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Visualizer

The Visualizer display panel by default takes up a large section of the Main Window, displaying the current Quartz Composition. Neutrino comes with a collection of custom compositions developed by MachineCodex, plus you can easily install third party compositions to play with.

The Display button in the Toolbar hides or shows the Visualizer pane.

When you play a movie, the Visualizer pane is replaced by the media playback window. To return to the Visualizer, simply begin playback of a non-movie track.

Visualizer Source group

The Visualizer Source group displays a list of installed Visualizers. Double clicking on the name of a visualizer loads it into the main window and begins the animation.

Visualizer Inspector

You can open the Visualizer Inspector from the Inspector button in the toolbar (Cmd-3).

Some compositions expose or publish some of their parameters so that other applications can make dynamic adjustments to their appearance. If a composition publishes any settings, they will be displayed in the Inspector.

You save and name the current settings as a preset using the Save button.
You can edit the current visualizer in Quartz Composer using the Edit button.
You can reload the current Visualizer after editing with the Reload button.
You can reset the current Visualizer to default settings using the Reset button.
You can add a Visualizer to the Neutrino Library using the Add To Library button.
You can grab a preview snapshot of the current Visualizer using the Snapshot button.

Visualizer Window

You can float the Visualizer in its own window by choosing View → Float Visualizer or Cmd-6. While the Visualizer is floating, it will not be displayed in the main Neutrino window.

The context menu (accessed by right/ctrl-clicking) on the Visualizer window gives access to some window options, and a hierarchical list of available Visualizers.

Global mode

When Global mode is switched on, as it is by default, the currently playing Visualizer will continue to display for all songs.
When Global mode is switched off, Visualizers will be saved (with all their parameter settings) along with the current track. Whenever this track is played, the saved Visualizer will begin playing.

Music Visualizer compositions

Some Quartz Compositions are audio-reactive via the default sound-input of your Mac, including several of the bundled Neutrino compositions.

Neutrino 1.3 added support for Apple's Music Visualizer protocol for Quartz Compositions. This allows Neutrino to communicate directly with compositions running within the Visualizer. For example, a composition can now react to sound data without monitoring the microphone input of your Mac, making it equally useful to people with headphones.

Music Visualizer Protocol support is for compositions conforming either loosely or strictly to the 'Music Visualizer' protocol as defined in Leopard. Loaded compositions can receive various data directly from Neutrino on a scheduled basis by implementing any or all of the predefined input keys specified the Music Visualizer protocol. Because only loose compliance is required, even compositions created on/for OSX 10.4.x (Tiger) can theoretically take advantage of this feature by simply adding the required input ports with the correct keyNames manually.

  • Compositions that implement the input key '_protocolInput_AudioSpectrum' are updated with spectral data derived from Neutrino's audio output stream, and are not dependent on a microphone for input.
  • Compositions that implement the input key '_protocolInput_AudioPeak' are updated with amplitude data derived from Neutrino's audio output stream, and are not dependent on a microphone for input.
  • Compositions that implement the input key '_protocolInput_TrackPosition' are updated with the current track position while the track plays.
  • Compositions that implement the input key '_protocolInput_TrackInfo' are updated with track metadata such as track name, artist, album, year and genre at the start of playback of each track.
  • Compositions that implement the input key '_protocolInput_TrackSignal' are sent a signal (boolean) value at the start of playback of each track.

Sonographica

Neutrino bundles a custom Visualizer, called Sonographica, which generates an adjustable sonogram of the playing audio stream in real time. This composition gives you an accurate visual rendering of the audio spectrum.

Notes

Note that Quartz compositions can place a heavy CPU/GPU burden on your Mac, particularly older G3 and G4 CPUs with low-end graphics cards. If performance is sluggish, or CPU utilization seems too high, stopping the composition by closing the Vizualizer pane will eliminate most of the CPU load. Closing the Visualizer window will remove the composition from memory and free up any memory and CPU resources it was consuming.

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