SPECTRA turns whatever audio your computer hears into moving typography. It runs in the browser with nothing to install: a Milkdrop/Butterchurn WebGL pass underneath, and a GLSL shader on top that rasterises the image into glyphs. This page covers the three things people actually do with it — watch it, put it on a stream, and record a clip.
The opening screen has three buttons. The play button starts a demo beat generated inside the page, so you can see what the thing does before deciding whether to trust it with a microphone. The other two ask the browser for a real audio source:
getDisplayMedia,
so the button is hidden there rather than left dead.Tab audio is the better choice for music: no room noise, no echo, and the levels stay steady. Pick the tab playing your music and tick Share tab audio in the browser's dialog.
Add a Browser source in OBS pointing at:
https://spectra.obeskay.com/?obs=1
That flag hides the dock, the start gate and the film grain, leaving only the visual. Useful extras:
| Parameter | What it does |
|---|---|
?obs=1 | Clean output — no interface elements |
?obs=1&transparent=1 | Transparent background, so you can layer it over gameplay |
?obs=1&ratio=9:16 | Vertical frame for phone-shaped streams |
Tick Control audio via OBS on the browser source so the visualizer reacts to what your
stream is playing. A second window opened with these parameters mirrors the main one in real time over
BroadcastChannel, which is how the multi-screen and cast modes work.
Press R to start recording and again to stop; it also stops on its own after 15 seconds, the length most short-video platforms loop cleanly. The file downloads as WebM on Chrome and Firefox and as MP4 on Safari. Press V first if you want a 9:16 vertical frame.
Recording captures the canvas at your display's real resolution, so a Retina screen gives a
Retina-resolution file. Free recordings carry a small SPECTRA.OBESKAY.COM mark in the corner;
a one-time Pro licence removes it from recordings and from the OBS output.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Next scene |
| ← → | Previous / next Milkdrop preset inside the scene |
| D | Push the scene towards tiny type or towards giant letters |
| M | Cycle the audio source: demo, microphone, tab audio |
| C | Colour burst |
| V | Toggle the 9:16 vertical frame |
| R | Start or stop recording |
| P | Open Pro |
| F | Fullscreen |
| Esc | Close any open panel |
The stage is an instrument. Every tap plays a note from an A minor pentatonic scale — higher on the screen is higher in pitch, left and right pan the sound — and fires a shockwave from your fingertip. Hold longer for a longer, louder note. The notes always fit the demo beat, so there is no wrong tap.
Swipe sideways for a new scene, up for a colour burst, down to change the glyph density. The ring that appears at the top fills one dot for every scene you have discovered, and it remembers them.
A scene is a full preset of the same pipeline — its own glyph set, its own two-colour
ramp, its own grain and image treatment. It is not a palette swap: THE MATRIX draws in
Katakana and phosphor green, GAME BOY posterises down to four shades of LCD pea soup with
block characters, NOIR runs pure black and white with the occasional crimson spark, and
TRON uses 01|/[] against hard scanlines. Press Space to cycle them.
Cyberpunk & sci-fi. THE MATRIX · NEO-TOKYO · BLADE RUNNER · AKIRA · GHOST IN SHELL · TRON · CYBERPUNK 2077 · EVANGELION · NOSTROMO · ALIEN · INTERSTELLAR · SOLARIS · PORTAL · HAL 9000 · TERMINAL · AKIHABARA
Retro computing & games. GAME BOY · MACINTOSH 1984 · DEMOSCENE · PSX 1994 · SUPER MARIO · POKEMON RED · MINECRAFT · CASTLEVANIA · Y2K
Neon & pop. VAPORWAVE · MIAMI VICE · DAFT PUNK · BARBIE · SAILOR MOON · NEON DEMON · STRANGER · SPRINGFIELD · KILL BILL · COWBOY BEBOP · GHIBLI · BRAT SUMMER · HIT ME HARD · FEVER DREAM · CHROMATICA · HYPERPOP · PRISMATIC OBSIDIAN · SYNTHWAVE SUNSET · ACID JAZZ · SOLAR FLARE · ANIME 1997
Dark & cinematic. NOIR · DUNE · GOTHAM · TWIN PEAKS · SILENT HILL · THE SHINING · RESIDENT EVIL · UZUMAKI · SUSPIRIA · BEETLEJUICE · HELLRAISER · THE THING · RINGU
Type & symmetry. RORSCHACH · MANDALA · BRAILLE · BLUEPRINT · KAIJU · OLYMPUS · VECTOR FIELD · PROPAGANDA · CATHEDRAL · OSCILLOSCOPE · SONAR · ORIGAMI · SWISS POSTER · HAIKU
The grid is not uniform. Bright, even areas grow into giant glyphs, edges are drawn with line strokes and dim detail stays tiny; on a hit the cells merge and swell, then break back into fine type. Some scenes mirror the image or fold it into a kaleidoscope.
Each one is multiplied by hundreds of Milkdrop presets (← →) and four type scales (D), so the same track never looks quite the same twice.
Black screen, nothing moving. There is no sound reaching it. The visualizer drops to true black below the silence threshold on purpose, so silence looks like silence rather than noise. Check that the tab you shared is actually playing, and that you ticked Share tab audio.
It reacts, but weakly. Levels calibrate themselves against the loudest and quietest moments of the last while, so give it fifteen seconds of real music before judging. Very quiet microphone input still normalises, but a hot signal reacts better.
Choppy on a laptop. Press D to move to chunkier cells: fewer, larger glyphs are much cheaper to draw. Closing other WebGL tabs helps more than anything else.
Nothing happens on iPhone. Tab audio needs an API Safari does not implement. Use the microphone, or the demo beat.
The visualizer is free and stays free: every scene, every preset, unlimited use, no account. Pro is a single one-time payment of MX$279 that removes the watermark from recordings and from the OBS output, and covers commercial use. There is no subscription and nothing expires.
There is no licence key to lose. Checkout runs through Mercado Pago, and the payment ID on your receipt is the licence. When the payment is approved you are sent straight back here and Pro switches on by itself; the ID is shown to you at that moment and stays in your Mercado Pago receipt for good.
To switch a second machine on — your streaming PC, a laptop, a phone — open the Pro panel with Shift + P, type that same payment ID and press Activate. It is checked against Mercado Pago each time, so it works on as many of your own devices as you need, and it keeps working if you clear your browser data. Nothing to email us for.