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    These docs are a work in progress. The software can already be used — download WavePhase.

    Documentation

    Docs for WavePhase v0.9.3 · reviewed 2026-08-10

    A newer app release may have shipped since this review. These pages describe the latest public WavePhase release. If something looks different in your build, check for an app update.

    Visuals

    Putting It Together

    You've met every piece — sources, nodes, fixtures, and visuals. Here's how they form one chain that takes audio all the way to lights and pixels.

    The full signal flow

    Every WavePhase show is the same shape, scaled up or down:

    1. 1

      Audio in → analysis

      Music hits your input. WavePhase derives BPM, key, spectral bands, envelope, and transients (see Sources).
    2. 2

      Shape it with nodes

      Logic, math, switches, and animators turn raw values into the exact behaviour you want — smoothed, tempo-locked, gated to the right moments.
    3. 3

      Drive fixtures

      Feed those values into fixture outputs, groups, and cues — DMX goes out over Art-Net or sACN.
    4. 4

      Generate visuals

      The same signals drive generators, effects, and compositing on the GPU.
    5. 5

      Map to pixels & screens

      Send visuals fullscreen with Screen Out, or pixel-map them onto LED bars as DMX.

    A worked example

    Build a hit that lands across the whole rig from stable DSP:

    1. 1

      Anticipate

      Use a low-band or envelope level (F32) to ramp a plasma generator's brightness and your wash intensity as the track gets denser.
    2. 2

      Hit

      On a kick transient or beat trigger, fire a strobe and switch the fixture cue to your biggest look.
    3. 3

      Move

      A beat-locked animator pans the moving heads; a group with spread chases colour down the LED bars via pixel mapping.
    4. 4

      Settle

      When the envelope falls, crossfade back to a calmer cue and dial the visuals down — or switch from MIDI, Web Control, or an API trigger.

    Start small, then layer

    Don't build the whole show at once. Get one fixture reacting, add a second behaviour, then a visual, then the pixel map. The patch grows naturally and stays understandable.

    Reuse what you build

    Save your project to keep fixtures, the patch, and node state together. Patterns you like — a transient accent, a colour chaser, a smoothing chain — can be copied between patches, so your library of looks compounds over time.

    Keep exploring

    Revisit The Signal Patch and Value Types any time — the same handful of concepts power everything from a single blinking PAR to a full audio-reactive stage.

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