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max 1GB

Inspector media/waveform-viewer

Waveform & Peak Viewer

Overview

Most waveform displays normalise to the loudest peak, which makes every file look the same and hides the thing you opened it to see. This one does not: the vertical axis is full scale, so a master eight decibels quieter looks eight decibels quieter and two files can honestly be compared. Runs of samples pinned at full scale — the flat tops that mean the waveform was cut off rather than a single legal peak — are marked along the rails, and the true peak is measured by reconstructing the signal at four times the sample rate, so you can see how much of the waveform lives between the samples where a sample-peak meter cannot look.

Check a master for clippingSee at a glance whether a limiter was pushed into flat tops.
Compare two versionsOpen a mix and its master and compare their real levels, not normalised pictures.
Find the loud momentThe true peak is marked where it happens, so you can go straight to it.

Set

Media Tools 16

Neighbours

01 Audio Converter 02 BPM Detector 03 Compress Video 04 Extract Audio from Video 05 Audio HLS Stream Generator 06 HLS Stream Generator

Specification

Command: media.waveform_viewer
Set: Media
Input: MIXED
Output: —
Max file: 1GB
Batch: single file

MPEG WAV FLAC MP4 OGG OPUS AAC WEBM

Runtime

Engine: ffmpeg-wasm 0.12
Threads: — workers
Isolated: —
WebGPU: —
Memory: —

Transport 0 B

The file is opened, worked on and written back inside this tab. No upload step exists in this tool — there is nowhere for the bytes to go.

Keys

Search: ⌘K
Panels: ⌘1 · ⌘2
Full width: F
All keys: ⌘/

How it works

Drop a file

Decoded on your device; nothing is uploaded.

Read the shape

The waveform is drawn at true full scale, so quiet is quiet and loud reaches the rails.

Look for the marks

Clipped runs appear as bands top and bottom. The true peak and sample peak are printed beneath.

Frequently asked

Why is the waveform not normalised?

Because a normalised waveform cannot be compared to anything. Scaling every file to fill the box is right for a scrubber and wrong for a meter — it hides exactly the level difference you would want to see between a mix and its master, or between two takes.

What counts as clipping here?

A run of consecutive samples at or above full scale, not a single sample touching it. One sample at 0 dBFS is legal and common; a flat top of several is a waveform that was cut off. Only runs are marked.

Why is the true peak higher than the sample peak?

Because the analogue waveform passes between the samples. Reconstructed at four times the rate, a signal whose samples never exceed −3 dBFS can reach 0 dBTP in between. That inter-sample level is what clips converters and lossy encoders, and it is reported alongside the sample peak.

Is my audio uploaded?

No. Everything happens inside your browser.

Keys

Search: ⌘K
Panels: ⌘1 · ⌘2
Full width: F
All keys: ⌘/

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