See what you hear. Real-time spectrum analyzer, spectrograph, and waveform visuals, precision controls, music player, decibel meter.
Sound You Can See!
Sonance is an Audio Spectrum Analyzer & Spectrograph app, a Music Player, and a Decibel Meter. It analyzes sound from songs played by the music player, from the built-in microphone, or from a Line In input device, and displays the results in three separate views.
The music player plays songs from the local macOS Music app library. These songs must be local to the Mac where Sonance is installed — Home Sharing from another Mac is not currently supported by the macOS Music app Library Framework. Internet streams and internet radio stations are supported in a limited fashion: they will play, but raw audio data isn't always available for those sources, in which case the displays only work through what the microphone picks up.
The Waveform view displays the raw input signal as a continuous wavy line, where each wave is a pulse of sound. Decibel level is also displayed.
The Spectrum view displays the frequency distribution as vertical bars. Each bar represents a group of frequencies, with height indicating the strength of those frequencies within the audio signal.
The Spectrogram view displays a two-dimensional view of audio frequencies over time. Each pixel represents a group of frequencies, with color indicating strength. Vertical rows represent different frequencies; horizontal columns represent time.
Frequencies range from 0 Hz to 48,000 Hz (48K) — half the 96,000 samples-per-second maximum sample rate of a MacBook Pro's internal microphone. Displayed frequencies are always half the input device's sample rate, which can be 44,100, 48,000, 88,200, or 96,000 samples per second. For music played via the music player, the range depends on the sample rate of each song — most fall between 0 and 22,050 Hz, half the 44,100 samples per second used in CD recordings.
Since Sonance also uses the microphone, any sound it can pick up is analyzed and displayed — play music on your computer, or use a different sound system entirely, and see the frequency distribution, spectral density, and waveform.
WAVEFORM VIEW
Adjust Input Gain (waveform height) and Display Width on the fly, and freeze the display. The horizontal scale represents time in seconds; the vertical scale shows the audio sample value. For the 32-bit floating point audio codec, values range from -1.0 to 1.0.
Input levels differ greatly between recorded audio and the microphone. Sonance has independent settings for both modes and switches between them automatically — affecting Input Gain on the Waveform view, vMag on the Spectrum view, and Sensitivity on the Spectrogram view.
SPECTRUM VIEW
Adjust Vertical Magnification (vMag) and Horizontal Zoom (hZoom) on the fly. Vertical Magnification adjusts bar height; Horizontal Zoom lets you zoom in on specific frequencies. After changing hZoom, use the scrollbar to pan across the full spectrum.
SPECTROGRAM VIEW
Adjust the Sensitivity slider to control color intensity, and the Vertical Zoom (vZoom) slider — similar to hZoom on the Spectrum view — to zoom in. Use the scrollbar to pan across the full spectrum once zoomed, and the freeze button to freeze and unfreeze the display.
Full-screen display is available for all three views: select View > Full Screen Display, click it from the View menu, or use Command-F to put the active window into full-screen mode.
You can also record a spectrogram for later viewing — select View > Spectrogram Recording Control Panel to start and stop recording and save your data.
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Too limited
Pieceof junk
You can only analyze music files that are part of you Music Library. It doesn't work with FLAC files. Huge limitation! Better to look for a better quality product than get this one.
Great App, Great Support!
DebZ3314
SoundView is a great app, and watching the different displays is fascinating for my clients. It’s nice to be able to show where sounds occur along the frequency spectrum. The support from Rare Works LLC is also incredible! When we had a problem with an update, they worked with us tirelessly until we got it back up and running!
Cool App !
LiquidSwirl
Very entertaining music player. I like the customization options, for a personal experience. It also works with the mic or a line-in input, where you can see the visualizations of those sounds. The developer also responds to requests. Nice !
Pretty pictures but no useable data
Mikey7736
Makes a nice display but there’s no way to measure what frequencies it’s displaying except on a very vague chart at the top of the page.
Performance improvements across all views.
More accurate decibel meter readings when using the microphone.
Update to meet current App Store requirements.
Version 2.6
The developer, Rare Works, LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
