Soundscope is a crossplatform CLI tool for analyzing audio files.

• 🎤 Analysis of both audio files and microphone input in real-time.
• 📊 FFT Spectrum — view the frequency distribution.
• 📉 Waveform Display — see the amplitude over time.
• 🔊 LUFS Metering and True Peak — measure loudness precisely.
• 🎨 Customizable Theme — change the color scheme to your liking.

cargo install soundscope

or

cargo install --git https://github.com/bananaofhappiness/soundscope

Grab the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

• Run the tool using soundscope command
• Open the explorer by pressing E.
• Navigate to your audio file using arrow keys or H, J, K, L (Vim-style navigation).
• Press Enter to select it.
• Play or pause audio by pressing Space.
• Turn Mid and Side Frequencies on/of by pressing M and S respectively.
• Press L to check LUFS and F to check frequencies.
• Use the right and left arrow keys to move playhead 5 seconds forward or backward.
• Alternatively, press C to Change input mode from audio file to microphone.
• In microphone mode, choose Device using D.
• When you are done, press Q to quit.
• Change Theme by pressing T.
• You can also hover over the FFT chart to see additional information about frequency and amplitude. Hold any mouse button to hide this information.

Watch the demo on YouTube.

The theme is set in .theme file which must be placed in {YOUR_CONFIG_DIRECTORY}/soundscope directory. Under the hood it is a simple .toml file. Here is an example theme (which is default for the app) containing all possible variables:

[global]
background = "Black"
# It is default value for everything that is not a background
foreground = "Yellow"
# Color used to highlight corresponding characters
# Like highlighting L in LUFS to let the user know
# that pressing L will open the LUFS meter
highlight = "LightRed"

[waveform]
borders = "Yellow"
waveform = "Yellow"
playhead = "LightRed "# if not set, default is LightRed
# Current playing time and total duration
current_time = "Yellow"
total_duration = "Yellow"
# Buttons like <-, +, -, ->
controls = "Yellow"
# Color of a button when it's pressed
controls_highlight = "LightRed"
labels = "Yellow"

[fft]
borders = "Yellow"
# Frequencies and LUFS tabs text
labels = "Yellow"
axes = "Yellow"
axes_labels = "Yellow"
mid_fft = "Yellow"
side_fft = "LightGreen"

[lufs]
axis = "Yellow"
chart = "Yellow"
# Frequencies and LUFS tabs text
labels = "Yellow"
# Text color on the left
foreground = "Yellow"
# Color of the numbers on the left
numbers = "Yellow"
borders = "Yellow"
background = "Black"
highlight = "LightRed"

[devices]
background = "Black"
foreground = "Yellow"
borders = "Yellow"
highlight = "LightRed"

[explorer]
background = "Black"
borders = "Yellow"
item_foreground = "Yellow"
highlight_item_foreground = "LightRed"
dir_foreground = "Yellow"
highlight_dir_foreground = "LightRed"

[error]
background = "Black"
foreground = "Yellow"
borders = "Yellow"

Only global foreground and global background colors are mandatory. You can pass the HEX color code or use one of the predefined colors below:

- Black
- Red
- Green
- Yellow
- Blue
- Magenta
- Cyan
- Gray
- DarkGray
- LightRed
- LightGreen
- LightYellow
- LightBlue
- LightMagenta
- LightCyan
- White
- Reset

Reset restores the terminal's default color. This can be useful if you're using a transparent background.

Color separators -, _, and are supported and names are case insensitive. For example, Light-blue or light_blue or light Blue are all valid.

After saving your theme into .theme file and placing it into {YOUR_CONFIG_DIRECTORY}/soundscope, press T to open up the theme selection list and choose yours.

• After the playhead reaches the end of the file, the file needs to be reopened in order to be played again. This isn't a bug, but fixing it would be a useful quality‑of‑life (QoL) improvement.
• It works fine with stereo tracks but was not tested with tracks that have different number of channels.

• Microphone input. (v1.1.0, 2025-09-09)
• Zooming the Waveform in and out. (v1.4.0, 2025-10-06)
• Custom themes support. (v1.2.0, 2025-19-09)
• Frequency and amplitude details on hover over the FFT chart. (v1.5.0, 2025-12-15)

Pull Requests, Issues and Suggestions are welcome!

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

If you like soundscope and want to support its development:

• Boosty

Your support helps keep this project alive ❤️