Overview
GDZ SoundMotion displays a small visualizer on your desktop that dances to whatever your PC is playing: music, videos, games, or your own microphone. Choose one of 17 visualizations and 15 color palettes, then leave it floating in a corner or pin it to the desktop as an animated decoration.
The three parts of SoundMotion
These three names are used throughout the guide:
| Name | What it is |
|---|---|
| Visualizer | The borderless window on your desktop. It has no title bar and no buttons: the whole window displays the visualization. |
| Tray icon | The icon next to the clock. It keeps the program running while the visualizer is hidden, and it is where update notices appear. |
| Options | The settings window, with two tabs: Visualization and General. |
Quick start
Everything most people ever need, on one screen. The rest of the guide goes into detail.
Move it
Drag the visualizer from any point.
Resize it
Drag the three diagonal lines in the lower-right corner.
Change visualization
← → or right-click → Visualization.
Change colors
↑ ↓ or right-click → Palette.
Open Options
Double-click the visualizer, or press O.
Choose the audio source
Right-click → Audio source. Choose your speakers or a microphone.
Pin it to the desktop
Right-click → Widget mode. To turn it off again, open Options from the tray icon.
Hide it
Esc or double-click the tray icon. It keeps running.
See the shortcuts
Press F1 at any time.
Getting started
The first time you open it, the visualizer appears in the center of the screen and the tray icon appears next to the clock. Start playing something and the window begins to move.
If nothing is playing, the visualization stays still. That is intentional: SoundMotion stops drawing when there is nothing to show, and resumes the instant sound returns.
Choosing the audio source
By default SoundMotion listens to the default Windows output — whatever your PC is playing. To visualize something else, such as a microphone or a line input, right-click the visualizer and open Audio source. Outputs and inputs are marked with different symbols, and the active device carries a check mark.
The list refreshes every time you open the menu, so headphones you just plugged in show up without restarting anything. The same list is in Options → General, with a button to refresh it manually.
Everyday controls
The visualizer
The window has no frame, so you interact with it directly:
| To… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Move it | Drag from any point with the left button. A thin frame shows its exact boundaries while you move it. |
| Resize it | Hover over the window: three diagonal lines appear in the lower-right corner. Drag them. |
| Open Options | Double-click. It opens on the Visualization tab. |
| Open the menu | Right-click. |
| Hide it | Press Esc, double-click the tray icon, or use Show / Hide in the tray menu. The program keeps running and uses almost no resources while hidden. |
Position and size are remembered: next time you open the program, the visualizer is exactly where you left it. Closing it only hides it — to close the program use Exit.
The tray icon
Right-click it for a short menu: Show / Hide, Options… and Exit. This is also where update notices appear; clicking the balloon opens the download page.
The right-click menu
The quick control menu: the most-used settings without opening any window.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Audio source | Chooses which device SoundMotion listens to. |
| Visualization | Chooses one of the 17 visualizations. The active one is checked. |
| Palette | Chooses one of the 15 color palettes. |
| Sensitivity → More (+) / Less (–) | Steps the reaction to volume up or down. Use it when quiet music barely moves the visualization, or when everything sits at maximum. |
| Always on top | Keeps the visualizer above other windows. Enabled by default. |
| Widget mode | Pins the visualizer to the desktop, behind other windows. See section 8. |
| User guide | Opens this guide in your browser. |
| Options… / Exit | Opens the full settings window, or closes SoundMotion. |
Keyboard shortcuts
Shortcuts work when the visualizer has focus. If you have been typing elsewhere, click it once and they respond again. Press F1 for the same list inside the app:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ← → | Next or previous visualization. It loops around, so you can cycle through all seventeen without releasing the key. |
| ↑ ↓ | Next or previous color palette. |
| O | Opens Options, or closes it if already open. |
| Esc | Shows or hides the visualizer. |
| F1 | Shows this shortcut summary. Closes with F1, Esc, O, or its own button. |
The arrows are the fastest way to explore: cycle visualizations with ← → and, when you find one you like, try palettes with ↑ ↓. If Options is open at the same time, its drop-downs follow along.
