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Visualizer

Visualizer turns EffeTune’s processed audio into a customizable display. It can show a waveform, spectrum, scrolling spectrogram, stereo image, or note spectrogram alongside artwork and track information. Changing the display does not change the sound.

Open and display

On a PC layout, select Visualizer beside Effect Pipeline and Music Library. On mobile, select the Visualizer icon to the left of the menu button in the upper-right corner. In the desktop app, View > Visualizer opens the same view. In the browser extension, select Visualizer in the Pipeline Editor header. You can also select Visualizer as the startup view in Settings > Config….

Choose a built-in preset to start. The preset list groups designs by 16:9, 21:9, 4:3, 1:1, and 9:16 proportions. Selecting one replaces the current layout. The graph shows the signal just before it reaches the audio output; it follows the processed playback, including active effects.

Every proportion offers ten shared designs. Mastering Console arranges overlaid left and right spectra, a spectrogram, a stereo display, a loudness meter, and segmented level meters on dark panels. Spectral Studio pairs a large high-resolution spectrogram with a vertical bar spectrum. Harmony Lab combines a piano-roll view of detected notes with a chroma spiral that shows pitch classes. Phosphor Scope shows an oscilloscope and a stereo display in the green glow of an analog CRT. Hi-Fi Deck recreates the segmented spectrum and level display of a hi-fi component’s fluorescent panel. Vintage VU shows the left and right channels on a pair of backlit cream-faced VU meters in walnut bezels. Now Playing shows album art, track information, and spectrum bars over a blurred copy of the artwork. Neon Pulse is a neon bar spectrum with a reflection and a background that pulses with the bass. Phase Galaxy turns the phase map into a glowing, turning star, and Chroma Mandala turns the chroma spiral into a kaleidoscope.

Seven more designs appear only in the proportions they suit best. Fretboard (21:9 and 9:16) shows detected notes on a guitar neck with a beat indicator; the 21:9 layout adds a piano-roll view above the neck. Power Amp (21:9 and 16:9) places blue-lit VU meters on a black amplifier front panel. Round Dials (1:1 and 9:16) sets round VU meters in brass rims. Beat Stage (16:9 and 9:16) shows the detected tempo inside a large beat circle that swells with the bass, together with neon spectrum bars. Lyric Stage (16:9 and 9:16) shows synchronized lyrics over a soft glow of the album artwork that swells with the bass, filling the current line word by word; for tracks without lyrics it remains a calm artwork screen. Cinema Strip (21:9) runs a spectrogram, a ten-second waveform, and a scrolling lyrics line across the full width of the screen. Meter Bridge (21:9 and 4:3) lines up True Peak, VU, slow RMS, and loudness meters so you can compare how each reading responds to the same music, above a level meter and a waveform strip.

Hover over or tap the display to reveal ⛶. Select it to fill the app window while preserving the chosen proportions; edges may be cropped. Select ⛶ again, press Esc, or use mobile Back to return. In the desktop app, switching to Mini Player while Visualizer is open places the display above the playback controls.

In the desktop app with two or more displays, View > Visualizer Clean Feed shows Visualizer full screen on the display you choose, without a window frame or controls. The layout keeps its proportions, with black bars filling any remaining space. While the feed is showing, the Visualizer screen in the app shows the same picture at the feed’s resolution, so what you see there matches the feed exactly. The feed is hidden while another app is active (unless Show While Inactive is on in the same menu), while the main window overlaps that display, and during a Double Blind Test. To stop it, select Off, or click the feed and press Esc. With a single display, this menu item is unavailable.

Edit a layout

Select Edit. Changes appear immediately and the current layout is restored the next time you open EffeTune. Use the preset dialog’s Save action when you want a named copy; editing alone does not update a saved preset.

In Edit mode, the left pane holds the overall settings, item list, and Quality control. The canvas is in the center, and the selected item’s controls are on the right.

Adjust a numeric setting with its slider or enter a value in the adjacent field. On mobile, the field opens the numeric keypad.

Zoom in for precise placement using − and + in the canvas toolbar, or Ctrl+scroll (Cmd+scroll on Mac); wheel zoom stays centered on the pointer. The percentage shows the editing zoom (10–400%). Fit centers the complete display frame in the editing area. Zooming changes only your editing view.

