A visualizer for the record on your turntable.

A record on a turntable never passes through your Mac, so a visualizer that reads the Mac's own audio has nothing to read. LIQUIDWAVE has a second source for that. Listen Mode hears the room through a microphone tuned for it and draws the music live, in forty scenes. A record, a cassette deck, a radio or a guitar across the room all come in the same way.

How Listen Mode hears a record

Switch the source at the bottom of the window from System to Listen, or choose Listen Mode — Microphone from the menu bar icon (⇧⌘2). LIQUIDWAVE listens to your Mac's default input: the built-in microphone, or an audio interface if you have chosen one as the input in System Settings → Sound.

The first time, macOS asks for microphone access, unless you already allowed it with Enable Microphone in the welcome tour. The sound is analyzed on your Mac as it arrives. Nothing is recorded, nothing is uploaded, and there is no account.

To start in Listen every time, set Launch source to Listen Mode in Settings → General.

Tuned for a room

A laptop microphone in a living room hears more than the record. Listen Mode runs everything it picks up through a short chain before the analysis sees it:

• A 30 Hz low cut takes out turntable rumble and the lowest boom of the room. It sits below the body of a kick drum, so the bass still lands.
• A noise gate that learns the room. It keeps track of the steady noise around the Mac, a fan or distant traffic, and opens only when something clearly rises above it. While the gate is shut, the analysis receives silence rather than the room.
• Automatic gain brings a quiet source up toward a steady level, up to 24 times, and allows twice that when the input stays quiet, so a record playing softly still drives the scene. It follows the average level rather than the peaks, so a kick or a snare still stands out for the beat detection.
• A soft limiter rounds off a sudden loud moment while the gain catches up.

After that, the sound gets the same analysis as system audio: seven frequency bands, the beats as they land, and the tempo.

Mic sensitivity

If the picture reacts to the room between songs, or misses a record played quietly, move Mic sensitivity in Settings → General. It starts in the middle. Low ignores all but loud playback. High picks up quiet sources, but may react to ambient room noise. On the Mac, the slider moves the gate and leaves the gain alone.

When the record stops

At the end of a side, the gate settles on the quiet room within a fraction of a second and closes, and the scene comes to rest. When the needle drops again, it opens.

A still picture there is deliberate. Ambient Auto, the generated score that keeps the scenes moving when nothing is playing, runs only while no source is on. It never plays over a microphone that is listening, so a quiet room reads as quiet. Choose Ambient in the source switch when you want the scenes to keep moving between records.

Beyond the window

Listen Mode feeds every place LIQUIDWAVE draws. Desktop Mode plays the record behind your desktop icons while you work. When you're away fills every screen once the Mac has been left alone, and with Only while audio is playing turned on, it waits until the microphone has heard something.

What it doesn't do

It hears the room, not only the record. A microphone can't tell a record from a conversation beside it. The gate keeps steady background noise out, but anything loud enough near the Mac moves the picture too.

It doesn't know what's playing. The Now Playing island reads music apps and browser tabs, so a record gets no title and no cover.

It doesn't change what you hear. Listen Mode only listens. Nothing it picks up is played back through the Mac, so the chain above shapes what the visualizer reads, not the sound in the room.

Set it up

1. Download LIQUIDWAVE and open it.
2. Switch the source to Listen and allow microphone access when macOS asks.
3. Drop the needle. If the scene stays still while the record plays, raise Mic sensitivity in Settings → General.

If you declined the microphone prompt, allow LIQUIDWAVE under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone, then switch to Listen again.