Keyboard Shortcuts
All keyboard shortcuts for the Audio Visualizers app.
Most shortcuts use Ctrl+ modifiers per the BeamTracer shortcut convention; the Viz app keeps a few bare-key shortcuts for distinct performance tools. Wherever a shortcut shows Ctrl/Cmd, press Ctrl on Windows and Linux or Cmd on Mac. Settings → Shortcuts only shows the bindings active in the current Visualizer, Performer or Studio mode.
Shortcuts pause while a text field is focused or a dialog (such as Settings or visualizer search) is open; Esc still closes the dialog. Bare keys also ignore a press that includes Ctrl, Cmd, Alt or Shift.
Transport
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Space | Play / Pause |
← / → | Seek audio back / forward 5 seconds |
Ctrl/Cmd+M | Mute / Unmute audio |
Space keeps playing and pausing after you click a preset, button or slider in the settings panel. A control you reach with Tab still uses Space to press it.
When the mini player's Audio position bar has keyboard focus, all four arrow keys seek by five seconds, Page Up / Page Down seek by fifty seconds, and Home / End jump to the start or end. These keys operate the focused bar while a seekable track is loaded.
Edit History
The undo and redo buttons in the global header stay disabled until an action is available, then name what will happen next.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl/Cmd+Z | Undo the most recent edit |
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z | Redo |
Ctrl/Cmd+Y | Redo (alias) |
Visualizer settings, layers, modulation mappings, presets, app settings, and Performer edits share one history. A continuous slider drag counts as one step. Playback position, live meters, and animation movement are not edits and do not fill the history. While a text field is focused, browser text undo remains active.
GIF Matrix's ARCADE core takes over the arrow keys while it's the active core: ←/→/↑/↓ drive that game's character directly instead of seeking audio. Release the keys and both the game's auto-play AI and the global seek shortcut resume normally. See GIF Matrix.
Visualizers (Visualizer mode)
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
[ | Previous visualizer |
] | Next visualizer |
v | Toggle Visualizer Dock |
b | Toggle Visualizer Bar |
t | Tap tempo — three or more taps lock an override on the shared BPM readout (footer and Analysis Engine). Also works in Performer mode. B toggles the Visualizer Bar, not tempo. |
[, ], v and b are Visualizer mode only. Turning on the Visualizer Bar with b also closes the Visualizer Dock.
Performer
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
f | Toggle Performer fullscreen |
, | Previous preset |
. | Next preset |
[ | Previous visualizer |
] | Next visualizer |
1–9, 0 | Recall FX look 1–9 and look 10; press the lit look's number again to turn it off |
Preset stepping follows the order the preset grid currently shows (including your sort or custom order). , , . , and Space also work while the detached controls window has focus, so you can drive the show from either window. f works in the main window only. f and the preset keys pause while a text field is focused.
The clean Performer companion window (/viz/performer-output) has its own f to toggle fullscreen and Esc to leave it.
You can also give any Performer control a key of your own with MIDI Learn: press a letter, number or symbol key instead of moving a knob. Keys these shortcuts already use can't be learned. See MIDI & OSC Integration.
View / Panels
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl/Cmd+F | Toggle Fullscreen (Visualizer and Performer; both side panels hide while fullscreen and return when you exit) |
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P | Freeze the render — holds the current frame |
Ctrl/Cmd+[ | Collapse / expand the left panel (Visualizer mode) |
Ctrl/Cmd+] | Collapse / expand the right panel (Visualizer mode) |
Ctrl/Cmd+\ | Toggle Both Panels (Visualizer mode) |
A | Toggle Audio Analysis Engine (full-screen meters + Modulation tab) — Visualizer and Performer |
Esc | Close the Analysis Engine, then Settings; exit fullscreen |
Freeze holds the picture, not the music. Ctrl+Shift+P stops the visualizer drawing and leaves the last frame on screen — audio keeps playing, so the track stays where it is in the set. A RENDER PAUSED marker appears above the canvas while the freeze is held; press the same keys again or click the marker to resume, and motion picks up from where it stopped rather than jumping forward. The freeze works in both Visualizer and Performer mode, and OSC-1 uses the same keys to freeze its screen.
Settings
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl/Cmd+K | Toggle the Settings modal (opens on the tab you last used) |
Ctrl/Cmd+/ | Open Keyboard Shortcuts (Settings → Shortcuts tab) |
Bare [ and ] step through visualizers; add Ctrl/Cmd to those brackets to hide the left or right panel instead. Bare v and b control Visualizer-only tools; in Performer mode, bare f toggles fullscreen, , / . step presets and [ / ] step visualizers. Bare t taps the shared session tempo in Visualizer and Performer mode. Panel hiding uses the same Ctrl/Cmd+[, Ctrl/Cmd+], and Ctrl/Cmd+\ keys as Scope and Laser.
The in-app version of this list lives in Settings → Shortcuts, which also has the Show startup hints again button for replaying the first-run tour.
Studio
Studio is the third Viz mode and carries the same global keys — Space, , and . for frame stepping, Ctrl/Cmd+Z and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z, Ctrl/Cmd+M for mute, [ and ] to step the selected visualizer layer, a for the Audio Analysis Engine, Ctrl/Cmd+K and Ctrl/Cmd+/ for settings and shortcuts. Delete or Backspace removes the selected layers, and I starts the selected Workout Timer at the playhead.
It adds a set of its own for timing lyrics — I and O to tap a line's in and out while the track plays, plus Alt-modified keys for nudging, trimming, and stepping between cues. Studio has no panel-toggle, Ctrl/Cmd+F fullscreen, freeze or tap-tempo keys.
See Studio keyboard shortcuts for the complete list.
See Keyboard Shortcut Philosophy for the rationale behind the Ctrl+ modifier convention.
Visualizer-specific controls
Settings → SHORTCUTS includes extra keys for the current visualizer: pause in Water Ball, Water Floor and Glitter; freeze in Oscilloscope; alarm mute in Clock Braun; star selection in Binary Star; camera and display controls in Procedural Landscape; and zoom undo in Mandelbrot. BioJelly swim keys appear when swim controls are on, and GIF Matrix arrow controls appear with ARCADE.
| Visualizer | Keys | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Water Ball, Water Floor, Glitter | P | Pause / resume |
| Oscilloscope | G | Freeze / unfreeze |
| Clock Braun | M | Mute alarm |
| Binary Star | P | Cycle selected star |
| Procedural Landscape | R / D / S | Reset camera / toggle audio display / toggle post effects |
| Mandelbrot | Backspace / Esc | Undo zoom / cancel a zoom selection while you drag it |
| BioJelly | W, A, S, D or arrows | Swim (arrows swim instead of seeking), with swim controls on and the pointer over the canvas or the canvas focused |
| GIF Matrix | Arrows | Control the ARCADE game |
Bare visualizer keys work when the canvas owns keyboard input. They do not change the visualizer while you type, use a dialog, or hold Ctrl, Cmd, Alt or Shift.