By Balance IT · Updated
Add a soundwave without rebuilding your scene.
PHASE//VOID’s audio spectrum is a layer in the free browser Studio. Keep a procedural world or your own muted video clips underneath it. The separate music input drives the picture; the layer does not create another audio player or upload your selected music.
Open Soundwave controls → The link opens the panel; it does not enable a layer, play music or request access.
- Open an MP3/WAV in Audio, or deliberately connect an existing supported live source. Check its meters and playback. The video layers in Assets stay muted and cannot drive the spectrum themselves.
- Choose Soundwave in the Create sidebar. In the compact/mobile layout use Output → Audio spectrum. The layer starts disabled on a new or legacy session. On smaller screens, a compact output preview stays with the controls while you edit.
- Choose Spectrum, Ring or Waveform to enable that style. Changing the style keeps the current music, world, clips and titles. Toggle Enable audio spectrum off to compare the picture without it.
- Choose a color swatch or a custom color. Set Spectrum position and Size, then adjust Response for your source. Increasing Response changes the displayed layer, not audio volume or the scene’s BPM.
- Use Opacity to let the world show through. Darken background fades the picture behind this Program layer toward black while retaining the spectrum, title and artwork. At 100%, it makes a clean dark background; it does not mute sound or disable the underlying render.
Watch a strong and quiet passage before recording. No source means a quiet line or ring, not an invented beat. File playback and live input have separate setup instructions.
Three layouts. Actual finished files.
These short first-party exports use our original 160 BPM test soundtrack, the existing visual engine and the same Program layer available in Studio. Each is composed at its own output dimensions. Play deliberately; the examples start muted.
Spectrum · 16:9
Frequency bars move from low to high across the picture.
Ring · 9:16
The frequency bands wrap clockwise around an open center.
Waveform · 1:1
The line follows a short window of the actual audio signal.
Read the dated checks and exact evidence boundary. Short browser exports do not establish physical-projector timing or hours-long reliability.
Keep the artist, event or release readable.
Choose the actual canvas before placing a title. In Output → On-screen title, enter your track/event name and optional artist/subtitle, then select its position. Add logo / artwork accepts the existing local PNG/JPEG/WebP image path. The title and artwork paint above the spectrum layer.
- Use one clear visual focus. A centered ring can frame an open area; a wide spectrum can bridge the composition; the waveform suits a compact signal accent. These are starting decisions, not automatic cover-art placement.
- Leave space between a lower spectrum and a bottom title. Try moving one to the center or top; check important faces, logos and clip details throughout the take.
- Check 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1 separately. The layer recomposes for the actual canvas, but a readable title or logo still needs your review. A portrait frame is not just a landscape thumbnail.
The layer belongs to Program. With Mapping enabled, surfaces using Program receive it through their normal crop/warp/mask. Surfaces with an independent world keep that source and do not inherit the global spectrum or title. This is not a per-surface audio plugin.
Make the finished music video.
For a local soundtrack, open Record video → Render from MP3 / WAV. Select your passage and Current composition or the existing Show sequence. File Review captures spectrum settings with the title and a copy of loaded artwork, then rebuilds the layer from the decoded soundtrack for every film picture.
- Choose Current Studio frame or a delivery set for 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1. Pick a supported codec and suitable size.
- Choose Review film timeline. Inspect each actual first frame for framing; a quiet first frame is not proof that a spectrum will stay flat through the song. The separate causal storyboard is still-image sampling.
- Render deliberately, download the actual video and reopen it. Check the moving spectrum, title, crop and recorded sound. A request or saved checkbox alone cannot verify the finished file.
The layer follows frequency/signal analysis even if the procedural world uses a manually placed beat grid. BPM is not a substitute for the actual spectrum. Use Track sync alignment for that separate pulse. For live audio or performed changes, use the existing realtime recording path and inspect a short take first. Complete file-render instructions.
Spectrum, ring or waveform: what changes?
| Style | What drives it | Useful when |
|---|---|---|
| Spectrum | Relative strength in logarithmically spaced frequency bands, low to high. | You want visible low/mid/high activity across a wide composition. |
| Ring | The same frequency information arranged clockwise from the top. | You want a circular audio accent with an open center. |
| Waveform | A short current time-domain signal window. | You want the shape of the actual signal, not a full-track progress waveform. |
The bars and ring are visual magnitudes, not calibrated dB, loudness readings or separate instrumental stems. The display covers approximately 35 Hz–16 kHz within the source’s available sample-rate range. Response and size are visual controls. Live browser analysis and causal file analysis use different signal paths and are not promised to produce pixel-identical pictures.
For the underlying distinction, MDN documents frequency data and time-domain waveform data. Studio uses those existing live-analysis inputs; file rendering analyzes its decoded soundtrack.
Save the look; keep your media available.
Your normal local Studio/settings-only session retains this layer’s enabled state, style, position, color, size, response, opacity and background blend. Legacy sessions open with the layer disabled. A full settings JSON can restore the layer alongside your normal composition.
The JSON does not bundle music, video or artwork bytes. Reattach local files where needed, then explicitly start sound. A shared procedural-look link remains a source-look link and does not include this global layer. Freeze holds the final composed picture; Blackout covers it. Neither is a recording-pause tool.
Practical answers before your first take.
Is this free?
Yes. The public Studio, spectrum layer and supported video exports are free without an account. It runs in your browser; no application/source download or cloud-render subscription is needed. Actual export codec support depends on your browser.
Why is the waveform flat?
Check the selected music source, playback and meters. The layer reads the separate audio input, not the sound of a muted video clip. A silent source or paused track can legitimately produce a flat signal. Enabling the layer does not start audio. Follow the silent-input check before turning up Response.
Can it correct projector latency?
No. This draws the available analyzed signal on the current composition. Speaker/interface buffering, browser capture and the physical display path need their own measurement; an audio spectrum does not calibrate them.
Does selected music leave my device?
The Studio processes selected audio locally. This layer adds no media upload or durable audio cache. Website/hosting requests and the existing fixed aggregate action counters are described in Privacy.
Custom visual direction for a release or live stage is available as a separate project. Prepare a custom visual brief.
Let each effect follow its own band.
Connect bass, mid, high, energy or the detected transient independently to geometry, pixelation, RGB split and FX amount. Set Low/High ranges and a response curve for Program or the selected mapping surface. Audio links setup and recovery →