Use the mouse wheel or a trackpad to pan; hold Shift to scroll horizontally. Hold Space and drag with the left mouse button, or drag with the middle button, to pan in any direction. With the canvas focused, + and − zoom around its center, and 0 fits the frame. Panning and zooming do not add steps to Undo.

Move or resize an item beyond the display frame to crop it at the edge. The part outside the frame is hidden in both Edit and the finished display, but its selection outline and handles remain available in the editing area. Zoom out or pan to reach them. For example, place a large Shape partly outside the frame to make a panel that meets the display edge.

  • Choose the display proportions, background color, or a background image. A large imported image is resized for the display. Theme colors lets you change the graph base, soft graph fill, fine and major grid lines, graph labels, axis titles, and meter ticks for this layout without changing the sound trace palette. Colors you leave untouched use the default dark theme colors, regardless of the current EffeTune theme. Choose Use default colors to reset your changes.
  • Graphs are drawn in proportion to the display size, so a layout looks the same in a small window, at Full HD, or at 4K. Graph scale (×0.50 to ×3.00, default ×1.00) enlarges or shrinks the lines, ticks, peak marks, and labels of every graph in the layout. Title, Album, and Artist keep their own text size.
  • Add an Oscilloscope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Stereo, Level Meter, Analog Meter, Notes, Guitar, Chroma Spiral, Phase Map, or Rhythm Analyzer graph, or add Lyrics, Artwork, Title, Album, or Artist. Drag an item to move it and use its edge or corner handles to resize it. Hold Shift while resizing to preserve its proportions, Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) to keep its center fixed, or both to preserve both. Choose how finely Snap to grid divides the scene to align items, or select Off. Hold Alt while dragging to place an item without snapping; you can also press Alt after the drag has started. Move up and Move down move the item one position in the list; items lower in the list appear in front. The overlapping-square buttons Bring to front and Send to back move it to the very front or back. Press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on Mac) to duplicate the selected items one grid step away, or Alt-drag to create and place copies.
  • To select several items, Shift+click them on the canvas or in the item list; Shift+click a selected item to deselect it. In the item list, Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on Mac) works the same way. Drag across an empty part of the canvas to select the items entirely inside the box, or hold Shift while dragging to add them to the selection. Where items overlap, Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on Mac) on the canvas to select the item behind; each further Ctrl+click goes one item further back and then returns to the front, and you can drag the selected item right away. Ctrl+A (Cmd+A) selects all items, and Esc clears the selection. Moving, deleting, duplicating, cutting, copying, and pasting then apply to every selected item; resize items one at a time. When the selected items are all the same kind, the right pane shows the first item’s settings, and any change applies to all of them. The right pane also offers the ordering buttons and buttons that align the items’ left edges, horizontal centers, right edges, top edges, vertical centers, or bottom edges.
  • Undo and Redo at the right of the toolbar (Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y; Cmd on Mac) step through layout changes, including loading a preset and importing a link. The history is cleared when you close or reload EffeTune. Cut items, Copy items, and Paste items (Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V) move the selected items through the clipboard; pasted items appear one grid step away. Press Delete to remove the selected items. While you edit, Paste items also imports a Visualizer share link and takes the place of Import Link. Right-click the canvas (or touch and hold it) for a menu with these commands plus Duplicate, Select all, Bring to front, and Send to back; right-clicking an item that is not selected selects it first.
  • For a graph, choose the audio channel. The default uses output channels 1–2. Choosing one channel shows it on both sides, except in Level Meter, which shows one bar, and Analog Meter, which shows one channel meter. Flip either axis to reverse its direction.
  • Under Color mode, Solid uses a separate color picker and is the starting choice. A new item’s solid color starts with the default dark theme’s graph color. Gradient uses editable color stops; choose from 24 presets, including Gold, or move stops yourself. The dropdown shows a color preview for each preset; choose one and click Apply to use it. Reverse gradient reverses the color order and mirrors each stop’s position. Hue changes gradient colors over time, and Scroll moves the gradient. Speed controls either motion. Reverse color motion reverses the Hue color cycle or the Scroll movement while keeping the color stops in their current order. Switching modes keeps your solid color and gradient settings.
  • Adjust each graph under Items. For Title, Album, and Artist, set the text size, font, horizontal and vertical alignment, letter spacing, case, Bold, and Italic separately. Outline draws a colored edge around the letters, and Shadow adds a drop shadow with adjustable color, opacity, blur, and offset; both keep text readable over a busy background. Anything outside the item box is cut off, so leave room for a wide outline or shadow. If a font is unavailable on your device or browser, another font is used. Artwork can have rounded corners. Graph controls are explained below.

