Control panel reference

The Baryon GUI (top-right corner) lets you shape the visualizer in real time. Hover over any control in the panel to see its tooltip. This document covers the shared visual controls and marks controls that appear only in the web app or Listener Mode. For a practical walkthrough, start with First session guide. For the conceptual model behind these settings, see Understanding the engine. Desktop OSC, OSCQuery, and MIDI control-input setup lives in Parameter Automation; outbound modal-structure data lives in OSC Structure Export.

Common Tasks

Task	Controls to use
Manually rotate the cymatic volume	Set Rotation Mode to `Manual`, then adjust Manual Rotation in Motion.
Rotate the idle logo independently	Set Logo Rotation to `Manual`, then adjust Logo Rotation Speed in Logo.
Keep the scene stationary	Set Rotation Mode to `Off`.
Let audio drive scene movement	Set Rotation Mode to `Audio`, then tune Motion Scale.
Change viewpoint	Use the floating camera controls or orbit drag while the camera is unlocked.
Prevent accidental camera movement	Enable Lock Camera.
Capture a still	Frame the scene, lock the camera, set rotation intentionally, then use browser or OS capture tools.

Baryon does not currently expose keyboard shortcuts for manual cymatic rotation. The only currently documented keyboard shortcut is fullscreen where the host exposes it.

Audio Input Profiles

The mic profile selector next to the mic button exposes two analysis presets:

Profile	Description
Voice	Speech and singing. Tracks a lead vocal pitch and uses harmonics as texture.
Ambient	Crowds, rooms, parties, and mixed music. Represents multiple simultaneous sources instead of one driver.

The mic path auto-calibrates when the microphone starts and whenever you switch profiles.

Mic Settings

Controls for live-input analysis and browser microphone processing.

Label	Description
Live Input Mode	Choose how unknown live devices should be analyzed. `Auto` uses heuristics, `Line Feed` uses the file-style path, and `Acoustic Mic` uses the mic-specific path.
Mic Intent	Choose how acoustic mic input should be interpreted. `Ambient` is forgiving for rooms and instruments; `Vocal` emphasizes singing and lead pitch.
Echo Cancel	Suppress speaker bleed and room echo from mic input. Useful with speakers, but it may color the audio spectrum.
Noise Suppress	Filter out steady background noise before analysis. Useful in noisy rooms, but it can soften quieter harmonics.
Auto Gain	Automatically normalize mic volume. Convenient for speech, but it flattens dynamics for visualization.

Performance

Controls for render cadence, adaptive quality, and the performance HUD.

Label	Description
Profile	`Auto` adapts raymarch steps toward 60 FPS, `Custom` uses Target FPS, and `Max Quality` leaves raymarch steps ungoverned. Version 1.2.0 defaults to `Max Quality`; use `Auto` when you want adaptive performance.
Target FPS	Performer cadence and adaptive raymarch target used when Profile is `Custom`.
HUD	Shows FPS and render resolution on screen.

Output

This control sets the opaque background used by the web app and Listener Mode.

Label	Description
Output Color	Background fill color for the output.

Performer does not expose this control. Display, Syphon, and Spout always receive an opaque image over black; see Program output.

Volume

Controls for the raymarched modal volume.

Label	Description
Shape	Show the rectangular cymatic field through a spherical clip or across its full cubic domain.
Boundary	Choose whether the modal family behaves like a reflective boundary (`Neumann`) or a fixed node.
Material Density	Scale the uniform optical tracer that reveals caustic irradiance. This changes scattering and absorption, not acoustic or caustic topology.
Laser Bending	Change how strongly laser rays bend through the acoustic pressure field, affecting caustic placement and concentration.
Max Samples	Set the maximum analytic camera-ray sample budget. `Auto` and `Custom` performance profiles may use fewer samples to hold their target.

Appearance

Controls for tracer color, focused-light transfer, and bloom.

