Cava – terminal and desktop audio visualiser

Cava is an audio spectrum visualiser that generates animated frequency bars in response to music and other sounds. It can operate within a terminal or use graphical output, making it suitable for desktop customisation and music-related visual effects.

The application focuses on producing responsive, attractive visualisations rather than performing scientific measurements. Its output reflects the frequency distribution and changing intensity of audio, providing a visual accompaniment to music playback.

Cava is highly configurable. Users can customise the number and appearance of frequency bars, select audio capture sources and integrate the visualisation into other applications or display environments.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Real-time bar spectrum visualisation of music and other audio signals.
• Terminal displays using ncurses or direct terminal rendering.
• Graphical output through SDL and OpenGL shader rendering.
• Capture audio from PipeWire, PulseAudio, ALSA, JACK and other supported sources.
• Read audio data from named pipes for integration with music players.
• Configurable number of bars, bar width, spacing and sensitivity.
• Customisable frequency range and frequency distribution.
• Adjustable smoothing, gravity and noise reduction.
• Choose foreground and background colours, including gradient effects.
• Mono and stereo visualisations with different orientations.
• OpenGL shader effects including circular and spectrogram-style visualisations.
• Raw spectrum output for integration with external software and hardware displays.
• Interactive keyboard controls for adjusting the visualisation.
• Cross-platform support – runs on Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, and Windows.

Website: github.com/karlstav/cava
Support:
Developer: Karl Stavestrand and contributors
License: MIT License

cava is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

Related Software

Read our verdict in the software roundup.

Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category. The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form.