Add Text for a heading, message, or listening-room name. Enter your own text, using line breaks for multiple lines (up to 4096 characters), then use the same font, alignment, outline, and shadow controls as Title. The text stays the same when the track changes. Text keeps its own size independently of Graph scale.

Add Lyrics to follow the built-in player’s current track, including in Clean Feed. Lyrics come from the music file or a same-name .lrc file in the same folder; letter case does not matter. Timed lyrics take priority, then the .lrc file. The desktop app and browser library folders find it automatically. For music opened or dropped directly in the browser, select or drop the .lrc together with the music. For CUE tracks, a track-specific file such as Artist - Title.lrc or Title.lrc takes priority; otherwise the timed lyrics from the album file are shown for that track’s part. Streams have no lyrics.

View offers List or Single line, with Show next line for the latter. For a list, Scroll offers Scroll (vertical), Step (vertical), Scroll (horizontal), and Step (horizontal). Scroll moves continuously; Step advances at each line. Step transition time sets each step’s duration from 0 to 2 seconds (default 0.18 seconds); 0 switches immediately. Horizontal modes place the lines side by side from right to left. Horizontal Scroll lets long lines pass through at their text size. Horizontal Step fits long lines to the item width; Alignment chooses whether the line’s start, center, or end meets Current line position. Current line position follows the movement axis: 0% at the top and 100% at the bottom in vertical modes; 0% at the left and 100% at the right in horizontal modes. The default, 50%, is the center. In vertical modes, move it up to show more upcoming lyrics or down to show more previous lyrics. Horizontal modes use Vertical alignment for top, middle, or bottom placement. Single line also uses Vertical alignment. Word highlight progressively fills the current line when word timings are available. Offset adjusts timing from −10 to +10 seconds; positive values show lyrics later. Lyrics without timing always scroll as a list with track progress and have no highlight. Use the same font, alignment, outline, and shadow controls as Text; lines do not wrap.

Line spacing adjusts the distance between lyrics lines from 50% to 300% in both views. The default, 100%, uses standard spacing. Lower values fit more lines in a list; higher values spread lines apart without changing the text size. In horizontal modes, this controls the gaps between adjacent lyric lines.

Fade-in time and Fade-out time fade the whole Lyrics item in at the start and out at the end of a track, in both views. Each ranges from 0 to 10 seconds, with defaults of 1 second for fade-in and 3 seconds for fade-out. Set a time to 0 to disable that fade. Lyrics text is centered by default. The fade follows the track’s playback position and pauses with playback. Switching tracks, seeking, or loading lyrics later immediately uses the opacity for the current playback position. These settings change only the display, leaving audio playback unchanged.

Add Shape to make a panel, frame, marker, or separator. Shape selects Rectangle, Ellipse, Triangle, or a horizontal Line. Resize an ellipse to equal width and height for a circle. The palette colors the fill, or the line itself. Fill opacity makes the fill transparent; set it to 0% for a frame. Border color, Border width (0 hides it), and Border opacity control the edge. Corner radius rounds a rectangle’s corners. Width and radius scale with the scene size, independently of Graph scale. Move a panel behind the graphs with Send to back, or add Glow or a time-driven effect for decoration. Text and Shape are saved in presets and share links along with the other items.

Tune and read the graphs

Spectrum shows level by frequency, with recent peaks that fall gradually. Orientation places frequency left to right in Horizontal (the default), or low to high from bottom to top in Vertical; the keyboard moves left and louder levels extend right. Display switches between Line and Bar. In Bar, Bands sets how many bars divide the frequency range, from 8 to 128 (default 48). dB per Segment sets how many decibels each block of a bar represents, from 0.5 to 12 dB (default 1 dB); smaller values give finer steps. At 0 (Continuous), the bars are drawn without blocks and each peak as a thin line. Quantize (on by default) rounds the displayed bars to whole blocks and draws each peak in one block; measured levels do not change. Points sets the analysis size: more points separate nearby frequencies but respond more slowly. Frequency Scale offers Log, Log (HQ) for more detailed low-frequency analysis, and Linear, which gives equal space to equal frequency intervals. New graphs use Log (HQ). Max Frequency sets the top of the frequency axis, from 1 to 40 kHz (default 40 kHz); lowering it, for example to 20 kHz, spreads the audible range across the full width. Smoothing blends neighboring frequencies over a width of up to 1 octave for a calmer, easier-to-read curve; the default 0 keeps full detail. DB Range sets the quietest level shown; a more negative value reveals quieter content. Keyboard adds a note reference. Keyboard Length sets how long the keys are drawn: the default 100% is half the length of real piano keys, and 200% matches a real piano’s proportions. Axes and grid and Axis labels and numbers control the guides without changing the measurement; all three start off.

