SONICJAHN User Manual

1. About SONICJAHN

SONICJAHN is an audio spectrum visualizer tool for Windows desktops designed for DJ broadcasting, OBS Studio overlays, and VJ use.

More than a meter — it's a visual instrument.

  • Accurate — True L/R separation, logarithmic frequency bands and dB normalization. It shows what your audio is actually doing.
  • Striking — Not just an analyzer. Hand-crafted "prisms" turn sound into a show worth putting on screen.
  • Light — Built to run next to your streaming software without stealing your frames.

The biggest feature is the true per-pixel alpha transparent overlay. You can lay it directly on top of your OBS Studio scene, overlaying visual effects while keeping the background transparent.

2. Installation and First Run

  1. Get SONICJAHN from the Microsoft Store (or distribution package). No extra runtimes (like .NET) are required to install (self-contained distribution).
  2. When started, the spectrum visualizer will appear as a borderless transparent window.
  3. By default, it automatically captures the system output sound (the sound currently playing on your speakers).
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Settings, presets, and logs are saved in the Windows user data folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%) instead of next to the executable. Uninstalling the app will not affect other applications.

3. Basic Operations (Right-click Menu)

Right-click anywhere on the window to open the menu. Main items:

Item Description
Transparent / Black / Chroma-Green Switch background mode (used for OBS Studio integration).
No Border Show or hide the window border.
Always on Top Keep the window on top of other applications.
Click-Through Pass mouse clicks to windows behind (useful when you want to only overlay the visualizer).
Prisms Switch between visualizer effects (Prisms).
Audio Source Select the audio output/input device to analyze.
Language Switch display language.
About Show version, copyright, and license information.
Settings Open the detailed parameter setting window for the active Prism.
Exit Close the application.
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When click-through is enabled, right-clicks will also pass through to the background. To restore controls, click the system tray (notification area) icon in the bottom-right corner of the Windows taskbar, which opens the same context menu.

4. Selecting Audio Sources

You can choose from three types of audio sources to analyze:

  1. Output (Loopback) — Captures the system sound playing on your speaker/headphones (default). Perfect for reacting to all stream audio.
  2. Input (Capture) — Captures audio from microphones, line inputs, or audio interfaces. Perfect for vocalists or live instruments.
  3. App (Individual Capture) — Captures audio from a specific application. Useful for streamers who want to react to music players or DJ software while ignoring microphone talk or system notifications.
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For individual application capture, the app may temporarily stop reacting if the target app is silent or just started. SONICJAHN automatically retries and reconnects when sound is detected.

The top of each device list includes a 'Default Device' option, which dynamically follows Windows default audio device changes. The application reconnects automatically when devices are plugged or unplugged.

5. Prisms (Visualizers)

The visualizer effects in SONICJAHN are called 'Prisms'. You can switch them using the right-click context menu. Version 1 includes ten carefully crafted visualizers.

Prism Description
Bar Standard The classic, done right.
LED Segmented level meter glow.
Dots Bands rendered as drifting dots.
Sunburst A radial spectrum that blooms.
Teardrop A swaying ring and droplets.
Agent Dashed rings firing shards on peaks.
Danmaku Words by band, streaming across.
Beam Pseudo-3D lanes rushing toward you.
Crystal Crystals and reactive plasma.
Liquid A restless liquid surface.

6. Detailed Settings (Settings Window)

Right-click and select 'Settings' to open the configuration window for the active Prism. Changes are applied instantly in real-time.

6.1 Audio Analysis Settings (How to react to sound)

  • Bands — Number of frequency bands (bars).
  • dB Range (Min/Max) — The volume range to map onto visualizers.
  • Sensitivity — General amplification of the reaction.
  • Attack / Release — Speed of visual updates rising/falling (smoothing).
  • Peak Hold — Whether to briefly show maximum levels and how fast they decay.

6.2 Active Prism Customizations (How it looks & 3D Rotation)

Each Prism exposes its own specific visual options (e.g., color mode, glow intensity, particle count, beam speed, etc.).

In addition, SONICJAHN supports 3D viewport rotation. You can hold the **Shift** key and drag the mouse anywhere on the main window to rotate the scene freely in 3D. You can also fine-tune these rotation angles using the X, Y, and Z rotation sliders in the settings window.

6.3 Save / Reload / Reset

  • Save — Saves current configuration to disk.
  • Reload — Reverts to the last saved configuration.
  • Reset — Applies system defaults immediately without deleting your saved configurations.

7. OBS Studio Integration (True Alpha Transparency)

To overlay visualizers cleanly in OBS Studio, set the background mode of SONICJAHN to 'Transparent' and add a 'Window Capture' source in OBS Studio using the 'Windows 10 (1903 and later)' capture method. This blends only the visualizer rendering onto your stream without background box overlays.

If transparency does not work correctly in your environment, use these fallbacks:

  1. Set background in SONICJAHN to 'Transparent'.
  2. In OBS Studio, add a Window Capture and select 'Windows 10 (1903 and later)' capture method.
  3. Enable 'Always on Top' and 'Click-Through' to layer it directly over your workspace.

8. Language Selection

Right-click and select 'Language' to switch the interface language.

The application automatically aligns with your Windows language on first run, falling back to English if the locale is unsupported. Your manual language selection is saved for future launches.

9. Troubleshooting

Symptom Solution
No reaction to sound Check if the correct audio device/app is selected in 'Audio Source'. Verify sound is playing.
Silent when capturing app Play sound in the target app to wake up capture. Re-select the application if necessary.
Visualizer stops after changing device The app reconnects automatically. If it stays frozen, manually reselect the source in the menu.
Click-through is on and I can't click the window Click the SONICJAHN tray icon in the system tray and disable 'Click-Through' from the menu.
OBS Studio does not transparentize background Ensure capture method is set to 'Windows 10 (1903+)'. Use black background with blend mode or chroma key if needed.

10. Data Location

  • Application Settings: user://settings.json (%LOCALAPPDATA% folder)
  • Prism Presets: user://presets/.json
  • No data is written next to the executable (complying with Store/MSIX deployment rules).