Aether Audio Visualizer

Aether is a real-time audio visualizer written in Python that recreates the look and motion of the classic Windows 7 Media Player visualizations, wrapped in a clean modern interface.

It includes a full set of presets inspired by the old WMP collections—Bars (with peak caps), Scope, Ocean Mist, Fire Storm, Alchemy, Battery, Prism, Bloom, Spectrum, Tide, and more—each with its own palette and animation style. Alchemy uses a feedback warp with particles and geometry in the style of the classic Geiss visualizer. The analysis is done with a Hann-windowed FFT, log-spaced frequency bands, and classic analyzer ballistics (fast attack, slower decay, falling peak caps), so the motion feels responsive and familiar.

The UI is deliberately quiet: a dark canvas, a HUD that fades when you stop moving the mouse, simple B/M/T meters, and easy fullscreen. Audio sources are flexible—you can play local files (WAV, FLAC, OGG, MP3, M4A), use the microphone, or tap system output and individual running applications (Spotify, browser tabs, media players, etc.) via PipeWire/PulseAudio monitors. It also includes a built-in demo track so you can try every preset immediately.

Dependencies (targeted at CachyOS/Arch):

• Core: python, python-pygame, python-numpy

• Audio decoding: python-soundfile, python-pydub, ffmpeg

• System audio / mic capture: libpulse, pulse-native-utils (for pactl/parec); optional python-sounddevice as a mic fallback

• File picker: tk

File playback only needs pygame + numpy + a decoder. Microphone and application-tap support are optional. Playback uses PipeWire/PulseAudio (pipewire-pulse).

Written primarily for CachyOS/Arch Linux with Pygame and NumPy, Aether is a small, self-contained project that brings the nostalgic energy of Windows 7 Media Player visualizations into a lightweight desktop tool.