X11 Audio Visualizer for ALSA

also supports audio input from WASAPI (Windows), PortAudio, Pulseaudio, SHMEM, FIFO (MPD) and sndio.

a fork of Karl Stavestrand's C.A.V.A. by Nikola Pavlica

• What it is
• Getting started
  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • Nix
  • Installing manually
• Updating
• Usage
  • Controls
• Troubleshooting
  • Latency notes
  • The visualizer isn't opening
  • The visualizer does nothing
  • How do I start the visualizer on system startup
• Configuration
  • Equalizer
  • Capturing audio
    • From WASAPI (Windows)
    • From Pulseaudio monitor source
    • From PortAudio
    • From ALSA-loopback device (Tricky)
    • From mpd's fifo output
    • sndio
    • squeezelite
  • Output modes
  • Configuring OpenGL
    • Programming OpenGL shaders
  • Configuring Cairo
  • Basic window options
  • Window position
  • Advanced window options
    • Transparency
    • Advanced window behaviour
    • Fullscreening the visualizer without changing the viewport
  • Vsync
  • Bars
  • Colors and gradients
  • Accent colors
  • Additional options
• Contribution
  • Reporting issues

X.A.V.A. is a bar spectrum audio visualizer in a graphical window (X11, Wayland (wlroots and xdg shell), Windows, SDL2).

This program is not intended for scientific use. It's written to look responsive and aesthetic when used to visualize music.

There should be an installer in the Releases page of this repository. Just download, install and run it. Non-release builds are unstable, so expect breakage.

You can get them at the Releases page (labeled as "Development build").

The configuration file is located in %appdata%\xava\config.cfg

Technical notes:

It is NOT possible to compile under Windows nor do I recommend doing it.

Windows version lacks features compared to Linux version as that's my target. If you want the "full" experience, consider using this on a Linux machine.

VERY likely that it's broken. I don't recommend trying this unless you are completely sure that you know what you're doing.

You have to compile this yourself, get the dependencies installed via brew (look below) and compile it using the method described above.

Once you've done that, install Background Music and get it running on your Mac machine. Then, install the latest XQuartz build. Now what you need to do is add the following into the [input] section of the config file:

method = portaudio
source = "Background Music"

And now, within "Background Music" change the audio source of XAVA to the speaker output that you want recorded.

You are free to use either ncurses or x11_cairo output methods.

No OpenGL, because Apple likes to be Apple.

I recommend grabbing the AppImage, as it deals with all dependency issues upfront and all you really need to to is just download and run it.

You can get it at the Releases page (labeled as "Development build").

No build cache at the moment, but you're able to build and run this using one command:

nix run git https://github.com/nikp123/xava?submodules=1

(Be sure to put the flakeref in quotes if you're using the fish shell).

(No, the github: flakeref type doesn't work due to some bugs on nixpkgs)

NOTE: I strongly advise you use the AppImage as it'll sort out everything. But if you want to build this, you're going to be on your own when it comes to build errors and messages.

However, issues related to AUR packages are to be forwarded here (since I maintain them).

After grabbing your basic build tools such as CMake, GCC and others you're supposed to follow this sequence of commands:

git clone https://github.com/nikp123/xava
cd xava
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
make
sudo make install

And uninstalling with:

cat install_manifest.txt | xargs sudo rm -

If you happen to be updating this program, just keep in mind that breaking changes DO occur sometimes.

In most cases, errors that show up might look like issue #43 which (likely) can be fixed with a simple config reset.

In order to fix it I recommend just resetting your config by deleting:

• %APPDATA%\xava on Windows
• $HOME/.config/xava on Linux

You will lose your modifications if you do this, so I'd recommend making a backup first.

After you've installed it, to use this visualizer you'll have to be playing something on your system (be it a movie, voice chat or song, doesn't matter) and launch it. If everything succeeded, you'll see an audio visualization of whatever audio is going through your system. If not, please refer to Capturing audio section of this README.

In order to launch the application (in most cases), you'll be able to start it via a start menu entry or a desktop shortcut. If not, you can still choose to start it as a command-line executable:

Usage : xava [options]
Visualize audio input in terminal. 

Options:
	-p	path to config file
	-v	print version

Exit by pressing Q, ESC or by closing the window ;)

If you see latency issues, ie. visualizer not reacting on time, try turning off demanding graphical effects and/or shrinking the window, or just lower the fft_size and size (within [input]), as increasing capture time creates a delay.

