Sheet 03 — all projects

Sheet 03.1 — fig. 01

Synesthia

Tone-reactive music visualizer for macOS

Screenshot of Synesthia
Fig. 01 — Synesthia

Four visualizers run on the GPU. Nebula orbits roughly 100,000 simulated particles around a bass core, Spectrum Tunnel flies through a tube whose angular slices are the live spectrum, Aurora layers ribbons that ride the waveform, and Bars builds a studio console of LED columns, analog VU meters and moving faders.

It names the track playing in Music or Spotify without asking for a single permission — the players broadcast it. Point it at system audio, any input device, or a file on disk; five palettes and global sensitivity and speed apply across every visualizer.

General notes

  1. Four GPU visualizers — Nebula, Spectrum Tunnel, Aurora and Bars
  2. 64-band log-spaced FFT, so tone shapes the picture rather than volume alone
  3. Now-playing title, artist and album with no permission prompt
  4. System audio, any input device, or a local file as the source
  5. Five palettes — Prism, Ember, Ocean, Violet and Mono
  6. Universal build for Apple silicon and Intel, macOS 15 or later
  7. Auto-hiding chrome, so real fullscreen leaves only the visualizer

Control schedule

InputFunction
SpacePlay / pause
Cmd 1–4Switch visualizer
Cmd Left / RightPrevious / next track
Cmd LStart / stop listening
Cmd OOpen an audio file
Ctrl Cmd FFullscreen
[ macOS ][ Metal ][ Audio DSP ][ Swift ][ Open source ]