How Do I Freeze an Oscilloscope Display Without Stopping the Audio?
To freeze the picture while audio keeps playing, click the snowflake Toggle freeze display button in BeamTracer OSC-1. The trace holds until you resume it. While frozen, Step one frame forward admits one fresh display frame per click. Right-click the main display and choose Export Frame (PNG) to save the picture.
Hi, I'm Trina with BeamTracer.com. Freeze a changing figure when you want to study a crossing or a corner. The audio can carry on while you look.
The snowflake holds the picture, then releases it. These clips are silent; the source continues generating audio in the app.
How do I freeze the oscilloscope picture?
Use the snowflake in the bottom transport, FREEZE in the transform controls, or Freeze Display in the canvas's right-click menu. These operate the same display hold. They leave the audio source running, so you can inspect a figure without stopping the sound.
- Open OSC-1 and start a track or generator.
- Click the snowflake Toggle freeze display button in the bottom transport.
- Inspect the held trace while the source keeps playing.
- Click Step one frame forward to replace the held trace with a fresh frame.
- Right-click the main XY display and choose Export Frame (PNG) to download the displayed picture.
Click the snowflake again when you want continuous updates. You can also use Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P for the display hold. Click the app canvas first so the page has keyboard focus. The OSC-1 interface guide covers the transport and right-click actions.
What changes when I click frame step?
Step one frame forward lets the frozen display update once, then holds the new picture. The button is available after you freeze the display. Each click samples the running source again.
Four separate clicks on the frame-step button, followed by a return to continuous display updates. Expand the clip and watch the top tip of the trace: each individual update is small.
This is useful for comparing successive observations of a live input or generator. Frames that pass between clicks are not stored for later inspection. If the source has continued for two seconds between clicks, the next observation comes from that running source.
How can I recreate the changing figure in these demos?
The examples use the native Complex 3:4 Lissajous generator in CREATOR, with FREQ X 3, FREQ Y 4, AMP X 0.60 and AMP Y 0.60. The preset supplies PHASE Y 45° and SPEED 0.50x. Select VECTOR DISPLAY under SCOPE PRESETS for the green trace, then enable BEAM EFFECTS → ROTATE with Speed 0.35. The rotation makes the hold and each new observation easier to see.
Continuous display updates with ROTATE Speed 0.35. No display hold is active.
Choose the preset under GENERATORS → LISSAJOUS to start it. If you have stopped the generator, press GENERATE again. You do not need a microphone or physical oscilloscope to follow this lesson. For the channel and frequency relationship, see the Lissajous guide.
Does Freeze stop all the meters too?
Freeze holds the XY, SWEEP, SCOPE, SPECTRUM and WAVE traces together. VU keeps metering the source. That helps distinguish a held display from stopped audio.
Use the transport's playback controls when you want to stop or pause the source itself. Freezing is only a display operation; it does not change a song's timing or turn a live generator into a paused audio file.
How do I save the frozen figure?
Right-click the main XY display and select Export Frame (PNG). The PNG saves the displayed picture for a slide, a reference image or a comparison with another frame.
The native PNG action, using the held display.
The actual PNG download contains the trace without the surrounding app controls; this page shows a compressed WebP copy.
A PNG is a still image. It does not contain the sound, editable strokes or a laser animation. To save moving output with its audio, follow recording an oscilloscope video. For an editable original drawing, use SAVE DRAWING instead.
Hold a figure long enough to see how it is drawn.
Open OSC-1