# Live waveform

A React component in [Beamline](https://beamline.io/)'s [Voice & audio](https://beamline.io/components/voice) category. Live demo: https://beamline.io/components/live-waveform

Loudness drawn as it happens: a scrolling history of the microphone (or any live source) or its spectrum, a calm processing state while words are finished, and a number readout under reduced motion. Draws only while there is sound to draw and it is on screen.

## Use it for

- Feedback while recording or dictating: the person sees they are heard.
- A level preview next to a microphone choice.

## Not for

- A finished recording's shape ([waveform](https://beamline.io/components/waveform)).
- An agent's speaking and thinking states ([bar-visualizer](https://beamline.io/components/bar-visualizer) or orb).
- Choosing the microphone ([mic-selector](https://beamline.io/components/mic-selector), which uses this).

## Anatomy

- canvas (bars)
- baseline
- edge fade
- reduced-motion readout (meter bar and dB)

## Variants

- **mode**: scrolling (history moves toward the start), static (spectrum, bars rise in place)
- **size**: any height via height

## States

- idle (flat baseline, no loop)
- active (draws each frame from the source)
- muted (baseline, "Muted")
- processing (the last frame breathes while words are finished)
- reduced motion (a meter and a dB number, 4 updates a second)
- off screen (stopped)

## Keyboard

- None: a live picture (role img). Its controls (record, mute) are separate buttons.

## Motion

One canvas, one frame loop, running only while active or processing, on screen and in a visible tab. Reduced motion replaces the moving bars with a level meter and a number.

## Props

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `source` | `MediaStream \| LevelSource \| (() => number) \| null` | — | What to listen to: a microphone stream (metered here through an analyser), a level source, or a 0–1 getter. |
| `active` | `boolean` | `true when a source is given` |  |
| `processing` | `boolean` | — | After recording, while the last words are being finished. |
| `muted` | `boolean` | — |  |
| `mode` | `"scrolling" \| "static"` | `"scrolling"` |  |
| `height` | `number` | `40` |  |
| `barWidth / gap` | `number` | `3 / 2` |  |
| `fade` | `boolean` | `true` | Fade the bars out at the edges. |
| `tone` | `"accent" \| "neutral"` | `"accent"` |  |
| `label` | `string` | `"Microphone level"` |  |
| `classNames` | `LiveWaveformClassNames` | — |  |
| `style / ref` | `CSSProperties / native Ref` | — |  |

## Import

```tsx
import { LiveWaveform } from "@/components/live-waveform/live-waveform";
```

## Get it

Live waveform is part of Beamline: 190 React components and screens your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client) installs into your app through Beamline's MCP server, as a ready-built package or as plain React source you can change. $49 one payment (regular $200), no subscription, a year of updates, one licence for your whole team. [Get Beamline](https://beamline.io/checkout?pack=complete) · [Connect your agent](https://beamline.io/connect)

## More in Voice & audio

- [Audio player](https://beamline.io/components/audio-player): One audio element and its controls: play with a loading state, a scrub bar with time, skip, speed and a playlist whose rows play into the same player…
- [Bar visualizer](https://beamline.io/components/bar-visualizer): A row of bars that says what a voice agent is doing: a sweep while connecting, the person's voice while listening, a slow breath while thinking, the…
- [Conversation bar](https://beamline.io/components/conversation-bar): The control bar of a voice call with an agent: one button to call and hang up, the agent's state as bars, a call timer, mute, and typing when talking is…
- [Matrix](https://beamline.io/components/matrix): A dot-matrix display: animated frame sets (loading, pulse, wave, syncing), text and digits in a 5×7 font, or a VU meter of levels or a live source. One…
- [Microphone selector](https://beamline.io/components/mic-selector): Choose the microphone, test it with a live level and mute it, with every permission and device state spelled out: not yet allowed, blocked (and how to…
- [Orb](https://beamline.io/components/orb): The agent's presence: a thin ring of light around a lens in the brand's hue that holds still at rest, sends an arc round while thinking and widens with…
- [Scrub bar](https://beamline.io/components/scrub-bar): A seekable timeline for audio or video: elapsed and total time, what has loaded, chapter marks, a time preview under the pointer, and the full keyboard…
- [Speech input](https://beamline.io/components/speech-input): A text field you can speak into: the mic dictates through any speech-to-text provider, the phrase being heard shows apart from the finished words, and…
- [Transcript viewer](https://beamline.io/components/transcript-viewer): A recording and its words together: the spoken word lights up as it plays and the transcript follows it, any word or paragraph time plays from there…
- [Voice button](https://beamline.io/components/voice-button): The control that starts and stops talking: click to toggle or hold to talk (pointer, Space, Enter or a global shortcut), with a live level while…
- [Voice picker](https://beamline.io/components/voice-picker): Choose a text-to-speech voice from a searchable list (name, accent, tone, use) and hear it first: each voice has its own orb, previews play one at a time…
- [Waveform](https://beamline.io/components/waveform): The shape of a recording: one bar per slice of loudness, fitted to any width, with the played part in the accent, unmeasured slices hatched and a loading…