Audio Visualizer
A tab for visualizing the audio of a scene. It provides several display modes — Waveform, Spectrum, Meter, Spectrogram, and Phase Scope — and analyzes audio not only during playback but also around the playhead while playback is stopped.
Tab characteristics
- Open by default: No
- Allow multiple instances: Yes (you can place several side by side with different display modes)
How to open
Open it from the menu bar via View → Tools → Audio Visualizer.
Layout
- Toolbar (top): A display-mode dropdown on the left and a settings button (gear icon) on the right.
- Display area (bottom): The visualizer for the currently selected mode.
This tab is meant for analyzing the playback audio of the scene you are editing. If you want to embed a visualizer into the scene itself as part of the rendered output, a separate Audio Visualizer drawable is provided under Drawables > Audio Visualizer.
Display modes
Switch between modes using the dropdown on the left of the toolbar. Hovering over each item shows a brief tooltip description.
Waveform
A time-domain L/R waveform of the most recent audio.
- The upper trace is the left channel and the lower trace is the right channel; both share a center axis line.
- Useful for spotting transients, clipping, asymmetry between channels, DC offset, and confirming at a glance that audio is actually flowing.
Spectrum
A real-time FFT frequency spectrum.
- The horizontal axis is logarithmic frequency (roughly 50 Hz to the Nyquist frequency), with
50 / 100 / 200 / 500 / 1k / 2k / 5k / 10k / 20kgridlines drawn as dashed lines with numeric labels. - The vertical axis is energy in dB (lower at the bottom, higher at the top); the lower bound is determined by the Min dB setting.
- The settings flyout exposes FFT Size, Shape, Smoothing, and Min dB.
- Useful for EQ work, detecting hum or whistles, and checking the high-frequency content of a mix.
The available shapes are:
- Bar: Vertical bars per frequency band.
- Line: A polyline connecting the band peaks.
- FilledArea: A filled area between the polyline and the bottom edge.
- MirroredBars: Vertical bars mirrored symmetrically above and below the center.
Meter
A stereo L/R level meter that combines several broadcast-standard readouts.
- L / R bars: RMS (short-term average level). The scale runs from 0 dB at the top to about −60 dB at the bottom, with
0 / -3 / -6 / -12 / -24 / -36 / -48 / -60dB gridlines on the right. - Peak-hold marker: Drawn over each bar, decaying at about 6 dB/sec. It turns red as it approaches 0 dB.
- Clip LED (red strip at the top of each bar): Latches on for about 2 seconds when the channel reaches 0 dBFS (±1.0).
- M (momentary LUFS): Momentary loudness based on BS.1770-4 K-weighting (400 ms window), shown as a number below the bars.
- TP L / TP R (true peak): Inter-sample peak in dBTP for each channel, computed by 4× polyphase oversampling. Decays similarly to the peak-hold marker.
- Useful for verifying loudness against delivery targets (e.g. −14 LUFS for YouTube, −23 LUFS for EBU R128) and for catching inter-sample peaks before encoding.
Spectrogram
A time–frequency heatmap of roughly the last 4 seconds of audio.
- The horizontal axis is time (older on the left, newer on the right).
- The vertical axis is logarithmic frequency (low at the bottom, high at the top).
- Brightness (opacity) represents energy in dB above the noise floor.
- The settings flyout exposes FFT Size and Min dB.
- Useful for tracking how spectral content evolves over time — sweeping filters, vibrato, room modes, and the harmonic structure of sustained notes.
Phase Scope
A phase monitor that displays stereo as a 45°-rotated Lissajous figure (goniometer).
- The diamond at the center is the display boundary; its four corners are labeled as follows:
- M (top): Pure mono. Audio with L=R traces a vertical line along this axis.
- S (bottom): Fully out of phase. Audio with L=−R spreads downward.
- L (left) / R (right): A single channel traces along the corresponding diagonal.
- The corr value at the top-left is the Pearson correlation coefficient between L and R:
+1= perfectly mono,0= uncorrelated,−1= fully out of phase. - Useful for catching channel-flipped or phase-cancelling material that would collapse during mono playback.
Settings flyout
Open the settings panel via the gear icon on the right of the toolbar. The settings are shared by Spectrum, Spectrogram, and parts of the level meter display.
Spectrum
- FFT Size: The FFT size used by Spectrum and Spectrogram. Choose from
256 / 512 / 1024 / 2048 / 4096 / 8192. Larger values give better frequency resolution; smaller values give better time resolution (faster response). - Shape: The drawing shape for Spectrum (Bar / Line / FilledArea / MirroredBars).
- Smoothing: Time smoothing for Spectrum, from
0%to95%. Higher values produce a smoother display; lower values respond more quickly.
Display
- Min dB: The lower bound of the displayed dB range, between
−120 dBand−40 dB. In Spectrum, this is the bottom of the vertical axis; in Spectrogram, it is treated as the "noise floor".
Resetting settings
Right-clicking any setting (combo box or slider) resets just that item to its default. The same hint is shown in each setting's tooltip. The defaults are:
| Item | Default |
|---|---|
| FFT Size | 2048 |
| Shape | Bar |
| Smoothing | 55% |
| Min dB | −90 dB |
Following the playhead
- During playback, frames stream in in real time and the display updates continuously.
- Even while playback is stopped, audio around the playhead is re-analyzed every time you move the playhead, so the display follows fine scrubbing as well.
- When the tab is not selected, updates are paused to keep CPU usage down.
State persistence
The selected display mode, FFT size, shape, smoothing, and Min dB are saved alongside the project layout and restored on next launch.