If your audio device has a huge buffer, you might experience that xava is actually ahead than the audio you hear. This reduces the experience of the visualization. To fix this, try decreasing the buffer settings in your audio playing software. Or in case of MPD, just quickly pause and resume playback (yes, this is a bug with MPD's pulse implementation).

There's something seriously wrong with the visualizers configuration, please check that the configuration is okay first and then file a bug if it's still not working.

The audio configuration might be incorrect, please refer to the Capturing audio section of this README.

On Windows create a shortcut of the xava.exe (which is in the install directory) and copy it to C:\Users\you\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\

To-do Linux instructions: But basically just make sure that the xava executable or the AppImage one runs at startup.

Starting from 0.7.0.0, the configuration layout has been SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGED. Please check examples_files/config before filing a bug. This has been done to ease further development.

If you're running Windows and you used the installer, you'll find a Configure XAVA shortcut in your Start Menu. Use it to open the XAVA configuration.

By default a configuration file is located in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xava/config, $HOME/.config/xava/config or on Windows %APPDATA%\xava\config

The configurations are seperated into different categories such as [general] or [window] which are used to configure how certain parts of the visualizer should function.

For example: [filter] refers to options that control the behavior of the audio filtering/conversion to bars system, whilst [output] controls how the output result should be drawn.

By default the configurations are commented by a semi-colon ; in front of the option. You'll need to remove this semi-colon for the configuration changes to be effective.

To change the amplitude of certain frequency ranges, XAVA features an equalizer in the [eq] section of the config file to do so.

The equalizer works by setting an amplitude value to a incremental which refers to the part of the frequency spectrum.

Examples on how the equalizer works:

[eq]
1=0
2=1
3=0
4=1
5=0

In this example the frequency spectrum is divided in 5 parts. You may be able to see that the 1st, 3rd and 5th parts have been totally disabled and you can see the result of it on the screenshot above.

[eq]
1=2
2=2
3=1
4=1
5=0.5

And in this example you can see that the lower parts (1 and 2) have been amplified while 5 is being lowered.

The idea is that on most systems this should "just work" out of the box. If not, keep reading.

The [input] section of the config file controls where and how XAVA captures it's "audio input".

The method option describes which system should be used to capture the audio samples for the visualizer to process and source tells that "capture source" where to capture that audio information from. FXP. your microphone or seperate audio input source.

If you are on Windows, just use this. Don't even bother dealing with other options.

It's enabled by default if it detects compilation for Windows and if it's disabled go and set method to wasapi in the [input]section of the config file.

If you want to record loopback audio (that is "what you hear") (default) set source = loopback in the [input] section of the config file. Otherwise you can set anything else for it to record from the default microphone.

First make sure you have installed pulseaudio dev files and that xava has been built with pulseaudio support (it should be automatically if the dev files are found).

If you're lucky all you have to do is to set this line in the config file under the [input] section method = pulseaudio.

If nothing happens you might have to use a different source than the default. The default might also be your microphone. Look at the config file for help.

First make sure you have portaudio dev files and that xava was built with portaudio support. Since portaudio combines the functionality of all audio systems, it should be the most compatible. However, it is NOT "out of the box" because it requires some configuring.

1. To enable just set method to portaudio in the [input] section of your config. Afterwards change the portaudio input device, by setting source to list temporarily and by running xava again.

• It should list all of the available audio devices on your system (even that aren't input devices, watch out for that).

2. Once you find the device you want to record from, take it's number and set soruce to equal that number.

Set method to alsa in [output] section the config file.

ALSA can be difficult because there is no native way to grab audio from an output. If you want to capture audio straight fom the output (not just mic or line-in), you must create an ALSA loopback interface, then output the audio simultaneously to both the loopback and your normal interface.

To create a loopback interface simply run:

sudo modprobe snd_aloop

Hopefully your aplay -l should now contain a loopback interface.

To make it presistent across boot add the line snd-aloop to "/etc/modules". To keep it form beeing loaded as the first soundcard add the line options snd-aloop index=1to "/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf", this will load it at '1'. You can replace '1' with whatever makes most sense in your audio setup.

Playing the audio through your Loopback interface makes it possible for xava to to capture it, but there will be no sound in your speakers. In order to play audio on the loopback interface and your actual interface you must make use of the ALSA multi channel.

