cava

Start audio visualizer

$ cava

$ cava -p [/path/to/config]

$ cava -v

cava [options]

cava (Console Audio Visualizer for ALSA) is a bar spectrum audio visualizer that displays real-time frequency analysis as animated bars in the terminal or on the desktop. It captures audio from the system and renders it as a colorful equalizer-style display.
The visualizer supports multiple audio backends including ALSA, PulseAudio, PipeWire, JACK, sndio, and PortAudio. Output can be rendered through ncurses for terminal display, SDL for a desktop window, or raw data for piping to other programs. All visual and audio settings are controlled through a configuration file.

-p path

Path to configuration file

Print version

~/.config/cava/config

Controls bar width, spacing, colors, gradients, audio source, sensitivity, smoothing, and output mode.

q / Ctrl+C

Quit

Reload configuration

- PulseAudio
- PipeWire
- ALSA
- JACK
- sndio
- PortAudio
- FIFO buffer

SIGUSR1

Force config reload

Requires audio capture permissions. Different audio backends need corresponding dev libraries. Works best with music playback.

alsamixer(1), pavucontrol(1)