Options
Open it by double-clicking the visualizer, pressing O, or choosing Options… from the right-click or tray menu. Double-clicking opens it on the Visualization tab, since that is what you are most likely to be after; every other way opens it on General.
It positions itself next to the visualizer so it does not cover it, and you can move it by dragging any empty area. Close it with Close, the ✕ button, or Esc.
Visualization tab
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Visualization | Chooses the active visualization, out of seventeen. See section 6. |
| Color palette | Chooses the colors used, out of fifteen. See section 7. |
| Sensitivity | How strongly the visualization reacts to the sound level. Raise it for quiet music; lower it if it maxes out too easily or spills out of the window. |
| Opacity | Transparency of the whole visualizer. Lower values blend it into the desktop. |
| Visualization options | Extra controls for the selected visualization — number of bars, rings, sides, arms, text settings. This panel only appears when the visualization has options of its own. |
General tab
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Language | Ten languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Korean and Chinese. Applied instantly, no restart needed. |
| Audio source | The device SoundMotion listens to. The button beside the list rescans your hardware. |
| Always on top | Keeps the visualizer above other windows while you work. |
| Click-through | Lets mouse clicks pass through to whatever is underneath. While it is on you cannot drag the visualizer or open its menu — turn it off again from the tray icon. |
| Widget mode | Pins the visualizer to the desktop. See section 8. |
| Start with Windows | Launches SoundMotion when you log in. |
| Check for updates | Looks for a newer version and shows a download link if there is one. |
| Restore defaults | Returns the appearance to factory settings: visualization, palette, sensitivity, opacity and every visualization option. It asks for confirmation, and it leaves the language, window position and audio device untouched. |
The visualizations
Seventeen ways of showing the same audio. Switch with ← →, from the right-click menu, or from the Visualization tab. When a visualization has settings of its own, they appear automatically.
Bars
The classic equalizer: bass on the left, treble on the right. Number of bars (8–96) · rounded corners
Bars + peak
Like Bars, but each one leaves a marker at its maximum that falls back slowly. Makes peaks easier to see.
Mirror bars
Bars growing from the center upwards and downwards. Looks great in wide, short windows.
LED matrix
Dots that light up like the VU meters of an old hi-fi.
Grid
A field of cells that follows the spectrum and throws waves out from the center on every bass hit. Density (6–40)
Radial
Spikes shooting out in every direction from a core that pulses with the volume. Show core · core color
Blob
An organic shape that flows with the music. Smooth and symmetric.
Flower
Petals that open and close with each frequency while the flower slowly turns. Size (0.5–1.6) · show core
Rings
Concentric circles that widen and thicken, each one tuned to a range of frequencies. Rings (3–20) · intensity (0.5–3)
Tunnel
Polygons that rotate and recede, giving a sense of depth. With 3 sides they are triangles; with 8, almost circles. Rings (4–18) · intensity · sides (3–8)
Spiral
Dots spread along a spiral that pulse with the sound. At speed 0 it stays still and only throbs. Arms (1–6) · turns (1–6) · speed (0–3)
Kaleidoscope
The spectrum mirrored around the center, like looking through a real kaleidoscope. Size (0.5–1.6) · segments (4–12)
Oscilloscope
The raw sound wave crossing the window. The best one for seeing the shape of each instrument.
Radial wave
The same wave, wrapped into a circle.
Spectrogram
Time scrolls to the left and every column keeps how that instant sounded, bass at the bottom, treble at the top. Ideal for seeing the structure of a song.
Beat image
Your own image pulsing with the bass: an album cover, a logo, a photo. Choose image… opens a file picker, and Default restores the GDZSoft icon. Intensity (0–2) · image
Text
A word that dances. Type whatever you like — a name, your radio station, a greeting — and choose the font. Word · reaction · font · intensity (0–2)
The four reactions of the Text visualization
Besides the word and the font, Text lets you choose how the letters respond to the sound:
| Reaction | How it looks |
|---|---|
| Letter per band | Each letter follows a different frequency range, so the word ripples from left to right. |
| Global pulse | The whole word grows on every strong beat, then settles back. |
| Bounce | The word jumps upward with each beat, without changing size. |
| Shake | The letters vibrate on each impact and immediately settle down. |
The text field cannot be left empty: if you delete everything, it goes back to SoundMotion. Intensity controls how strong the effect looks, whichever reaction you choose.
