Audio Visualizer

A highly customizable terminal-based audio visualizer built in C, featuring PipeWire audio capture, FFT-based frequency analysis, and extensive configuration options.

Features

• PipeWire Audio Capture: Captures system audio with auto-detection
• Customizable Visuals: Multiple gradient modes, custom colors, and bar styles
• Advanced Audio Processing: Sensitivity, smoothing, bass boost, frequency range control
• High Performance: Configurable FPS, optimized rendering
• Flexible Layout: Vertical/horizontal orientation, bar width/spacing control
• INI Configuration: Easy-to-edit config file with all options

Dependencies

Install the required libraries:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install libpipewire-0.3-dev libfftw3-dev libncurses-dev

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S pipewire fftw ncurses

# Fedora
sudo dnf install pipewire-devel fftw-devel ncurses-devel

Building

make

Running

./audiovis
# or with custom config:
./audiovis /path/to/config.ini

Press q or ESC to quit

Installing

sudo make install

Configuration

Edit config.ini to customize the visualizer, the file is self-explanatory. The config file is located in ~/.config/audiovis/config.ini.

Audio Settings

• source: PipeWire audio source (or "auto" for auto-detection)
• sample_rate: Audio sample rate (default: 44100)
• buffer_size: Audio buffer size (default: 2048)

Visual Settings

• bar_count: Number of frequency bars (default: 32)
• bar_char: Character for bars (default: █)
• use_colors: Enable/disable colors (default: 1)
• gradient_mode: 0=solid, 1=rainbow, 2=custom (default: 1)
• color_low/mid/high: Colors for gradients

Processing Settings

• sensitivity: Overall sensitivity multiplier (default: 1.5)
• smoothing: Temporal smoothing 0.0-1.0 (default: 0.7)
• bass_boost: Bass frequency boost (default: 1.2)
• min_freq/max_freq: Frequency range (default: 20-20000 Hz)

Performance Settings

• fps: Target frames per second (default: 60)
• sleep_timer: Sleep when no audio in ms (default: 1000)

Layout Settings

• orientation: 0=vertical, 1=horizontal (default: 0)
• reverse: Reverse bar direction (default: 0)
• bar_width: Width of each bar in chars (default: 2)
• bar_spacing: Spacing between bars (default: 1)

Examples

High sensitivity for quiet audio

[processing]
sensitivity = 3.0

Bass-heavy visualization

[processing]
bass_boost = 2.0
max_freq = 500

Minimalist horizontal bars

[visual]
bar_count = 20
bar_char = ▬
use_colors = 0

[layout]
orientation = 1
bar_width = 1

GNU GPLv3