Uzume

A light in sound, a sound-like power in light.

Coleridge, The Eolian Harp, 1795

A native macOS music visualizer that performs light to the music you are already playing.

Uzume is open source and buildable today. There is no installable build yet — the public beta will be free and notarized when it arrives.

First when there's a build to download, then occasionally about new releases and what's changed. Unsubscribe any time.

On GitHub today — build from source

Apple silicon · macOS 14+ · free, MIT

It listens to the whole playlist first

Before a note is played, Uzume separates each track into stems and measures what is in them. The performance is prepared, not improvised at the last moment.

Then it plans the session

A deterministic planner decides which visual accompanies each track, where the transitions land, and how the arc moves across the playlist. Rules, reproducible — and you still don't know what you're about to see.

And it keeps listening while you play

Live analysis of the audio refines the plan as the music actually unfolds, so the performance answers the room rather than replaying a script.

What you need

Mac
Any Apple silicon Mac
macOS
macOS 14 Sonoma or later
Music
Local files, or whatever you already play — Uzume listens rather than taking over playback
Licence
Free and open source, MIT

What Uzume asks of your Mac

Everything happens on your Mac

Analysis and rendering run locally. Uzume has no account, sends no audio anywhere, and needs no network connection to perform.

System audio means the Screen Recording permission

macOS files system-audio capture under Screen Recording. Uzume takes the audio and nothing else — not your screen, not your microphone. Playing local files needs no permission at all.

Certified presets hold steady luminance

Every certified preset is tested for a bounded change in brightness from frame to frame, with beat-locked motion confined to parts of the frame rather than thrown across all of it. Reduced-motion settings are honoured throughout.

Contributors write the repertoire

A preset is a Metal shader and a JSON file dropped into the repository. The ones that pass the gates will become part of what every listener sees, with their author's name on them.

Write a preset

Uzume

oo-ZOO-meh

In the Kojiki, the sun shuts herself in a cave and the world goes dark. A plan is made, a mirror is hung to catch light that does not yet exist, and Ame-no-Uzume stamps out a rhythm and dances until the gods roar. The sun opens the door to see what could possibly be worth that much noise.

The performance is what brings the light out. That is the whole idea.