Look at the included example file example_files/etc/asound.conf on how to use the multi channel. I was able to make this work on my laptop (an Asus UX31 running Ubuntu), but I had no luck with the ALSA method on my Rasberry PI (Rasbian) with an USB DAC. The PulseAudio method however works perfectly on my PI.

Read more about the ALSA method here.

If you are having problems with the alsa method on Rasberry PI, try enabling mmap by adding the following line to /boot/config.txt and reboot:

dtoverlay=i2s-mmap

Add these lines in mpd:

audio_output {
    type                    "fifo"
    name                    "my_fifo"
    path                    "/tmp/mpd.fifo"
    format                  "44100:16:2"
}

Uncomment and change input method to fifo in the config file.

The path of the fifo can be specified with the source parameter.

I had some trouble with sync (the visualizer was ahead of the sound). Reducing the ALSA buffer in mpd fixed it:

audio_output {
        type            "alsa"
        name            "My ALSA"
        buffer_time     "50000"   # (50ms); default is 500000 microseconds (0.5s)
}

sndio is the audio framework used on OpenBSD, but it's also available on FreeBSD and Linux. So far this is only tested on FreeBSD.

To test it

# Start sndiod with a monitor sub-device
$ sndiod -dd -s default -m mon -s monitor

# Set the AUDIODEVICE environment variable to override the default
# sndio device and run xava
$ AUDIODEVICE=snd/0.monitor xava

squeezelite is one of several software clients available for the Logitech Media Server. Squeezelite can export it's audio data as shared memory, which is what this input module uses. Configure XAVA with the -DSHMEM=ON (cmake) option, then adapt your config:

method = shmem
source = /squeezelite-AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

where AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF is squeezelite's MAC address (check the LMS Web GUI (Settings>Information) if unsure).

Note: squeezelite must be started with the -v flag to enable visualizer support.

Since 0.7.1.1 the output methods have been sorted into three categories:

• OpenGL output methods
• Cairo output methods
• Unsupported output methods (basically those that don't have good support)

In the [output] section of the config there's an parameter named method. This "method" determines what drawing system you will like XAVA to use for it's visualizations. That can be either cairo or opengl.

• opengl uses your GPU for accelerated graphics (but can be demanding on the system)
• cairo doesn't use your GPU, but can be CPU-heavy if too many options/effects are used

Selecting any of those would automatically load the appropriate window backend for you. But in case you don't like that, you can specify the backend manually:

For example:

• Windows uses win
• Linux uses either x11 or wayland
• Any other operating system is going to use sdl2
• And unsupported modes such as ncurses (which is a terminal display)

To select whether you'd use opengl or cairo with any of the aforementioned window backends, you just type _thing after the backend name. Like so: win_cairo or x11_opengl

Both Cairo and OpenGL use what I call "modules" that you can mix and match to display whatever you want in the visualizer. These can be adjusted by going into their respective categories within the config file:

• For OpenGL there's the [gl] category
• For Cairo there's the [cairo] category

Same as Cairo, you could set up OpenGL so that it uses "modules" which are just seperate plugins that allow further customization. They are enabled by adding options from module_1 to module_(however many you need) and are drawn in that order. That means that the module_1's pixels could get overwritten by module_2.

Modules currently included in XAVA are:

• bars (default) - draws the usual horizontal bar layout
• stars - a pre-2016 Monstercat inspired star effect
• bars_circle - same as bars but drawn in a circle

Each of these modules has it's seperate config file which can be found under: xava config directory > gl > module > module's name > config.ini

If it's not there, it's most that configuration is likely NOT supported by said module.

Additionally, you can (optionally) apply a single post-processing shader effect to the entire screen via the post_shader option. Currently, packed-in shaders are:

• default - does nothing special basically
• shadow - adds simple 2D shadows
• kinetic - changes background opacity based on the intensity of music

You are free to add more if you'd like, though it requires programming knowledge. The files are located in your config's directory > gl > shaders > the shader's name. There you must add three files:

• config.ini - This configures the engine properties about which resources it should generate for said shader. For users, no touchy this part (it will be bad).
• fragment.glsl
• vertex.glsl

And optionally:

• geometry.glsl

NOTE: Variables are non-standard, so you'll HAVE to look into the code itself to figure those out (am sorry about this).

