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Controls & Interface

The Control Panel tab is split into three banks, Scene Controls, Meta Controls, and Media, each affecting a different aspect of your visuals. Each control bank can be excluded from a preset and has its own set of lock, undo, default, and randomize actions at the top; the Media section provides those actions per subsection instead (see Bank & Group Actions).

Scene Controls

Each scene has its own unique set of controls, defined by the scene author and arranged into labeled groups. These typically include sliders, knobs, toggles, color pickers, and dropdowns that modify specific visual parameters of that scene.

Scene controls are stored in presets and will change when you load a new preset or scene.

Meta Controls

Meta controls are global parameters that affect Synesthesia's entire output, media and scene visuals together, regardless of which scene is active. They're organized into several groups:

  • Master
    • Master: A global brightness multiplier for the final visual output. Note: unlike most meta controls, Master brightness is not stored in presets, so you can change it without affecting your saved looks.
    • Invert: Inverts the colors of the entire output (a negative image).
  • Color: Global Brightness, Gamma, Contrast, Hue, and Saturation sliders, applied to the full output (media and scene together).
  • Mirror: Vert Mirror and Hor Mirror toggles that mirror the entire output across its vertical or horizontal axis.
  • Audio Control
    • Reactivity (Pro): Scales how sensitive all visual elements are to the incoming audio. Setting this to 0 makes the scene static or constant; higher values exaggerate its response.
    • Audio Speed (Pro): Controls the rate of change for time-based visual variables.
  • Limit Colors: Remaps the output to a two-color palette. Toggle Limit Colors on, then choose a Low Color and High Color.
  • General
    • Alpha Channel: Enables transparency in the output, so the background is preserved as alpha rather than rendered black. Useful when sending Synesthesia into other software via Syphon/Spout/NDI.

Media

The Media section controls any video or image loaded into the media player, independent of the active scene. Media is mixed into the current scene rather than replacing it.

Overlay

  • Media Overlay Mode: A dropdown that sets the blend mode used to composite your media into the scene (for example, Add).
  • Media Overlay: A knob that sets how strongly the media is blended in, from none (the scene alone) up to full strength.

Playback

  • Transport: Play, previous, next, and stop buttons, plus a scrub bar to jump to any point in a video.
  • Loop Mode: Choose how playback behaves at the end of a file — Repeat (loop), Play Once (stop at end), or Play Next (advance to the next file in the folder).
  • Playback Speed: A knob controlling how fast the media plays.

Transform

  • Media Scale: Zoom the media in or out within the frame.
  • Fit or Fill: Toggle between fitting the whole media inside the frame and filling the frame (cropping the overflow).
  • Vert Flip / Hor Flip: Flip the media across its vertical or horizontal axis.

Color

  • Invert Media: Inverts the media's colors.
  • Media Contrast, Media Gamma, Media Hue, and Media Saturation: Color-correct the media itself, separately from the global color sliders in Meta Controls.

Media Library & Folders

At the bottom, folder tabs (all, live sources, and any folders you've added) let you browse the media available to load: - Add Folder: Point Synesthesia at a folder of your own images and videos to make them available here. - Refresh: Rescan your folders to pick up newly added files. - Lock: Keeps your current media active even when you switch scenes, so it carries across scene changes.

Bank & Group Actions

Banks and control groups share a common set of action buttons: - Lock: Prevents any control in the bank or group from changing. - Default: Resets every control to its default state. - Random: Instantly sets every control to a new random value. - Undo: On the Scene and Meta banks, restores the bank to its state prior to the last "Random" or "Default" action.

The Scene and Meta banks expose these at the top of the whole bank. The Media section instead provides them per subsection (Overlay, Transform, Color), since its controls are already grouped.

MIDI & OSC Mapping

MIDI and OSC are powerful ways to map external hardware and software to Synesthesia's controls. You can bind almost any control, Fav Slot, or playlist action to an incoming MIDI or OSC message. See the MIDI & OSC FAQ and the OSC reference for setup details.

Control Interactions

For keyboard shortcuts and mouse modifiers, see the Control Hotkeys page.