Hearing Aid: sound you can see

Every look puts the words first: your title, or the words of a cue, as large as the frame holds, in white on a dark caption plate, still while the music plays. The music itself is shown rather than heard: the low sounds (bass and drums), the middle (where voices sit) and the high (cymbals) as three labelled lanes, the bar's beats as marks, the song's shape as a ribbon and the live sound on an audiogram.

It is a visual aid for following words and music on a screen. It is not a medical hearing aid and does not change how anyone hears.

• Open the Hearing Aid template

The first four are the four screens of the studio's cue system (One Word, Two Words, Six Words and The Line); the others show the sound on its own chart and the beat on its own:

• One Word: A single word as large as the frame holds, on its caption plate, with the beat as a ring round it, the bar's beats under it and the three sound lanes below. The cue system's screen A.
• Two Words: The words on two lines, each on its own plate, with the beat round them and the sound lanes below. The cue system's screen B.
• Six Words: The words as tiles, one lit on each beat so the eye follows the rhythm through them, with the sound lanes below. The cue system's screen C.
• The Line: The whole line as a broadcast caption, the song's shape as a ribbon above it and the bar's beats over the ribbon. The cue system's screen D.
• The Audiogram: The live sound on an audiogram, the hearing test's own chart: soft at the top, loud below, the range of speech shaded, the bass to the left and the cymbals to the right.
• Beat You Can See: The bar's beats as large marks, the one now lit, the bass as a glow along the floor and the highs as sparks over the marks, with the words above.

The words never shake, pulse or move with the beat, whatever the Shake setting: the rest of the frame can move, the words stay where you read them. On a phone held upright they wrap to more lines so they can stay large, and Six Words stacks its tiles two across.

Word size takes a share of the largest size the space holds; Caption plate sets how dark the plate behind the words is. Turn Sound labels off for a cleaner screen once the lanes are familiar.

Nothing flashes. The beat marks, the lit tile, the ring round the words, the sparks and the bass along the floor rise and fall through the flash limiter, which holds flashes to fewer than three a second, and the guide lines ask the site's pattern guard how much contrast they may have on every frame. The Contrast setting lowers it all further.

Beside the colours, speed, glow and the settings every look has, the visualizer has its own, labelled the same in every editor, and SW Agent can set each one by its name:

• Word size: How large the words are: 1 is as large as their space holds, less leaves room around them. From 0.5 to 1.
• Caption plate: How dark the plate behind the words is, for reading them over the sound. 0 takes it away. From 0 to 1.
• Sound labels: Whether the sound lanes and the audiogram are labelled in words: low for bass and drums, middle for voices, high for cymbals. Choose On or Off.
• Sound you can see: How large and strong the sound is drawn: the lanes, the ribbon, the audiogram's marks and the bass along the floor. From 0 to 1.5.
• Beat marks: How large and bright the beat's marks are. They rise and fall with each beat and never flash. From 0 to 1.5.

Ask for it in your own words: "captions for deaf viewers", "a visualizer for the hard of hearing", "show the beat for people who can't hear it" or "sound you can see", and SW Agent builds the project on it. In an open project, say "switch to the audiogram", "bigger words" or "turn the sound labels off"; each change is one step of undo in Classic and in Studio.

Through our MCP server, get_engine lists the visualizer's looks and settings, and build_editor_setup opens Classic or Studio on any of them.