WaveScope is a frequency visualizer for Apple Vision Pro. It shows two kinds of waves side by side: the sound you can hear and the light/electromagnetic spectrum that surrounds you. This guide covers how to use it and what to do if something isn’t working.

Getting Started

System requirements

• Apple Vision Pro running visionOS
• Microphone access (only required for the Sound scope’s “Live mic” feature)
• No internet connection required — WaveScope runs entirely on-device

The main window

When you launch WaveScope you’ll see:

• Title bar with the app name and a ? help button
• Scope picker — choose between Sound and Light
• The scope itself — a dark panel with the animated waveforms
• A Live toggle in the upper-right of the scope card
• A legend below the scope listing each band, its frequency range, and (when live is on) a small level meter

Using the Sound Scope

The Sound scope splits the audible range (20 Hz – 20 kHz) into seven color-coded bands:

Band	Range	What you’ll hear there
Sub-bass	20 – 60 Hz	Deep rumble, room thump
Bass	60 – 250 Hz	Kick drum, bass guitar fundamentals
Low mid	250 – 500 Hz	Warmth of male voice, low strings
Midrange	500 Hz – 2 kHz	The body of most vocals and instruments
Upper mid	2 – 4 kHz	Vocal clarity, snare crack
Presence	4 – 6 kHz	Sibilance, definition, “air”
Brilliance	6 – 20 kHz	Cymbal shimmer, finger snaps, high harmonics

Turning on the live microphone

1. Make sure the Sound segment is selected at the top.
2. Flick the Live mic switch in the upper-right of the scope card.
3. The first time you do this, visionOS will ask for microphone permission. Tap Allow.
4. Make some noise. Each band’s wave will grow taller in response to energy in that frequency range.

Tips

• Try humming low to drive the Sub-bass and Bass bands.
• Snap your fingers near the device for the Presence and Brilliance bands.
• Play music and watch the whole spectrum dance in real time.
• When Live mic is off, all bands draw at a steady reference amplitude — useful for comparing colors and visual frequency density.

Using the Light Scope

The Light scope visualizes the entire electromagnetic spectrum on a single panel — from radio waves at the low-frequency end to gamma rays at the very-high-frequency end. The middle slice (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Violet) is the part humans can actually see.

What the sensor-off icon means

You’ll see a small “sensor with a slash” icon next to several bands: Radio, Microwave, Infrared, Ultraviolet, X-ray, Gamma. This means no consumer device can directly measure that band — those waveforms are drawn at a representative amplitude for illustration only.

About “Live Ambient”

The Live ambient toggle on the Light scope is a simulated model, not a real measurement. Apple Vision Pro has no broad EM-spectrum sensor, so WaveScope fakes a believable ambient pattern that:

• Tracks the time of day on your device
• Tilts toward warmer bands (red/orange) at sunrise and sunset
• Tilts toward cooler bands (blue/violet) around midday
• Adds a gentle shimmer over time

This mode is for visual interest and education. Do not use it as an actual light meter or spectrum analyzer.

Troubleshooting

🎤 The live mic switch turns on but no waves move

1. Check microphone permission
Go to Settings → WaveScope → Microphone on your Vision Pro and make sure access is enabled. If the permission was previously denied, you’ll need to enable it here — the app cannot re-prompt you.

2. Confirm a status message isn’t shown
If you see “Microphone permission denied.” or an “Audio session error” message below the scope, that’s the issue — fix the permission and try the toggle again.

3. Try a louder source
The bands react to actual sound energy. A nearly-silent room won’t produce much movement. Try playing music or speaking close to the headset to confirm the scope is reading audio.

4. Toggle live mic off and back on
Sometimes simply switching it off and on again re-initializes the audio engine cleanly.

5. Restart the app
Close WaveScope from the visionOS app switcher, then reopen it.

🚫 I tapped “Don’t Allow” on the microphone prompt — how do I get it back?

The microphone permission prompt only appears once. To re-enable:

1. Open Settings on your Vision Pro
2. Find WaveScope in the app list
3. Tap Microphone and turn it on
4. Return to WaveScope and toggle Live mic off, then on again

📉 The audio scope movement seems weak or jumpy

• WaveScope smooths band levels slightly so the scope reads cleanly. Very brief sounds (a single clap) may register as a quick spike that fades.
• Very low-volume environments will keep most bands near zero — this is correct behavior.
• The lowest band (Sub-bass, 20 – 60 Hz) is genuinely difficult to drive with a built-in microphone — most everyday sounds don’t have much energy down there. A subwoofer or a sustained low hum is your best bet.

💡 The Light scope doesn’t respond to lights in my room

That is expected. The Light scope is not measuring real light. Apple Vision Pro has no broad-spectrum EM sensor, so the live mode is a simulated daylight model. See the About “Live Ambient” section above.

🪟 The window looks cramped or text is cut off

WaveScope is sized for a fixed content width. If you’ve resized the window or have multiple windows arranged tightly, try:

• Closing the window and reopening WaveScope from the Home View
• Moving other windows out of the way before opening it

🔁 The animation looks choppy

• Make sure no other CPU-heavy app is running alongside WaveScope.
• Reboot the Vision Pro if performance feels degraded across multiple apps.
• The Live mic mode does real-time FFT analysis 30+ times per second — closing other audio apps can help.

❓ Where is the in-app help?

Tap the ? (question mark) icon in the top-right of the WaveScope window. The Help screen includes:

• A full overview of both scopes
• The complete sound band table with frequency ranges
• The complete light band table with wavelengths and frequencies
• Tips on driving each band
• Notes on which bands are real vs. illustrative

Privacy

WaveScope is designed to be a quiet, local utility:

• No accounts, no sign-in.
• No network access — the app does not connect to the internet for anything.
• No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs.
• The microphone is only active when you explicitly turn on the Live mic toggle. Audio is processed in memory for spectrum display and is never recorded, stored, or transmitted.

Turning off the Live mic toggle (or closing the app) stops microphone access immediately.

Glossary

FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) — A standard math technique that converts a chunk of audio samples into a list of frequencies and their strengths. WaveScope runs an FFT on incoming microphone audio and sums the result into each band.

Hz / kHz — Hertz, cycles per second. 1 kHz = 1,000 Hz. Human hearing covers roughly 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.

nm (nanometer) — A billionth of a meter, used for light wavelengths. Visible light runs from about 380 nm (violet) to 700 nm (red).

Electromagnetic spectrum — The full range of light, from radio waves (very long wavelengths) through visible light to gamma rays (very short wavelengths). Visible light is a tiny slice in the middle.

Contact & Support

If you’ve tried the steps above and WaveScope still isn’t behaving, please get in touch:

Email: info@mickeydesigns.com

When reporting an issue, it helps to include:

• Your visionOS version (Settings → General → About)
• Which scope (Sound or Light) the problem is on
• Whether Live mode was on or off
• Any on-screen status message (e.g. “Microphone permission denied.”)
• What you were doing just before the problem appeared

Thanks for using WaveScope!