Spectrogram places frequency vertically and scrolls new measurements across time. Stronger bands appear more prominently in the chosen palette. Its Points, Frequency Scale, DB Range, Keyboard, Keyboard Length, Max Frequency, and axis controls have the same purpose as in Spectrum. It starts with Log (HQ) and 4096 points. More points reveal finer detail but take longer to reflect a change in the sound.

Stereo plots the left and right channels together. The trace and peak outline show width and level; the correlation and balance indicators help you read how similar the channels are and which side is stronger. Window sets how much recent audio is shown, from 10 to 1000 ms. A short window follows transients; a long window looks steadier. The axis controls show or hide the guides. The Peak, Correlation, and Balance switches show or hide the peak outline and the two meters independently; all three start on.

Level Meter shows each channel on a −96 to 0 dB bar by default. DB Range sets the lower limit from −144 to −48 dB; the default is −96 dB. Orientation changes the bars from horizontal (the default) to vertical. dB per Segment divides the bars into blocks of 0.5 to 12 dB, like Spectrum’s Bar display: each bar ends at a whole block, and the recent peak lights one block. The default 0 (Continuous) draws smooth bars, and a thin marker shows the recent peak, and OVERLOAD warns of clipping for five seconds. Axes and grid controls the dB lines; Axis labels and numbers controls their values. Level values separately shows the held peak readings, or the current levels while Peak is off. All three start off; OVERLOAD remains visible. The bars offer Solid, Gradient, and Heatmap colors.

Oscilloscope draws the captured waveform against time for the selected audio channel. The horizontal axis shows time in milliseconds or seconds; the vertical axis shows amplitude. Display Time sets the visible interval from 1 to 10000 ms (10 seconds, default 10 ms). Short intervals show a detailed trace; long intervals show a filled band of the minimum and maximum values in each interval, preserving brief peaks. Trigger Mode is Auto by default, so the trace continues to update without a trigger; Normal holds the last trace until the signal crosses Trigger Level in the selected Trigger Edge direction. Auto and Normal update the trace after the full displayed interval has been captured. Off continuously scrolls the waveform to the left with the latest sound at the right edge; the trigger settings have no effect. To follow several seconds of sound, use Off with Display Time set to 1000–10000 ms. Trigger Level sets the capture point from −1 to 1 (default 0), and Trigger Edge selects Rising (default) or Falling. Holdoff sets the minimum time between triggers, from 0.1 to 10 ms (default 0.1 ms); a longer holdoff reduces rapid retriggers. Display Level sets the vertical scale from −96 to 0 dB (default 0 dB); lower values make quieter waveforms appear larger. Vertical Offset moves the waveform from −1 to 1 (default 0); positive values move it up and negative values move it down. Axes and grid and Axis labels and numbers show the guides and their labels; both start off. Use a repeated waveform and adjust the trigger level and edge if the trace is not steady. The trace is a visual guide, not an exact measurement tool.

For Spectrum, Spectrogram, and Stereo, Input gain changes only the signal sent to that graph, from −24 to +24 dB; it does not change playback. Start at 0 dB. Raise it to inspect a quiet signal, or lower it if the graph crowds its upper limit.

Spectrum, Level Meter, and Chroma Spiral offer Fall Time, which sets how quickly the display drops when the sound gets quieter. It is the time taken to fall 20 dB, from 0 to 5 seconds: 0 follows the sound instantly, while longer times give a steadier display that is easier to read but slower to show drops. Spectrum, Level Meter, and Stereo also offer Peak (on by default), which shows the peak marks or outline. While it is on, Peak Hold keeps each peak in place for 0 to 10 seconds before it falls, and Peak Fall Time sets how quickly it then falls, from 0.1 to 10 seconds per 20 dB. Spectrum starts with a Fall Time of 0 s, a Peak Hold of 0 s, and a Peak Fall Time of 1 s; Level Meter starts at 1 s for all three; Chroma Spiral starts with a Fall Time of 0 s. Stereo starts with a Peak Hold of 0 s and a Peak Fall Time of 1 s; because its peak outline already falls 20 dB per second, its Peak Fall Time can only be made slower, from 1 to 10 seconds.

