---
name: "synaesthesia"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "synaesthesia"
version: "2.4-5.1"
release: "Debian 9 (Stretch)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/synaesthesia"
---

# synaesthesia(1)

visual sound display

## NAME

synaesthesia - visual sound display

## SYNOPSIS

**synaesthesia** \[--use-sdl\] \[--use-x\] \[--use-svga\] \[--fullscreen\] \[--width w\] \[--height h\] *input*

## DESCRIPTION

Synaestheia is a program for representing audio graphically in real time using an attractive variety of visual effects.  It reads sound data from *input* and displays the visual representation through svgalib, X or SDL.

While synaesthesia is running, moving the mouse over the window will expose a set of audio and other runtime controls.

- **--use-sdl**

  Force display via SDL.

- **--use-svga**

  Force display via svgalib (i386 architecture only).

- **--use-x**

  Force display via X.

- **--fullscreen**

  Attempt a full-screen display (requires a fast machine).

- **--width** *w*

  Specify a width for the window.

- **--height** *h*

  Specify a height for the window.

- *input* as **cd** \| **line** \| **esd** \| **pipe** *frequency*

  Audio source; this should be one of *cd*, *line*, *esd*, or *pipe*.  When using a *pipe* source, the sample frequency (e.g. 44100) must be specified; synaesthesia will expect a 16-bit stereo PCM stream on standard input.  The sound will be played to the audio device.

## EXAMPLES

- synaesthesia esd

  - synaesthesia cd

  - synaesthesia line

  - ogg123 -d raw -f - song.ogg \| synaesthesia pipe 44100

  ## AUTHOR

Synaesthesia was written by Paul Harrison \<pfh@csse.monash.edu.au\>.

This manual page was written by Devin Carraway \<devin@debian.org\> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).