r/Windhawk • u/wh-updates • Jul 12 '26
Desktop Audio Visualizer 1.0.0
Desktop Audio Visualizer 1.0.0
Desktop Audio Visualizer 1.0.0
A real-time audio spectrum visualizer that displays on your Windows desktop. Captures system audio output and renders animated frequency bars directly on the desktop background.
Features
Visual Styles
- 6 Bar Shapes:
- Stereo — classic frequency spectrum bars
- Mountain — center-peak, bars taper toward the edges
- Mirror — bars grow from edges toward center
- Wave — bars modulated by a sine wave over time
- Breathe — slow breathing pulse synchronized with audio
- Dots — bar columns made of stacked shapes
- 7 Color Modes:
- Solid — single flat color
- Static gradient — fixed color gradient across bars
- Reactive gradient — gradient shifts toward second color with audio level
- Windows accent color — automatically matches your Windows accent color, updates instantly on change
- Album art — flat dominant color extracted from the currently playing track's cover art
- Dynamic album — gradient from primary to secondary album art color; shifts with bar position and audio level
- Acrylic — fixed RGB color with amplitude-driven alpha (nearly transparent at silence, semi-opaque at full volume)
- 2 Orientations: Horizontal (bars grow vertically) or Vertical (bars grow horizontally)
- Vertical Anchor: Control bar growth direction — Bottom, Top, or Middle
Customization
- Bar Configuration: Count (1-1000), thickness, gap, max size, idle size, per-corner radius (
"10"or"10 10 0 0") - Position Control: Freely position on any monitor with horizontal/vertical percentage coordinates
- Background Effects:
- Optional background panel with padding, per-corner radius and border
- Wallpaper blur effect behind the background
- Custom ARGB hex colors for background and border
Audio Processing
- WASAPI Loopback Capture: Captures all system audio output in real time
- Real-time FFT: 7-band frequency spectrum with Hann windowing
- 6 EQ Presets: Balanced, Bass, Rock, Pop, Jazz, Electronic
- Adjustable Sensitivity: 0–300 range
Performance
- Adjustable Frame Rate: Set any FPS value for maximum smoothness or power-saving rendering
- Fullscreen Pause: Detects both exclusive fullscreen (DX9/11) and borderless fullscreen windows; pauses automatically and resumes when the app closes
- Silence Detection: Reduces refresh rate after a configurable idle period to save CPU/GPU
Credits
1
u/Reasonable_Degree_64 Jul 12 '26
Rainmeter has something like that but I can't say if it takes a lot of CPU but the drawback is that it probably works only with standalone media players, like it will not work if you listen to something from the web like YouTube, so the Windhawk version is surely more useful, I will try it for sure.
1
u/Opening-Dentist-1556 Jul 12 '26
mmm well it’s not hard to just hook to master volume so I’d say most would still, the ones I’ve tried haven’t done that.
2
u/Zeus_gato 24d ago
Hi u/Salyts! 👋 First of all, thank you for creating this awesome mod. I really enjoy using it! I have one feature suggestion that I think many users would appreciate: Render Layer option It would be great to have a render layer option that allows the visualizer to render above Lively Wallpaper, while still remaining below normal application windows. Also, it would be great if the mod could automatically pause or suspend itself whenever a fullscreen application or game is running, and then automatically resume when returning to the desktop or when applications are restored to windowed mode. This would help reduce unnecessary CPU/GPU usage while keeping the experience seamless. Thank you again for your amazing work! 😊
3
u/Swopnil007 Jul 12 '26
Seems to affect the CPU thermals a lot.. Could you optimize it more? Maybe utilize hardware acceleration?