With Gradient, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Notes, Guitar, Chroma Spiral, and Phase Map offer Gradient direction. Frequency (the default) distributes colors along the frequency or pitch display. Intensity maps colors from weaker to stronger signals; use it to distinguish signal strength with your chosen colors. In Notes, the pitch history uses detection confidence, while the volume display uses note level. Radial spreads colors from the item’s center toward its corners while preserving signal transparency. Axes, labels, and keyboards keep their own colors. With Frequency selected, Notes, Guitar, and Chroma Spiral also offer Full range to distribute colors across the displayed pitches and One octave to repeat them by note.

Other items with a palette offer Linear and Radial under Gradient direction. Linear spreads colors across the item; in Level Meter, it follows the bar orientation. Gradient angle (°) rotates a non-radial gradient from −180° to +180°, starting at 0°; positive angles turn clockwise. Frequency and Intensity use the selected direction and graph layout as the starting point. For example, in a horizontal Spectrum, Frequency at 90° runs from top to bottom, while Intensity at 90° runs from left to right. Radial hides the angle control and keeps its value for when you switch back.

Notes shows detected pitches over time. Pitch Resolution chooses 1/12 Octave for semitone rows or High to show estimated cent values directly. Layout changes the direction of the history, while Time Span sets 1–10 seconds of visible history. Volume adds the note-level view alongside pitch confidence. Lowest Note and Highest Note set the pitch range to analyze. Keyboard shows the piano keys, and Keyboard Length works as in Spectrum; it starts off, as do Axes and grid and Axis labels and numbers.

Guitar shows the notes detected at this moment as dots on a fretboard, so you can see where a song’s notes lie on the neck. It uses the same note detection as Notes. Tuning chooses a guitar, bass, or ukulele tuning, including 7- and 8-string guitars and 5- and 6-string basses. To use another tuning, type note names such as D2 A2 D3 G3 A3 D4 in Open Strings, starting with the string drawn at the bottom (up to 10 strings). Lowest Fret and Highest Fret limit the display to part of the neck, and Capo places a capo on that fret; the fretboard detects only the notes it can play within these settings, and no more simultaneous notes than it has strings. Because the same note can be played in several places, Positions chooses how to show it: All Positions marks every matching fret, One Shape picks one playable position for each note, keeping notes on separate strings, the stretch small, and the hand near its previous position, and One Shape + Alternatives also shows the other positions faintly. Note Labels writes note names with sharps or flats, or Intervals from the root, or nothing. A ring marks the root; Root fixes it to a note instead of following the lowest detected note, and then Scale Guide outlines that scale’s notes on the neck, with the root filled, so you can see which detected notes fall inside the scale. Threshold sets how confident a detection must be before it appears; raise it if stray notes flicker. Fall Time sets how long a note takes to fade after it stops, from 0 to 2 seconds. About 40, 80, and 160 ms later, Note Spectrogram corrects its detection; Guitar then also shows notes the first detection missed, and removes notes it ruled out without waiting for the fall time. Layout draws the neck horizontally, like tablature, or vertically, like a chord chart. Size by Volume draws louder notes as larger dots, on the same 24 dB volume scale as Note Spectrogram; the quietest notes keep a third of the full size. Fretless draws a fretless neck and places each note at the pitch actually detected: an in-tune note sits right on its fret line, and vibrato, bends, and slides glide smoothly along the string. A note that crosses a semitone stays one dot, and its label changes to the nearest note. Open-string notes work the same way, with the nut as their in-tune position; a note flatter than an open string is shown on a lower string when one can play it. Realistic Fret Spacing narrows the frets toward the body as on a real instrument; turn it off for even spacing. Fretboard Fill colors the fretboard; turn it off to draw only the frets and strings. Fret Markers, Fret Numbers, and String Names show the inlay dots, the fret numbers, and the open-string names. For a left-handed view, use Flip horizontally.

Chroma Spiral arranges detected notes around a spiral, one turn per octave. Display switches between Dots and Fill. Lowest Octave and Highest Octave set its range; Frequency Tilt changes the emphasis across frequencies, Level Range changes how quiet notes appear, and Display Floor hides weaker notes.

