cava

Start the visualizer

$ cava

$ cava -p [path/to/file]

$ [<ArrowUp>|<ArrowDown>]

$ [<ArrowRight>|<ArrowLeft>]

$ <r>

$ <c>

$ [<f>|<b>]

$ <q>

cava [options]

-p, --config FILE
    Path to config file (default: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cava/config)

--client-id ID
    PulseAudio client identifier (default: cava)

--color FG,BG
    Foreground and background colors (default: white,black)

--colors N c1 … cN
    N bar colors from c1 to cN

--gradient COUNT r1 g1 b1 …
    Smooth gradient from specified RGB colors

--wave COUNT r1 g1 b1 …
    Smooth wave gradient colors

--fps-limit FPS
    Framerate cap (default: 60)

--framerate N
    Average updates per second (default: 60)

--samplerate RATE
    Audio sample rate (default: 44100)

--bits BITS
    Bits per sample (default: 16)

--raw
    Read raw PCM from stdin

--audio-system {alsa,pulse,null,file,fifo}
    Backend (default: pulse)

--driver DRIVER
    Specific driver (e.g., hw:0 for ALSA)

--mixer {none,MIXER}
    Mixer to control (default: none)

--alsa-dev DEVICE
    ALSA device (default: default)

--pulse-host HOST
    PulseAudio host (default: unix:nofail)

--fifo FILE
    FIFO/pipe path for output

--fifo-format FORMAT
    FIFO data format (default: 32bit float LE)

--input-file FILE
    Path to input audio file

--lows FREQ
    Low frequency border (default: 0)

--highs FREQ
    High frequency border (default: 20000)

--height LINES
    Display height in lines (default: 10)

--scale {linear,sqrt,log,cuberoot}
    Frequency scaling (default: sqrt)

--smoothing S
    Smoothing coefficient (0-1, default: 0.8)

CAVA (Console-based Audio Visualizer for ALSA and PulseAudio) displays audio spectrum as colored vertical bars in the terminal. It captures live audio via ALSA, PulseAudio, PipeWire, or FIFO input, supporting features like smoothing, logarithmic scaling, gradients, waves, and energy modes (e.g., Monstercat). Highly customizable through a config file or command-line options for bar dimensions, colors, framerate, frequency ranges, and more. Ideal for music players like ncmcpp, MPD, or tiling window managers with status bars. Cross-platform (Linux, BSD, macOS, Windows via MSYS2), lightweight, and dependency-minimal. Outputs to stdout for embedding or FIFO for external use like polybar/i3blocks. No GUI required, runs in any terminal emulator supporting 256/truecolor.

Requires terminal height >= --height and width for bars; audio group membership for capture; truecolor support for full gradients; high CPU on low-end hardware at max FPS.

Edit ~/.config/cava/config for [general], [smoothing], [colors], [bar], [gradient] sections. Supports %gradient, %wave presets.
Example: bar_width = 5

Enable output_fifo = /tmp/cava in config; read floats from FIFO for external bars (e.g., polybar script).
Format: 32-bit float LE per frequency bin.

Created in 2015 by Karl Jørgensen as a modern successor to conky's audio visualizer. Actively maintained on GitHub; v0.9+ added PipeWire, truecolor, energy modes. Widely used in ricing communities.

alsamixer(1), pacmd(1), ncmpcpp(1), mpd(1)