CAVA: A Beautiful Terminal-Based Audio Visualizer for Linux

If you're a fan of minimal and efficient Linux setups, chances are you enjoy customizing your terminal experience. One tool that can instantly add a dynamic and visually engaging element to your terminal is CAVA — short for Console-based Audio Visualizer for ALSA.

What is CAVA?

CAVA is a lightweight, real-time audio spectrum visualizer designed for the terminal. It displays frequency bars that move along with any sound currently playing on your system. Despite being terminal-based, the visual output is surprisingly smooth and beautiful, especially when used with transparency or colorful themes.

Key Features

• Minimal and fast, written in C
• Supports multiple audio input sources: ALSA, PulseAudio, FIFO, PortAudio, and SNDIO
• Highly customizable via a configuration file
• Works well in fullscreen or embedded terminal setups
• ASCII and Unicode output modes for broader compatibility

How to Install CAVA

Installing CAVA is straightforward on most Linux distributions. You can usually find it in your distro's official repositories.

On Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cava

On Arch / Manjaro:

sudo pacman -S cava

On Fedora:

sudo dnf install cava

Build from source:

You can also build CAVA manually by cloning the official repository:

git clone https://github.com/karlstav/cava
cd cava
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

Basic Usage

After installation, you can start CAVA by simply running the command:

cava

cava displays a visualizer of mpd

By default, it will try to use ALSA as the input. If you're using PulseAudio or PipeWire, you may need to adjust the configuration file.

Configuration Tips

The configuration file is located at ~/.config/cava/config after the first launch. From there, you can modify:

• Color scheme
• Number and width of bars
• Input method
• Sensitivity and smoothing

You can experiment with different layouts and even Unicode block styles for more precise visuals.

Final Thoughts

CAVA is one of those tiny utilities that bring a lot of joy without consuming much in the way of resources. It’s perfect for anyone who enjoys music and wants a touch of animation in the terminal. Whether you’re playing tracks through MPD, Spotify, or any other player, CAVA adds life to your sound.

To learn more or contribute, visit the official GitHub repository:
https://github.com/karlstav/cava