Phase Map plots frequency components by their left/right phase difference or balance, the same view used by the Phase Select EQ effect; it does not change the sound. The vertical axis is logarithmic frequency; brighter, larger dots are stronger, and each dot fades away after a short time. X Axis switches the horizontal axis between Phase, where 0° at the center means the channels are in phase and ±180° at the edges means fully opposite phase, and Balance, where the center is equal left and right and the edges are one channel only. DB Range sets the quietest level shown, relative to the strongest component at that moment, from −96 to −24 dB (default −72 dB); a more negative value reveals quieter content. Reference Floor sets the lowest level used as that reference, from −120 to −24 dB (default −40 dB, where a full-scale sine wave in both channels reads 0 dB); when even the strongest component is quieter than this, the dots shrink and fade, then disappear as the level keeps falling, so near-silent passages do not keep filling the map. Persistence sets how long each dot stays visible, from 0.1 to 2.0 seconds (default 0.5 s); a longer persistence leaves a fuller trail. Choosing a single audio channel places every dot on the center line. Axes and grid and Axis labels and numbers show the guides and their values; both start off.

Analog Meter shows levels on needle meters using the same measurements as the Analog Meter effect; it does not change the sound. Mode chooses VU (the default), PPM, RMS, Sample Peak, True Peak, Loudness, or Custom, and only the controls the selected mode uses appear: Integration, Attack, Release, Reference, Range, PPM Scale, Peak Hold, Needle, Target, and Scale. In Custom, Detector, Needle Response, Overshoot, and Dial let you choose the measurement, needle speed, bounce, and scale separately. In Custom, all of its controls remain visible; those that do not apply are disabled, keeping the settings panel the same height. They have the same ranges and defaults as in the effect; see Analog Meter for how each mode moves and how to read its scale. The default channels show two meters labeled with their channel numbers. In Loudness, a program meter with the Momentary, Short-term, Integrated, LRA, and maximum True Peak readings comes first, followed by the channel meters. Integrated, LRA, and maximum True Peak restart when you close or hide Visualizer, or change the channel, Mode, or Needle. The color mode colors the needle; Gradient follows the chosen direction and angle. Axes and grid shows the dial, ticks, and red zone, and Axis labels and numbers shows the scale numbers, headings, and readings; both start on for this item. The needle, peak mark, and over lamp appear regardless of these two settings.

The appearance controls let you build a flat amplifier meter or a round vintage dial. These settings change only the picture; the detector and calibration stay the same.

For a fixed item size, the needle length stays constant as the level, Dial curvature, or Dial sweep changes; the tip always follows a circular arc. In VU mode, the deflection is proportional to the measured voltage ratio, regardless of the dial shape.

  • Dial curvature moves continuously from a straight line at 0% through elliptical arcs to a circular arc at 100% (default). The ends of the scale stay on the needle circle while the middle flattens inward. Dial sweep sets the needle’s angular spread from 30° to 160° (default 100°). Scale marks always line up with the needle at their values. Pivot below dial moves the dial and needle pivot down together by 0–100% of the face height, keeping the needle length unchanged. Try 0% curvature and a 20% lower pivot for a flat meter with its base below the window. If a wide sweep is cropped, widen the item or reduce Dial sweep.

  • Hidden needle base hides 0–90% of the needle from its base. Needle length sets its fixed length to 50–120% of the reference circular dial radius (default 102%); Needle width sets its thickness from 0.5 to 8. Needle tip offers a line, a tapered needle, or an arrow. Arrow tip aspect ratio sets the arrowhead’s length divided by its width from 0.25 to 4.00 (default 1.00). Higher values make a longer, narrower head without moving the needle tip. Pivot hub size sets the pivot dot’s radius from 0 to 20 (default 3); 0 hides it.

  • In VU mode and Custom with the VU dial, Secondary % scale adds an inner voltage-ratio scale, and Reading unit chooses the usual VU reading or a percentage. 100% means 0 VU at the selected Reference; 50% is about −6 VU. This is a voltage ratio, not watts or a percentage of digital full scale. The extra scale and percentage reading are used in VU mode and Custom with the VU dial.

  • Numeric reading, Channel heading, and Mode heading independently hide the reading and headings. − / + marks adds large minus and plus marks; Positive value signs adds + to positive scale numbers. Turn Red zone off to hide the red scale segment. The axes and labels switches still control scale lines and text respectively.

