Galaxy
Galaxy is a space-themed audio-reactive scene in BeamTracer Audio Visualizers, built on WebGPU. Settings, audio modulation, presets, and tips.
Galaxy is a space-themed audio-reactive scene in the Space category. Open it from the left visualizer list, start an audio source, and use the settings panel to shape its response.
Open Galaxy
Launch the visualizer with its matching left-nav entry selected.
Interesting facts
Spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way are vast, slowly rotating disks of stars, gas, and dust bound together by gravity — and, evidence suggests, by far more invisible mass than visible mass. BeamTracer's particle-simulation galaxy is a stylized, audio-reactive rendition built for adjustable arm count, tightness, and density, not a physical simulation of stellar dynamics.
- A single spiral galaxy can hold hundreds of billions of stars. Estimates for the Milky Way alone range from about 100 billion to 400 billion stars spread across a disk over 100,000 light-years wide.
- Spiral arms are traffic jams, not fixed structures. The prevailing explanation treats arms as regions of compression that move through the disk, temporarily slowing and bunching up stars and gas — which is why the arms stay bright with young, newly formed stars even though individual stars pass in and out of them.
- A supermassive black hole anchors the center. The Milky Way's core hosts Sagittarius A*, a black hole with roughly four million times the Sun's mass, discovered largely through tracking the orbits of stars whipping around the galactic center.
- Rotation speeds are the strongest evidence for dark matter. Stars far from a spiral galaxy's center orbit almost as fast as stars near the middle, which shouldn't happen if only visible matter were present — the mismatch is one of the main reasons astronomers think galaxies are embedded in massive halos of unseen matter.
- Galaxies are sorted by shape. Edwin Hubble's classification scheme, still used today, arranges galaxies from round ellipticals through progressively looser spirals and barred spirals, with tightly wound arms and larger central bulges at one end and loosely wound arms at the other.
These details are summarized from NASA's guide to the Milky Way galaxy, NASA's explainer on the center of our galaxy, and NASA Hubble's dark matter overview.
Quick start
- Start the demo track, choose a local audio file, or enable a live input.
- Try a preset or style first, then open the section for the part of the image you want to change.
- On a control with Assign modulation, open the source picker, choose a signal, and watch the slider's live fill.
- Use Reset to Defaults whenever you want to return to the original look.
Presets and styles
Default · Dense Spiral · Loose Nebula · Red Giant · Emerald · Ultra Dense · Chromatic Storm · Living Spiral · Psychedelic
Audio modulation
On a control with Assign modulation, select the activity icon to open Modulate with. Choose a named source, or choose — None to leave the control unmodulated. After you assign one, its name appears below the slider; select that name to edit the route, or use Clear modulation to remove it. The slider track shows the live signal reaching the control.
| Modulated control | Section | What the route changes |
|---|---|---|
| Rotation Speed | Structure | Sets how quickly rotation changes or moves. |
| Spiral Tightness | Structure | Controls spiral tightness; higher values increase the effect and lower values reduce it. |
| Arm Count | Structure | Sets the resting number of spiral arms. An assigned source steps the live structure through whole arm counts, up to four. |
| Arm Width | Structure | Sets the visible arm width. |
| Randomness | Structure | Sets how irregular or unpredictable the randomness appears. |
| Radius | Structure | Sets the visible radius. |
| Thickness | Structure | Sets the visible thickness. |
| Star Size | Appearance | Sets the visible star size. |
| Brightness | Appearance | Sets the visible strength of brightness. |
| Hue Shift | Appearance | Moves the color around the color spectrum. |
| Opacity | Clouds | Sets the overall transparency. |
| Strength | Bloom | Sets the visible strength of strength. |
| Radius | Bloom | Sets the visible radius. |
Settings reference
Core
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Star Count | 50000–1000000 | Sets how many visible elements are drawn. |
Structure
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Rotation Speed | 0–2 | Sets how quickly rotation changes or moves. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Spiral Tightness | 0–10 | Controls spiral tightness; higher values increase the effect and lower values reduce it. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Arm Count | 1–4 | Sets the resting number of spiral arms. An assigned source steps the live structure through whole arm counts, up to four. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Arm Width | 1–5 | Sets the visible arm width. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Randomness | 0–5 | Sets how irregular or unpredictable the randomness appears. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Radius | 5–20 | Sets the visible radius. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Thickness | 0.1–10 | Sets the visible thickness. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
Appearance
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Star Size | 0.01–0.5 | Sets the visible star size. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Brightness | 0–2 | Sets the visible strength of brightness. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Dense Star Color | Color | Sets the dense star color. |
| Sparse Star Color | Color | Sets the sparse star color. |
| Hue Shift | 0–1 | Moves the color around the color spectrum. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Hue Animation | On / Off | Turns hue animation on or off. |
| Hue Speed | 0.01–1 | Sets how quickly hue changes or moves. |
Clouds
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Count | 0–50000 | Sets how many visible elements are drawn. |
| Size | 0.5–10 | Sets the visible size. |
| Opacity | 0–1 | Sets the overall transparency. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Tint Color | Color | Sets the tint color. |
Bloom
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | 0–3 | Sets the visible strength of strength. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Radius | 0–1 | Sets the visible radius. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Threshold | 0–1 | Sets the level that must be crossed before threshold appears. |
Interaction
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Mouse Interaction | On / Off | Turns mouse interaction on or off. |
| Force | 0–10 | Controls force; higher values increase the effect and lower values reduce it. |
| Radius | 1–15 | Sets the visible radius. |
Audio
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Master Gain | 0x–3x | Sets how strongly the input signal affects master. |
| Bass Intensity | 0x–3x | Sets the visible bass intensity. |
| Mid Intensity | 0x–3x | Sets the visible mid intensity. |
| High Intensity | 0x–3x | Sets the visible high intensity. |
| Smoothing | 0–0.99 | Balances immediate audio response against steadier motion. |
Some controls appear only after you enable a related mode or style. The settings panel always reflects the options available for the current selection.
Tips for a better audio visualization
- Use bass for the largest orbital or camera motion and highs for stars, sparks, or glow accents.
- Try assigning Bass to Rotation Speed, then compare Mid, High, and Volume while the demo track plays. The slider's live fill shows the signal reaching that control.