Visualizers

Visualizers

Astra includes seven real-time visualizers, called scopes, in the analyzer rack at the top of the main window. Each scope shows a different part of the signal: frequency balance, waveform shape, stereo width, loudness, or change over time.

The scopes are for both listening and inspection. You do not need audio-engineering experience to use them, and none of their display settings change how your music sounds.

The Analyzer Rack

Click EDIT on the left side of the analyzer rack to customize it.

While editing, you can:

• Hover over a scope to show its controls.
• Click a scope to keep its controls pinned.
• Drag scopes to reorder them.
• Drag the divider between scopes to change their relative widths.
• Drag a scope into the stash to hide it, or drag a stashed scope back into the rack.
• Drag the bottom edge of the rack to change its height. Double-click the resize handle to restore the default height.
• Save the layout and scope settings as a profile.

Each visible scope also has a pop-out button. A popped-out scope moves into its own window; use Recall in the analyzer rack to return it to the main window.

The master visualizer switch is under Settings > Analyzer. Turning it off pauses the analyzer to reduce background work without changing the rack layout.

Choosing a Scope

Scope	What it shows	Useful when you want to see
Spectrum	The strength of frequencies from bass to treble	Tonal balance, bass energy, harmonics, and changes across the frequency range
Oscilloscope	A short, rapidly updating view of the waveform	Waveform shape, transients, clipping, and repeating tones
Vectorscope	The relationship between the left and right channels	Stereo width, channel balance, and possible phase problems
Spectrogram	A scrolling history of frequency content	How frequencies appear, move, and decay over time
VU Meter	A slower, program-level view of signal level	Musical dynamics and the average movement of the left and right channels
LUFS Meter	Perceived loudness rather than raw peak level	How loud the current material feels and how it compares with a loudness target
Waveform	A continuously scrolling waveform history	The shape and relative level of the signal as the track progresses

Spectrum

The Spectrum scope places low frequencies on the left and high frequencies on the right. Tall or bright areas indicate stronger energy in that part of the frequency range.

Spectrum Settings

Setting	What it changes
Display	Curve draws a continuous frequency shape. Bars divides the spectrum into separate columns.
FFT	Controls frequency detail and processing cost. 1024 is light and responsive but shows less detail. 16384 shows the finest detail but is the heaviest option. The middle values balance the two.
Heat	Adds a heatmap behind the live spectrum so recent frequency activity remains visible.
Side	Shows a second curve for side information, making stereo-only content easier to distinguish. Available in Curve mode.
Heat Palette	Classic uses a traditional heat scale. Accent builds the heatmap around Astra's current accent color.
Density	Changes how many bars are drawn in Bars mode. Higher density produces more, narrower bars.
Gap	Changes the space between bars. This is visual only.
Radius	Rounds the corners of bars. This is visual only.
Peaks	Leaves short peak markers above the bars so recent maximum levels are easier to follow.
Tilt	Visually compensates for the natural downward slope of many music spectra. Raising it makes higher frequencies more prominent in the display. It does not apply EQ.
Heat Tilt	Applies the same kind of visual compensation to the heatmap independently of the live spectrum.
Smoothing	Higher values make the live spectrum steadier but slower to react. Lower values make it more immediate and more restless.
Heat Smoothing	Controls how quickly the heatmap responds and settles without changing the live curve or bars.

Double-click a Spectrum slider to restore that setting's default value.

Oscilloscope

The Oscilloscope draws the waveform from a short window of the current signal. Unlike the scrolling Waveform scope, it is designed to make the immediate shape of the signal easy to inspect.

Oscilloscope Settings

Setting	What it changes
Pitch	When enabled, Astra attempts to align repeating cycles so tonal sounds appear stable instead of sliding across the scope. Disable it for a free-running view, which can be more natural for drums, noise, or irregular material.
Fill	Fills the area beneath the waveform. This changes the presentation only.

Pitch lock works best when the signal has a clear repeating pitch. A busy mix or a sound without a stable pitch may still move around even when it is enabled.

Vectorscope

The Vectorscope compares the left and right channels. A narrow, centered pattern usually means the channels are similar; a wider pattern indicates more stereo difference. In bipolar modes, strong activity on the opposite-phase side can warn that part of the mix may weaken when played in mono.

