painter 2020 Update 1 on a Mac, first check to see if you still have the audio driver:

1. Open Painter 2020 Update 1
2. Window > Audio > Audio Settings Panel
3. Click on the the “Input” Combobox
4. Do you see “Soundflower (2ch)” and/or “Soundflower (64ch)”
5. If yes, then continue to use the Soundflower options for internal audio
6. If no, then proceed to this link to find more details about installing Soundflower manually: https://rogueamoeba.com/freebies/soundflower/

HOW TO UNINSTALL PAINTER INTERNAL AUDIO DRIVER (Mac)

Manually remove the PainterAudioDriver.kext

1. Go to System/Library/Extensions
2. Trash PainterAudioDriver.kext
3. Reboot your system
4. Internal Audio Driver (Corel Painter) should no longer be available in Preferences > Sound or in the Painter application

To remove the PainterAudioDriver.kext using Terminal

1. Launch a Terminal window
2. Type the following command “sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/PainterAudioDriver.kext”
3. Enter
4. Type the following command “sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/PainterAudioDriver.kext”
5. Enter
6. Internal Audio Driver (Corel Painter) should no longer be available in Preferences > Sound or in the Painter application