  • Window shape chooses a rectangle, ellipse, or circle and crops the display to that window. Face color and Face opacity set the panel fill; at the default opacity of 0%, the scene remains visible behind it. Face border color and Face border width set its border (0 hides it). Vignette darkens the edges from 0% (default, off) to 100%. Needle and border widths follow Graph scale. Each channel gets its own window. For a round vintage face, start with a Circle, 100% face opacity, 40% vignette, the secondary % scale, and hidden channel/mode headings.

Rhythm Analyzer shows the tempo, the hits beat by beat, and how early or late each part plays, using the Rhythm Analyzer effect’s analysis; it does not change the sound. Min BPM (40 to 192 BPM, default 40) and Max BPM (50 to 240 BPM, default 240) set the tempo range considered in the analysis; changing either starts the analysis over. Span (beats) (4, 6, 8, 12, or 16; default 8) sets how many beats the main lanes and each echo row show. Tempogram, Timing lanes (the main lanes), Echo rows, and Beat lens show or hide those panels; Timing lanes and Beat lens start on, and the remaining panels fill the item with header readings while any panel is visible. Metronome Click is not available in Visualizer. See Rhythm Analyzer for how to choose these values and how to read the display. A tall item stacks the panels from top to bottom; a wide item places the beat lens beside the lanes. The analysis also starts over when you close or hide Visualizer or change the channel. Gradient colors the signals, beat circle, and BPM using the chosen direction and angle. Axes and grid shows the guides, and Axis labels and numbers shows their values together with the other header readings; both start on for this item. The beat circle follows shown beat ticks. BPM and the beat lens show confirmed analysis about 1–2 seconds behind the sound. Timing lanes and echo rows show detected hits immediately and scroll smoothly; the newest positions are estimates that move slightly as the analysis confirms them. Lower confidence makes the readings fainter; searching stops new ticks without removing an available analysis history.

Beat shows a large circle in the center of the item, flashing once per shown beat. During searching it is hollow between any already detected beats. BPM independently shows the confirmed analysis tempo over the graphs; a dash means no tempo is available yet. Both start on and work with axes and panels off. Turn off all four panels to show only these indicators. BPM uses the same text settings as Title, including font, size, bold, italic, alignment, letter spacing, case, outline, and shadow. Its default text size is 96, centered horizontally and vertically.

In Beat circle, Circle size sets the diameter to 10–100% of the item’s shorter side (default 90%). Border width sets the outline thickness from 0 to 20 (default 2); 0 hides it. Fill opacity controls the brightest beat flash (default 30%), and Border opacity controls the outline (default 100%). Use palette colors starts on; turn it off to choose separate Fill color and Border color values. Fit BPM inside circle starts on and reduces centered BPM text as needed to keep the text and its outline inside the circle. Text size remains the maximum size. Turn fitting off, hide the beat circle, or change the text alignment to use the regular text settings without fitting.

Beat hold time keeps the fill at its maximum opacity for 0–1000 ms after a detected beat (default 0 ms). It then fades exponentially toward transparency. Beat decay time sets how long it takes the remaining opacity to fall to about 37%, from 10 to 2000 ms (default 90 ms). Shorter values make the circle disappear quickly; longer values give a slower fade. Every newly detected beat restarts the pulse.

Spectrum and Chroma Spiral offer both fixed Note Colors and Heatmap under Color mode. Spectrogram and Phase Map offer Heatmap, while Notes and Guitar offer Note Colors. Note Colors repeats the same 12 pitch colors each octave without animation; Spectrum blends between notes. In Spectrum’s Bar display, each bar uses one color based on its center frequency. Heatmap colors stronger sound more brightly and fades quiet areas to transparency instead of filling them with black. Stereo, Analog Meter, Rhythm Analyzer, and text items offer Solid and Gradient only.

Add motion and effects

Add effects to an item or the background and change their order to change the result. Amount controls strength. Opacity controls visibility and can blink when animated. Glow, Outline, and Blur soften or emphasize shapes. Trail leaves a fading trace, while Trail Feedback resizes, turns, and moves that trace. Scale Pulse enlarges an item rhythmically; Symmetry repeats it around a center; Shake moves it; Particles add small moving points. Ken Burns slowly moves artwork or a background image, and Flash brightens a background. Backplate paints a plate behind an item that follows the item’s area; set its Fill color, Fill opacity, Border color, Border width (0 for no border), and Corner radius (0 for square corners), and Margin, which extends the plate beyond the item’s edges with positive values or pulls it inside with negative values (0 matches the item exactly), while Amount fades the whole plate. The plate always stays behind its item and does not move with other effects, wherever it is in the list.