Cairo, as opposed to OpenGL, is much simpler, but that comes with graphical effects limitations (and sometimes) bad performance. But unlike OpenGL, it is more flexible. One example of its flexibility is its ability to add as many modules as you'd like in any order that you'd like.

By going into the [cairo] section of the config you can add modules by appending (or changing) the line/option: module_$indexnumber = module's name Where $indexnumber represents the order at which something is drawn and it must start from 1 and increment accordingly 2, 3 and so forth.

Currently, there are 4 available modules you can choose from:

• bars - draws horizontal bars as it regularely would
• stars - draws stars on the screen that move based on the intensity of music
• kinetic - changes the background opacity based on the intensity of must, be absolutely sure that it's at the lowest "layer" (aka 0) otherwise it WILL overwrite everything on the screen
• media_info (Linux-only) - Displays song artist, title and artwork in the top left part of the screen.

Mix and match these for optimum effect, however, be sure to not do too much as you can easily overwhelm your system by using this since it's CPU-based graphics.

If you want the lightest possible setup, I recommend just sticking with the default bars module.

You can find these in the [window] section of the configuration file:

Window size:

width = *number of pixels*
height = *number of pixels*

Toggle full-screen:

fullscreen = *true or false*

Toggle window border:

border = *true or false*

Move the window on startup to a specific part of the screen:

alignment = 'top_left', 'top', 'top_right'. 'left', 'center', 'right', 'bottom_left', 'bottom', 'bottom_right' and by default 'none'

In addition to window aligment you can adjust the window position further with:

x_padding = *specify offset in pixels*

y_padding = *specify offset in pixels*

The following features enable options that come with recent OSes and may introduce problems on older software/hardware (fxp. Windows XP), but in return they may look really nice if you configure them properly.

You can enable transparent windows:

transparency = *true or false*

And with transparency comes the ability to change the opacity of the background and the bars:

foreground_opacity = *range from 0.0 to 1.0*
background_opacity = *range from 0.0 to 1.0*

Force the window to be behind any window (may not work):

keep_below = *true or false*

Set window properties (useful for scripts relying on window class information):

set_win_props = *true or false*

This changes the X11 window type so that the compositor doesn't apply shadows and blur onto the window. However, this is not guaranteed to work, plus additional breakage may occur.

Make the window not react on mouse input (it just lets the click go through the window):

interactable = 0

Pro-tip: You can still gain control of the window by clicking it's taskbar icon or by alt-tabbing into it.

In case you want to make the visualizer window fullscreen, but not the visualizer with it, you can do so by enabling the hold_size option in the [window] section of the configuration and enabling fullscreen. Then use the same options from window position to change how the visualizer is places within the window.

VSync is enabled by default on XAVA and works ONLY if you use OpenGL.

You can change its behavior or just outright disable it.

To do that open the configuration file and in the [general] section you will find:

vsync = 1 (1 means its enabled)
vsync = -1 (enable variable refresh rate)
vsync = 0 (disable Vsync)
vsync = 2 (custom framerate, the number is a divisor of the refresh rate of your display)

In XAVA you can customize the look of the visualizer.

In the [general] section you'll find two options that let you change the size of the bars and the space between them:

bar_width = *width in pixels*
bar_spacing = *width in pixels*

To limit the number of bars displayed on the window, set the following in the [general] category:

bars = *insert number here*

In the color section of the config file you can find:

background = *by name or by hex value*
foreground = *same as above*

Additionally, you can specify default if you want to use your system accent or Xresources color instead. Supported in win and x11 output modes only.

But if you want to have gradients on the bars instead of static colors, you can enable them by changing:

gradient_count = *number of colors higher than 1*

gradient_color_1 = *same rule as colors*
gradient_color_2 = *same rule as colors*
...

XAVA still has plenty to offer, just look up all of the options in the config file. The config file also serves as documentation, so that you won't get stuck in configuration.

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

Thanks to:

• karlstav
• CelestialWalrus
• anko
• livibetter
• dpayne

for major contributions in the early development of this project.

Because XAVA has a pretty outdated design paradigm, its error messages may appear out of place and convoluting. If that's the case you may file an issue where you explain your confusion and I will try fixing said issue.

Otherwise, if the issue is of how the program itself performs, (i.e. an actual bug) be SURE that you attach the full log by running XAVA with XAVA_SCREAM=1 set in your environment.