Vectorscope Modes

Mode	What it emphasizes
Lissajous	A traditional direct plot of left against right. It is useful for seeing channel relationships and repeating stereo shapes without converting the display to mid/side form.
Polar (Uni)	A compact, semicircular mid/side view focused on the positive, in-phase half of the signal. Its radial scaling makes quieter stereo detail easier to see.
Polar (Bi)	The full circular Polar view, including the opposite-phase half of the signal.
Linear (Uni)	A triangular mid/side view of the positive, in-phase half of the signal, with amplitude shown linearly.
Linear (Bi)	The full diamond-shaped Linear view, including the opposite-phase half of the signal.

Enable RGB to separate the display into colored frequency bands. This makes it easier to see whether the bass, midrange, or treble is responsible for a stereo pattern.

Spectrogram

The Spectrogram adds time to a frequency display. New frequency information enters from one edge and older information moves across the scope, leaving a history of tones, percussion, harmonics, and decays.

Spectrogram Settings

Setting	What it changes
FFT	Uses the same detail-versus-performance tradeoff as the Spectrum. Lower values are lighter and more responsive; higher values separate nearby frequencies more clearly.
Scale	Log gives a familiar musical distribution across octaves. Mel uses a perceptual scale that follows how frequency spacing is commonly heard. Linear gives equal space to equal frequency ranges, which compresses the bass and devotes more room to the upper frequencies.
Mode	Classic is the smoothest presentation. Sharp increases separation between details. Sharper gives the strongest definition but can make fine texture look busier.
Orient	Chooses whether the history scrolls horizontally or vertically.
Speed	Controls how quickly history moves through the scope. A slower speed keeps more time visible; a faster speed makes short changes easier to follow.
Tilt	Visually raises or lowers frequency regions to produce a more balanced heat display. It does not change the audio.
Contrast	Higher contrast separates strong and weak energy more aggressively. Lower contrast preserves more subtle shading.

Double-click the Tilt or Contrast slider to restore its default value.

VU Meter

The VU Meter reacts more slowly than a peak meter. It is intended to show the general program level and musical movement rather than every brief transient.

Choose Bar for a compact left/right display or Needle for a traditional analog-style meter. Bar mode can be horizontal or vertical; Needle mode chooses its own layout.

The scale is calibrated so 0 VU corresponds to approximately -14 dBFS. Brief movement above 0 VU is not automatically clipping; use the peak indications and other meters when checking digital headroom.

LUFS Meter

The LUFS Meter estimates perceived loudness. This is different from measuring the highest sample peak: two tracks can peak at the same level while one sounds substantially louder.

The main LUFS bar shows short-term loudness, while the narrow left and right bars provide faster signal and peak activity. The reference line marks -14 LUFS, a common streaming-oriented comparison point. It is a reference, not a rule that your music must follow.

The LUFS Meter currently has no extra controls in the scope editor.

Waveform

The Waveform scope draws a continuous history of the signal. It is useful for seeing changes in density, dynamics, and channel shape over a longer span than the Oscilloscope.

Waveform Settings

Setting	What it changes
Mono / Stereo	Mono combines the signal into one trace. Stereo separates the left and right channels.
RGB	Colors low, middle, and high frequency contributions separately.
Gain	Changes the visual size of the waveform. It does not change playback volume. Raise it for quiet-looking material; lower it if the trace fills the scope.
Speed	Controls how quickly the waveform moves. Lower values retain more history; higher values emphasize recent changes.

Double-click the Gain slider to restore 0 dB.

Profiles

Analyzer profiles save all of the following together:

• Which scopes are visible or stashed
• Scope order and relative width
• The settings for each scope

Built-in profiles can be selected and modified, but cannot be overwritten. Use Save As to create your own version. User profiles can be saved, reverted, or deleted from the editor.

The Edited badge means the current rack differs from the selected profile. Choose Save to update a user profile or Revert to discard the unsaved changes.

Performance and Troubleshooting

If the analyzer makes Astra feel heavy:

1. Reduce the FFT size used by Spectrum and Spectrogram.
2. Stash scopes you do not currently need.
3. Reduce the analyzer rack size.
4. Turn off the visualizer under Settings > Analyzer when you want it fully paused.

If a scope displays Native DSP unavailable, the native analysis module is missing or failed to load. Reinstalling an official Astra build usually restores it. Community package maintainers need to include Astra's native module for the complete analyzer to be available.

If a scope is missing from the rack, open EDIT and check the stash before resetting analyzer settings.