Edge Fade gradually makes the edges of any item transparent, including its background, scales, text, and shadows, also in Clean Feed. It always applies last, regardless of its position in the effects list. Shape selects Rectangle or Circle. For Rectangle, Top, Bottom, Left, and Right set independent fade widths from 0% to 100%; top and bottom use the item height, left and right its width. Defaults are 10% at top and bottom and 0% at left and right. Circle is a true circle centered in the item, with a radius equal to half the shorter side; Fade width is 0–100% of that radius, initially 20%. A width of 0 gives a sharp circular edge. Larger widths soften a wider area. Amount starts at 1; turn the effect off or set Amount to 0 to leave the item unchanged. When active, it hides anything extending outside the item area, including transformed drawings, glow, and backplates.

Transform scales, skews, rotates, and moves an item or background around its center. Horizontal scale and Vertical scale independently set its width and height from 0% to 300%: 100% is unchanged, lower values shrink it, and higher values enlarge it. Rotation angle (°) runs from −180° to +180°; positive values turn clockwise. Horizontal offset and Vertical offset move it by −100% to +100% of its width or height; positive values move right or down. Horizontal skew (°) and Vertical skew (°) slant it from −60° to +60°. With rotation at 0°, positive horizontal skew moves the lower part right, and positive vertical skew moves the right part down. Scale starts at 100%; all other controls start at 0.

Scaling and skew come before rotation; offsets then move the result along the screen axes. Without Edge Fade, the transformed drawing can extend beyond the item frame and is clipped only at the edge of the Visualizer screen. Amount starts at 1: 0 preserves the original, and 1 applies the chosen settings fully. Time, Level, or Bass can animate the change from the original toward those settings. For a starting point, try horizontal scale 120%, vertical scale 100%, and rotation 15°. Combine Transform with Shake or Scale Pulse to add movement.

For Trail Feedback, Zoom changes each repeated trace’s size by −2% to +2% per step: positive values expand it, negative values shrink it, and 0% leaves its size unchanged. The initial value is +2%. Rotation angle (°) sets how each trace turns from −3° to +3°: positive values rotate clockwise, negative values counterclockwise, and 0° stops rotation. Horizontal flow moves traces right or left; Vertical flow moves them down or up. Set both to move diagonally. Each flow slider spans −1% to +1% of the item’s size per step, with 0% holding that axis still. Amount scales zoom, rotation, and flow.

An effect can run steadily, change with Time, or respond to overall Level or Bass. Depth controls how much that source changes the effect, and Speed controls a time-driven effect. Start with a single effect and a low amount, then add more if the display remains easy to read. For example, try Glow on a spectrum and a Bass-driven Scale Pulse on artwork.

If animation becomes slow, choose a lower display quality or use fewer effects. Auto adjusts quality as needed.

Presets, sharing, backup, and audio sync

The preset dialog lets you save the current layout under a name, reload it, rename it, or delete it. Built-in presets stay available. Settings > Backup / Restore includes named Visualizer presets and their background images; the current working layout is not part of the backup. Visualizer layouts are not included in Effect Pipeline sharing links.

Select Share in the toolbar to copy a link to the current layout. The link includes the background color but not a background image; to pass on a layout with its image, use Backup / Restore instead. In the web version, opening the link opens Visualizer and applies the layout; links shared from the desktop app or browser extension also open in the web version. In the desktop app or browser extension, or whenever the link does not open EffeTune, copy the link and select Import Link in the toolbar, or press Ctrl+V (⌘V on Mac) while Visualizer is shown. Pasting the link while Effect Pipeline is shown also opens Visualizer and applies it. An imported layout replaces the current one without asking. To return to the previous layout, open Edit and select Undo.

In Config, turn on Sync Visuals to Audio to align the display with what you hear; EffeTune may delay the sound. If graphs are unavailable, open Audio Configuration and check Use WebAssembly audio processing, then check that audio is playing through EffeTune.

In the desktop app, Use hardware acceleration is on by default. If the window flickers or stops updating, turn it off in Settings > Config… and restart EffeTune. After repeated display failures, EffeTune turns it off and restarts automatically. To try it again, turn the setting on and restart.