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A seekbar that shows the whole track as a picture you can click – a spectrogram, waveform, live spectrum or loudness map – with standards-compliant measurements on top. Audio Lens Compare puts up to six versions of a song side by side. No external tools (no ffmpeg), no scripting.

Lenses

• Spectrogram – linear or logarithmic, mix / left / right / side / stereo (mirrored or stacked), FFT 1024–16384, adjustable level range, guide lines at your own frequencies
• Waveform – peak and RMS envelope, plain or three frequency bands; stereo, mix, left, right or side (signed, mirrored or half-wave)
• Spectrum bars – bar spectrum at the playback position, also live for streams: stereo layouts, octave and third-octave bands, A/C weighting, peaks, LED segments, waveform or progress bar timeline
• Loudness heatmap – short-term and momentary loudness (EBU R128)

Measurements

• Up to four curves: local dynamic range, crest factor, PSR, PLR, sample and true peak, RMS, momentary and short-term loudness, stereo width, phase correlation, L/R balance, brightness
• Values: DR (TT DR Offline Meter algorithm, matches foo_dr_meter), integrated loudness, LRA, max. momentary / short-term loudness, sample and true peak, RMS, PLR, crest factor, ReplayGain, correlation, width, balance, bandwidth
• Clipping and true-peak markers, phase correlation strip
• Verified with the EBU Loudness Test Set (Tech 3341 / 3342) and ITU-R BS.2217: all 122 checks pass within the tolerances of the standards
• Multichannel: loudness per ITU-R BS.1770 over all channels (5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos channel beds and more)

Audio Lens Compare

• Up to six versions of a song (e.g. original, remaster, vinyl, hi-res) in a window of their own: select 2–6 tracks in a playlist, Audio Lens > Compare
• Automatic alignment, even with different pauses or speed (vinyl, PAL); A/B switching at the same spot
• Overlay of short-term loudness and the third-octave spectrum, or its difference to a reference version at equal loudness
• Table with LUFS-I, LRA, DR, true peak, PLR, bandwidth and quality findings; comparison sheet as PNG

Features

• Optional quality report: upsampled or resampled files, possible lossy source, fake bit depth, clipping, DC offset, inter-sample peaks, mono compatibility
• Zoom and pan with finer re-analysis of the visible section
• Per-panel settings, 14 built-in presets (analysis, spectrum bars, style, retro) plus your own, 22 color themes (including C64, Amstrad CPC, NES, Amiga, LCARS, Amber and one from the album art), own colors for waveform, bars and background
• Configurable playback highlight and position marker, transparent background, fullscreen across one or more monitors
• Export the view or an analysis sheet as PNG or to the clipboard
• Analyze tracks into a compressed disk cache from the playlist menu; optional pre-analysis of the next track; file types can be excluded
• Compatible with the Default User Interface (Default UI) and the Columns User Interface (Columns UI, panel and toolbar)

Installation
Add the panel to your layout: Default UI – category Visualisation; Columns UI – category Visualisations. Right-click the panel for lens, metrics, appearance and settings.

• Bandwidth fixed: tracks whose high frequencies fall off gradually (no lowpass) showed far too low a bandwidth, sometimes below 10 kHz - a lossy copy of the same track could show more than the lossless original. Lossy files at high sample rates counted encoder residue above the lowpass (AAC at 96 kHz: 34.4 instead of 19.6 kHz).
• Bandwidth explained: for lossy files the readout names the encoder lowpass (BW 19.6 kHz (encoder lowpass)). In Compare the bandwidth column shows the loss against the reference in red, e.g. 19.6 kHz (-16.9) lowpass.
• Quality report: a DC offset below -40 dBFS is now a note (blue) instead of a warning - inaudible and harmless. Lossy files no longer report Upsampled or Resampled from 44.1 kHz: their cutoff is the encoder's lowpass.
• New color theme Amber (night blue to amber). Right-click > Appearance > Color theme