prism/README.md

A free, open-source audio visualizer and meter rack for your desktop and your DAW.

Prism taps into your system audio and runs it through a rack of real-time scopes and meters. It grew out of the visualization engine in Astra, rebuilt as a standalone tool. Whether you're mixing a track, tuning a room, or just like watching your music, Prism gives you a window into what you're hearing.

Scopes

Seven visualizers driven by a native C++ analysis engine:

• Spectrum Analyzer — FFT frequency display with heatmap and fill modes, configurable FFT size, spectral tilt, and log or linear scaling
• Oscilloscope — Time-domain waveform with a pitch-lock mode that syncs the display to the fundamental frequency
• Vectorscope — Stereo phase visualization in five display modes (Lissajous, polar, linear) with optional multiband RGB split
• Spectrogram — Scrolling frequency-over-time display with mel, log, and linear scale modes
• VU Meter — Classic loudness metering in needle or bar style, horizontal or vertical
• Loudness Meter — Compact LUFS metering following ITU-R BS.1770 with fast stereo peak activity
• Waveform — Scrolling time-domain view with mono, stereo, and multiband modes

Every scope is independently configurable. Drag and resize them into whatever layout makes sense, pop any scope out into its own window, and pin windows on top so they stay visible while you work.

DAW Plugins

Every Prism scope also ships as a DAW plugin. Drop a Spectrum, Oscilloscope, Vectorscope, Spectrogram, VU Meter, Loudness Meter, or Waveform onto any track and it analyzes that track's audio in real time, the same analysis engine and the same interface as the desktop app.

• VST3 on Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus AU on macOS.
• Each instance is fully configurable, and its settings save with your project.
• Plugins follow your active Prism theme and profile, so they match the desktop app out of the box.
• Audio passes through untouched. No DSP runs on the realtime audio thread.

Tested in Ableton Live, FL Studio, and Reaper. The plugins install alongside the desktop app, so there's no separate download.

Audio Capture

Prism pulls audio at the OS level, straight from CoreAudio on macOS, WASAPI on Windows, or PulseAudio on Linux. No virtual cables or routing hacks. Flip on device input mode when you want to analyze a mic or a line-in instead.

Capture-to-display latency measures under 8ms. When tested at 120fps, measured latency was 0ms. What you see is what you hear.

Terminal UI

Installable Prism packages also provide prism-tui, a native terminal frontend for the shared C++ capture and analysis engine. It shows a responsive spectrum, stereo VU meters, and momentary, short-term, and integrated LUFS readings. The dashboard uses a 4096-point FFT by default and automatically switches between stacked and column layouts as the terminal is resized.

prism-tui                    # Capture the default system output
prism-tui --list-devices     # Print output device IDs; no TTY required
prism-tui --device <id>      # Capture a specific output device
prism-tui --help
prism-tui --version

Press Tab or Shift-Tab to focus a panel, Enter to expand or restore it, and l to cycle automatic, stacked, and column layouts. Number keys 1 and 2 focus Spectrum and Levels. Press r to reset the analyzers and integrated loudness, or q, Escape, or Ctrl-C to quit. Interactive mode requires a terminal of at least 44 by 12 cells. Quote a device ID if it contains spaces. Successful help, version, listing, and interactive exits return 0; usage errors return 2; capture and runtime failures return 1.

The v0 TUI captures system output only. Microphone/device-input capture, Prism profiles and themes, file/stdin analysis, and the other visualizers remain GUI features for now. CoreAudio process tapping requires macOS 14.2 or newer.

Profiles

Save the whole rack as a profile. What's visible, how it's laid out, per-scope settings, popout window positions as a .prsm file. Keep separate profiles for different workflows and share them with others.

Themes

The whole interface is themeable through editable .iro files. Themes control everything, build your own in an editor and drop it into the Prism Themes folder, or download one from the community.

Prism also includes Chroma key friendly themes by default, so you can key out your scopes in OBS and drop them directly into your stream as transparent overlays.

Download

Prebuilt binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux are available on the Releases page.

Building from Source

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, npm, CMake 3.22+, and a C++ compiler toolchain.

Platform	Toolchain
macOS	Xcode Command Line Tools
Windows	Visual Studio Build Tools
Linux	build-essential, python3, libasound2-dev, libpulse-dev, libgtk-3-dev, libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev

git clone https://github.com/Boof2015/prism.git
cd prism
npm install

The postinstall script compiles the native C++ module for your platform.

npm run dev              # Development
npm run build            # Build application assets
npm run configure:tui    # Configure the standalone CMake project
npm run build:tui        # Build prism-tui into tui/build/bin
npm run test:tui         # Build and run native TUI tests
npm run dist             # Package for current platform, including prism-tui
npm run dist:mac         # macOS (PKG + ZIP)
npm run dist:win         # Windows (NSIS + Portable)
npm run dist:linux       # Linux (AppImage + DEB + RPM + tar.gz)

The TUI build downloads the pinned FTXUI 7.0.1 source through CMake. On Linux it also requires the PulseAudio development package (libpulse-dev on Debian and Ubuntu). The executable is at tui/build/bin/prism-tui on macOS/Linux and typically tui/build/bin/Release/prism-tui.exe with a multi-config Windows generator.

The macOS PKG links prism-tui into /usr/local/bin, the Windows NSIS installer adds Prism's TUI resource directory to the machine PATH, and Linux .deb and .rpm packages link it into /usr/bin. Uninstallers remove only the Prism-owned PATH entry or link. ZIP, portable Windows, and Linux tar.gz archives may carry the executable under the app's resources but do not modify PATH.

Linux .deb and .rpm releases also install the seven Prism VST3 plugins to /usr/lib/vst3. The Linux tar.gz release includes a resources/plugins/install-vst3.sh helper that installs them to $HOME/.vst3 by default. The AppImage remains GUI-only: it carries neither installable DAW plugin resources nor prism-tui. DAWs commonly scan $HOME/.vst3, /usr/lib/vst3, and /usr/local/lib/vst3.

The DAW plugins build with CMake from the plugin/ directory. See plugin/README.md for the per-platform build and install steps.

Astra Integration

If you use Astra, Prism can connect to its local API to show what's playing, cover art, track info, and playback controls, alongside your scopes.

Support

If you find Prism useful and want to support a broke college student, consider supporting development:

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for the full text. Third-party license notices, including FTXUI's MIT license, are recorded in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

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