SkinnyV

Copyright (C) 2026 Clarissa Millarker

SkinnyV is a lean, modern system audio visualizer with multi-monitor support. It captures system audio (WASAPI loopback on Windows; PipeWire/PulseAudio monitor sources on Linux) and renders real-time visualizations across any or all connected displays. Built with Tauri 2 + Rust + plain HTML/JS/CSS.

Features

• System audio capture — WASAPI loopback on Windows, PipeWire/PulseAudio monitor sources on Linux — anything playing through your speakers
• 16 visualization modes — Spectrum, Waveform, Circular, Particles, Radial Bars, Tunnel, Starburst, Wave Sea, Mirror, Matrix Rain, Terrain, Lattice, Bloom, Ribbon, Galaxy, Ripples
• 12 color themes — Aurora, Sunset, Electric, Fire, Mono, Forest, Candy, Cyber, Deep Sea, Gold, Vapor, Blood
• Auto-cycle themes — optionally rotate through all themes every 8 seconds
• Multi-monitor — borderless fullscreen visualizer windows on any or all displays
• Modern UI — clean dark control panel, no 1995 vibes
• Tiny binary — uses system WebView2, no bundled browser (~14MB)
• Beat detection — rolling average comparison for reactive visual effects
• Auto-gain normalization — decaying rolling peak keeps visualizations dynamic across volume levels

Building

Prerequisites

Common:

• Rust 1.70+ (rustup)
• Node.js 18+ (only needed if you modify package.json)

Windows:

• Visual Studio C++ Build Tools (Desktop development with C++ workload)
• WebView2 runtime — pre-installed on Windows 11

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu package names; adjust for your distro):

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libsoup-3.0-dev \
  libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1-dev libpulse-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf

Capture uses the PulseAudio API, which works on both PulseAudio and PipeWire (via pipewire-pulse, standard on modern desktops).

Dev mode

git clone https://github.com/SkinnyV-Release-Team/SkinnyV.git
cd SkinnyV
cargo tauri dev

Production build

cargo tauri build

Produces MSI + NSIS installers on Windows, or .deb + AppImage on Linux, in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Architecture

Rust Backend (src-tauri/src/)
├── audio.rs    — capture (cpal WASAPI loopback on Windows / libpulse monitor on Linux), FFT, auto-gain, beat detection
├── commands.rs — Tauri commands (device list, monitor mgmt, window control)
└── lib.rs      — App setup, event wiring, clean shutdown

Frontend (index.html — single file, all inline)
├── CSS  — Modern dark theme with accent gradients
├── Control panel — device picker, display toggles, mode/theme selection, license viewer
└── Visualizer — 16 canvas render modes, beat-reactive, theme-aware

Audio data flows: system-audio capture (WASAPI loopback on Windows / PipeWire·PulseAudio monitor on Linux) → ring buffer → FFT (2048-sample Hann window) → 128 log-spaced bins with auto-gain normalization → Tauri event → Canvas render at 60fps.

Usage

1. Launch SkinnyV — the control panel appears
2. Select an audio source (defaults to your system output)
3. Click Start Capture
4. Toggle displays on/off to spawn fullscreen visualizer windows
5. Pick a visualization mode and color theme
6. Press ESC to close a visualizer window
7. Closing the control panel exits the app

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Clarissa Millarker

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.