What is an audio waveform?
It is a picture of a sound over time: the height shows how loud it is at each moment. Animated, it moves as the sound plays, which is why it is used to show that a video has speech or music in it.
Free · no watermark · in your browser
Audio waveform visualizer
Open a voice recording and watch its waveform move as a line, bars, dots or a ring. Pick a style, set the colours and export a waveform video.
An audio waveform visualizer draws a recording as a shape that moves with the sound, so people can see a voice even with the volume off. Open a recording above and the studio animates it as a wide wave with your title, then lets you switch between nine styles in the Wave panel.
This page is about speech: interviews, voice notes, narration and podcast clips, where the wave should feel calm and follow the rhythm of talking. For songs, where you want bars jumping to the bass and treble, the music visualizer starts from a style built for that. The animation and the export happen in your browser, and the video carries no watermark.
How to make a waveform video
Open the recording
Square is selected on the card; choose Vertical or Landscape if you prefer. Press Choose audio (Ctrl+O or ⌘+O) or drop an MP3, WAV, M4A or other file on the card.
Pick a wave style
The Wave panel opens first. Try Wave, Mirror, Bars, Scope, Seek bar, Dots, Ring and Pulse while the preview plays (Space).
Shape it
Use Size to fill more or less of the frame, Sensitivity to make it move more or less, and Detail for the number of points or bars. In Style, set the Wave colour and the Background.
Add words if you want them
In Text, add a Title. In Captions, Make captions writes out the clip’s speech (its sound is sent to our speech provider for that), or set the caption style to Off for a wave on its own.
Export the animation
Press Export, choose 60 fps for the smoothest movement, then Export video and Download video.
Nine waveform styles, and when each works
- Wave: one smooth, flowing shape. The friendliest choice for a single voice.
- Mirror: the same shape reflected above and below a centre line, the look most people picture when they hear “sound wave”.
- Bars: a row of bars that follow the frequencies in the sound. Livelier, closer to an equaliser.
- Scope: the actual waveform drawn like an oscilloscope trace. Every syllable shows; it suits tech and science content.
- Seek bar: the whole clip’s waveform laid out once and filled in as it plays, like a voice message in a chat app.
- Dots: a few round dots that bounce with the voice, like a typing indicator.
- Ring and Pulse: circular shapes that grow from the centre, good around a round photo or logo.
- None: no wave, for when only the words or a picture should show.
A short test helps: play the busiest five seconds with Space and switch styles while it plays. Whichever still reads clearly at phone size is the right one.
Getting the movement right for a voice
Sensitivity
Speech has big gaps between loud and quiet. If the wave barely moves, raise Sensitivity. If it slams to the edges on every word, lower it. For the sound itself, Even out the volume in the Audio panel lifts a quiet or uneven recording to a steady level, so listeners don’t have to reach for the volume.
Detail
Detail sets how many points, bars or dots make up the shape. Low values give a bold, graphic look that survives being shrunk in a feed. High values look precise on a big screen but turn to fuzz on a phone.
Colour and contrast
The Wave colour in Style should stand out from the background as clearly as text does. A pale wave on a dark gradient, or a dark line on the off-white Paper template, reads at any size. With Cover art added, the wave picks up one of its colours automatically.
Templates where the waveform is the star
The page opens on Studio wave, a wide smooth wave with the title above it and no artwork needed. Others in Templates put the wave at the centre too:
- Terminal: a green scope line on black with monospace type.
- Paper: a fine dark line on warm off-white with a serif title.
- Pulse: rings that breathe with the voice in bright colours.
- Voice note: bouncing dots and big captions, for quick vertical posts.
For podcast promos with cover art and captions, the podcast audiogram maker starts from a design built for shows.
Waveform videos: questions and answers
Can I export just the waveform on a plain background?
Yes. Leave out the cover art, set Background to Solid under Style, clear the title and set the caption style to Off. The video then shows only the moving wave.
Can I get a transparent background to use in an editor?
No. The export is an MP4, which has no transparency. A solid black or green background can be keyed out in most editors, or you can build a waveform inside the editor itself.
Why does my waveform hardly move?
The recording is probably quiet, or the voice sits low in the mix. Raise Sensitivity in Wave, and try a larger Size or a style with fewer, bolder parts, such as Dots or Bars with a low Detail.
Is the waveform drawn from my real audio?
Yes. Every frame is drawn from the sound at that moment of your clip; nothing is a looping animation. Scope and Seek bar show the waveform itself most literally.
Does the recording get uploaded?
Not to draw or export the wave: that all happens on your device. Only if you press Make captions is the selected clip’s sound sent to our speech provider, to write out the words.