Music visualisers

The screensavers in the Music category – Spectrum, Radial, Oscilloscope, Ridge Lines, Synthwave, Sound Tunnel and Beat Burst – react live to whatever your Mac is playing: a music app, a video in the browser, a DJ app.

Allowing audio access

The first time a Music screensaver runs, macOS asks whether SCRNSVRS may capture system audio. Click Allow. You can change this later in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording.

SCRNSVRS only reads the audio level and frequency bands, on your Mac, a few dozen times per second. Nothing is recorded, stored or sent anywhere.

When nothing is playing

With no music playing (or no permission), the visualisers fall back to a gentle built-in rhythm so they never sit still. Start playback and they switch to your music within a second.

Tips

• Turn the volume up: the analysis follows the system output, so a muted Mac shows the built-in rhythm.
• Synthwave and Beat Burst respond most to bass and kick drums; Oscilloscope and Spectrum show detail best with acoustic music.