Color palettes
The palette sets the colors of every visualization — it changes how they look, never how they move. Switch with ↑ ↓, from the right-click menu, or from the Visualization tab.
| Palette | Character |
|---|---|
| Rainbow | The full spectrum. The default: bright, varied, works with anything. |
| Fire | Intense reds and oranges. Hot and energetic. |
| Ice | Clean, cold blues. Calm and modern. |
| Neon | Magenta and turquoise, straight out of a cyberpunk street sign. |
| Mono | Greys with a hint of blue. The most discreet one, made for work desktops. |
| Sunset | Warm reds, pinks and gold. |
| Aqua | Fresh turquoise and water greens. |
| Forest | Natural greens, relaxed. |
| Pastel | Soft, low-saturation colors that blend into the desktop. |
| Vaporwave | Eighties-retro magenta and cyan. |
| Lava | Dark reds that flare into orange as the sound gets louder. |
| Ocean | Deep blues drifting into turquoise. |
| Candy | Playful pinks and light blues. |
| Matrix | Phosphor green on black, like an old terminal. |
| Gold | Golden and amber tones, warm and premium. |
Widget mode
Widget mode places the visualizer on the desktop behind your windows, making it behave like a live wallpaper. Turning it on does three things:
- The visualizer drops behind other windows. Any normal application window can cover it, and it only becomes visible again after minimizing those windows.
- Mouse clicks pass through it. Desktop icons, folders and shortcuts underneath keep working as if it were not there.
- Always on top and Click-through are managed automatically and greyed out in Options. Your previous settings are restored when you turn Widget mode off.
Which mode do I want?
| I want… | Set it up like this |
|---|---|
| To keep it visible while I work | Always on top, opacity around 0.7, small window in a corner. |
| A live desktop decoration | Widget mode, with a large centered window. |
| Visible, but able to click through it | Always on top + Click-through. |
| A normal application window | All three off. It behaves like any other window. |
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| The image is frozen | Almost always normal: with no sound, SoundMotion stops drawing. Play something and it moves again. |
| Music is playing but it barely reacts | Raise the Sensitivity. If that does not help, check that Audio source points at the device you are really using. |
| Everything stays at maximum | Lower the sensitivity. Loud or heavily compressed music usually looks better at lower values. |
| I cannot drag it or open its menu | Click-through or Widget mode is on. Turn it off from the tray icon → Options… |
| The visualizer has disappeared | It is hidden (tray icon → Show / Hide) or sitting behind your windows in widget mode. Minimize everything to check. |
| The keyboard shortcuts do not respond | Click the visualizer once to give it focus. In widget mode they never work, because the window cannot be focused. |
| I changed headphones and it stopped | Choose the current device again in Audio source. If it is not listed, use the refresh button in Options. |
| A warning appears when choosing a device | It may be disconnected, or being used exclusively by another application. Choose a different one. |
| I want to start over | Options → General → Restore defaults. Language, window position and audio device are kept. |
Frequently asked questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need a virtual audio cable? | No. SoundMotion captures the system output directly, with no extra software. |
| Does it affect the sound quality? | No. It only listens; it never modifies, processes or delays the audio. |
| Does it use a lot of resources? | No. It uses very little CPU: it pauses when there is no sound and stops drawing entirely while hidden. |
| Can I open several visualizers at once? | No. SoundMotion works with a single window. |
| Does it work with a full-screen game? | It captures the audio fine, but a full-screen game covers the visualizer. Use windowed mode or a second monitor. |
| Can I recolor just one visualization? | Colors come from the palette, which applies to all of them. The one exception is Radial, whose core color can be set separately. |
| Does it send any of my data? | No. It contacts only two files on the author's website — one to check for a newer version, one for occasional notices. Nothing about your computer or your usage is sent. |
| How do I remove it from Windows startup? | Turn off Start with Windows in Options → General. |
Supporting development
If you find SoundMotion useful and would like to support its continued development, you can make a donation via PayPal by scanning the QR code below.