Label	Description
Color Mode	`Static` uses the chosen colors. `Spectral` colors promoted cymatic modes from the audio spectrum.
Volume Color	Main color of the volume interior.
Caustic Color	Color of focused laser irradiance revealed by the tracer.
Spectral Chroma	Adjust spectral color vividness at constant luminance without blending in the configured static colors.
Caustic Strength	Camera-visible focused-light gain. It does not change acoustic topology, ray bending, or material extinction.
Laser Focus	Inverse finite-source angular spread. Higher values produce narrower caustic folds without changing the acoustic field.
Bloom	Toggle the optional soft optical halo around bright parts of the volume.
Bloom Strength	How bright the bloom halo is.
Bloom Radius	How far the bloom spreads from bright areas.
Bloom Threshold	Minimum brightness before a region contributes to bloom — raise to limit it to the brightest highlights.

Motion

Controls for cymatic-render movement. These settings do not rotate the idle logo.

Label	Description
Rotation Mode	`Audio` rotates the cymatic render with music, `Manual` uses Manual Rotation, and `Off` keeps it still.
Manual Rotation	Spin speed in Manual rotation mode — negative values reverse direction.
Motion Scale	Scales the auto-calibrated rotation in Audio mode. It has no effect in Manual rotation mode.
Pattern Persistence	Sets the cymatic geometry exposure from 0.05 to 2 seconds. Higher values retain recognizable structures longer but overlap more.

Logo

Idle-state overlay controls.

Label	Description
Logo Intensity	Brightness of the idle logo shown when no audio is playing.
Logo Size	Size of the 3D idle logo shown when no audio is playing.
Logo Color	Color of the 3D idle logo shown when no audio is playing.
Logo Rotation	`Manual` rotates the idle logo independently; `Off` keeps it stationary.
Logo Rotation Speed	Idle-logo spin speed in Manual mode — negative values reverse direction.

Diagnostics

Diagnostic controls help isolate render, audio, and analysis behavior. Debug-only controls require devtools (DEVTOOLS_ENABLED).

Label	Description
TRAA	Toggle temporal anti-aliasing for diagnostics when isolating render latency, shimmer, or post-process cost.
Capture Debug Data	Record per-frame debug data for the active analysis and renderer.
Freeze Pattern	Hold the current modal pattern in place instead of updating it from live audio.
Force WebGL2	Restart the renderer on the WebGL2 fallback path for compatibility testing. This remounts the canvas.
Suppress Playback Telemetry	Pause per-frame devtools snapshots and console audit logs during playback. Rendering quality and frame cadence are unchanged.
Inject Tone	Replace live audio with a synthetic test tone so you can inspect a known, repeatable input.
Tone Hz	Frequency of the injected test tone in Hz. Low values inspect renderable patterns; high values exercise bandwidth-limit diagnostics.
Tone Signal	Choose whether the injected test signal is a pure sine or an explicit harmonic series.
Tone Amp	Amplitude of the injected test tone — lower values produce subtler pattern excitation.
Log Frames	Write a debug snapshot to the browser console every N frames. Use 1 for every frame.

Presets

The Presets folder lets you save and recall named snapshots of all current control values.

Action	Description
Name field	Type a name for the preset you want to save.
Save	Save the current controls under the typed name. Overwrites any existing preset with the same name.
Load dropdown	Select a saved preset to restore its values. Modifying any control after loading clears the selection indicator.
Reset to defaults	Restore all controls to their factory defaults.
Delete Selected	Delete the preset currently shown in the Load dropdown (controls are left unchanged).

Settings are also auto-saved to localStorage as you adjust controls (debounced 500 ms), so your last session’s values are restored on next load.

Get started

Guides

Reference

Control panel reference

Common Tasks

Audio Input Profiles

Mic Settings

Performance

Output

Volume

Appearance

Motion

Logo

Diagnostics

Presets

​Common Tasks

​Audio Input Profiles

​Mic Settings

​Performance

​Output

​Volume

​Appearance

​Motion

​Logo

​Diagnostics

​Presets

Common Tasks

Audio Input Profiles

Mic Settings

Performance

Output

Volume

Appearance

Motion

Logo

Diagnostics

Presets