Module: Cava

The cava module for karlstav/cava

The Waybar cava module supports two different frontends starting from the 0.15.0 release. The frontend that will be used is managed by the method parameter in the [output] section of the cava configuration file.

Config

Addressed by cava. Repeats and refers to the original cava configuration. For any unclear option please check original cava documentation

option	typeof	default	description
cava_config	string		Path where cava configuration file is placed to
method [output]	string		Manages which frontend Waybar cava module should use. Values: raw, sdl_glsl
framerate	integer	30	Frames per second. Is used as a replacement for interval
autosens	integer	1	Will attempt to decrease sensitivity if the bars peak
sensitivity	integer	100	Manual sensitivity in %. If autosens is enabled, this will only be the initial value. 200 means double height. Accepts only non-negative values
bars	integer	12	The number of bars
lower_cutoff_freq	long integer	50	Lower cutoff frequencies for lowest bars the bandwidth of the visualizer
higher_cutoff_freq	long integer	10000	Higher cutoff frequencies for highest bars the bandwidth of the visualizer
sleep_timer	integer	5	Seconds with no input before cava main thread goes to sleep mode
hide_on_silence	bool	false	Hides the widget if no input is present (after sleep_timer elapsed)
format_silent	string		Widget's text after sleep_timer elapsed (hide_on_silence has to be false)
method [input]	string	pulse	Audio capturing method. Possible methods are: pipewire, pulse, alsa, fifo, sndio or shmem
source	string	auto	See cava configuration
sample_rate	long integer	44100	See cava configuration
sample_bits	integer	16	See cava configuration
stereo	bool	true	Visual channels
reverse	bool	false	Displays frequencies the other way around
bar_delimiter	integer	0	Each bar is separated by a delimiter. Use decimal value in ascii table(i.e. 59 = ";"). 0 means no delimiter
monstercat	bool	false	Disables or enables the so-called "Monstercat smoothing" with of without "waves"
waves	bool	false	Disables or enables the so-called "Monstercat smoothing" with of without "waves"
noise_reduction	integer	77	The raw visualization is very noisy, this factor adjusts the integral and gravity filters to keep the signal smooth. 100 will be very slow and smooth, 0 will be fast but noisy
input_delay	integer	2	Sets the delay before fetching audio source thread start working. On author machine Waybar starts much faster then pipewire audio server, and without a little delay cava module fails due to pipewire is not ready
ascii_max_range	integer	7	Impossible to set directly. The value is dictated by the number of icons in the array format-icons
data_format	string	asci	Raw data format. Can be 'binary' or 'ascii'
raw_target	string	/dev/stdout	Raw output target. A fifo will be created if target does not exist
menu	string		Action that popups the menu
menu-file	string		Location of the menu descriptor file. There need to be an element of type GtkMenu with id menu
menu-actions	array		The actions corresponding to the buttons of the menu
bar_spacing	integer		Bars' space between bars in number of characters
bar_width	integer		Bars' width between bars in number of characters
bar_height	integer		Useless. bar_height is only used for output in "noritake" format
background	string		GLSL actual. Support hex code colors only. Must be within ''
foreground	string		GLSL actual. Support hex code colors only. Must be within ''
gradient	integer	0	GLSL actual. Gradient mode(0/1 - on/off)
gradient_count	integer	0	GLSL actual. The count of colors for the gradient
gradient_color_N	string		GLSL actual. N - the number of the gradient color between 1 and 8. Only hex defined colors are supported. Must be within ''
sdl_width	integer		GLSL actual. Manages the width of the waybar cava GLSL frontend module
sdl_height	integer		GLSL actual. Manages the height of the waybar cava GLSL frontend module
continuous_rendering	integer	0	GLSL actual. Keep rendering even if no audio. Recommended to set to 1

---

Configuration can be provided as:

1. The only cava configuration file which is provided through cava_config. The rest configuration can be skipped
2. Without cava configuration file. In such case cava should be configured through provided list of the configuration option
3. Mix. When provided both And cava configuration file And configuration options. In such case waybar applies configuration file first then overrides particular options by the provided list of configuration options

Actions

string	action
mode	Switch main cava thread and fetching audio source thread from/to pause/resume

Additional dependencies

iniparser
fftw3
epoxy(for GLSL frontend)

Solving issues

• on start Waybar throws an exception "error while loading shared libraries: libcava.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory".
  • It might happen when libcava for some reason hasn't been registered in the system. sudo ldconfig should help
  • Waybar with cava dependency is installed into /usr/local. In order to solve issue here:
    1. Drop local cava library. sudo rm -rfv /usr/local/include/cava, sudo rm -rfv /usr/local/lib64/pkgconfig/cava.pc, sudo rm -rfv /usr/local/lib64/libcava.so
    2. Setup prefix where waybar should be installed. meson configure build -Dprefix="/usr"
    3. Do build waybar. make
    4. Install waybar into the system. sudo meson install -C build
• waybar is starting but cava module doesn't react on the music.
  • In such case for at first need to make sure usual cava application is working as well
  • If so, need to comment all configuration options. Uncomment cava_config and provide the path to the working cava config
  • You might set too huge or too small input_delay. Try to setup to 4 seconds, restart waybar and check again 4 seconds past. Usual even on weak machines it should be enough
  • You might accidentally switched action mode to pause mode

Raising issues

For clear understanding: this module is a cava API's consumer. So for any bugs related to cava engine you should contact to Cava upstream with the one Exception. Cava upstream doesn't provide cava as a shared library. For that this module author made a fork libcava. So the order is 1) cava upstream 2)libcava upstream. In case when cava releases new version and you're wanna get it, in such case it should be raised an issue to libcava with title [Bump]x.x.x where x.x.x is cava release version.

Example:

"cava": {
        // "cava_config": "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cava/cava.conf",
        "framerate": 30,
        "autosens": 1,
        "sensitivity": 100,
        "bars": 14,
        "lower_cutoff_freq": 50,
        "higher_cutoff_freq": 10000,
        "hide_on_silence": false,
        // "format_silent": "quiet",
        "method": "pulse",
        "source": "auto",
        "stereo": true,
        "reverse": false,
        "bar_delimiter": 0,
        "monstercat": false,
        "waves": false,
        "noise_reduction": 0.77,
        "input_delay": 2,
        "format-icons": ["▁", "▂", "▃", "▄", "▅", "▆", "▇", "█" ],
        "actions": {
                   "on-click-right": "mode"
                   }
    },

232246280-71d3f5cb-db11-47a4-be38-ae383ebd5e6b.mp4

Style

• #cava
• #cava.silent Applied after no sound has been detected for sleep_timer seconds
• #cava.updated Applied when a new frame is shown