iTunes Cheat Sheet

Info about the new iTunes Visualizer added in September 2008

I discovered some of the information below at http://www.mindspring.com/~wchou/itunes/
but updated it for iTunes 4.0.1. and changed/added various other things. Thanks, Winston!!! :)

Quick instructions for finding and saving your favorite iTunes effects

1. hit the M key until it says "Freezing current config"
2. play with the W (wave form), S (effect), and X (color) keys
    (waiting a little until the previous one is fully replaced)
    until you find a combination you want to save
3. hit SHIFT-1 to save this configuration
4. now you can recall that configuration at any time by hitting the 1 key!
5. or recall all ten saved configurations by hitting the M key
    until it says "User config slide show"

     

For more details, see below.
Have fun! There are 11475 form/effect combinations, and 734400 form/effect/color combinations. It would take over 1000 hours to try them all out! And of course you'll want to try out your favorite ones with different types of music. And if you're still bored, you can try to experiment with favorite transitions - which should keep you busy for the next 100000 years or so...
My favorite forms, effects, and colors are indicated in dark and bright red in the list below, bright red being more favorite. I tend to like symmetrical things with intricate patterns that move colorful pixels over a large percentage of the screen. Therefore the forms I picked are mostly such that the lines are maximally large and usually symmetrical, the effects I picked are mostly ones that tend to produce intricate results that go well with symmetrical forms, and the color schemes I picked are mostly ones that tend to cover much of the screen in color. There are a few exceptions to each, e.g. because I also like sparkly fireworks-like things.
BTW, a good combination to convince people that the "forms" are really keyed to the music (or to observe the difference between different genres of music) is Big and Banded/Echo/Mystery Unveiled Dim.
Here are screenshots of some of my favorite combinations.

iTunes visualization keyboard commands

Ntoggle Normal or high-contrast colors
R display a Random new visualization configuration
C display information about the Current visualization configuration
M select configuration Mode (random, user, freeze)
use "freeze" while toggling form, effect, and color
Q/Wtoggle visualization "form" (shape of the wave lines that are keyed to the music)
(moving backwards/forwards through the list of 75 forms below)
it takes about 4 seconds until the new form is fully there
A/Stoggle visualization "effect"
(moving backwards/forwards through the list of 153 effects below)
it takes about 6 seconds until the new effect is fully there
Z/Xtoggle visualization "color"
(moving backwards/forwards through the list of 64 color schemes below)
it takes about 8 seconds until the new color is fully there
SHIFT-0 through SHIFT-9 save current configuration
0 through 9 display saved user configuration
D reset visualizations to Default
(careful - this also resets what's bound to the number keys!)
F toggle the Frame rate display
T Toggle the frame rate capping
H or ? display Help menu
I display track Info (title, artist, album)
arrow left/right previous/next song
arrow up/down change volume

Visualization "Forms"

None
Random Corridor
Big and Banded
Radar Sweep
Double Helix
DT - Sine Dot
DT - Wild
Hourglass
Default Waveform
Kaleidescope
Example Spectrum
Rotating X
Melt-O-Rama
3D Cylinder
A New Hope
Align
Arena
Critters
CrossBall
Dancing days
Darren DDoublehelix
Darren Quadhelix
Darren Scanner
Darren Stairway
DT - Birds
DT - BorderThunder
DT - Circle II
DT - Circle III
DT - Sine
DT - Spectrum
Ellipses
Father and Daughters
Five
Flower Power
Heart of the Beast
Horizontal Corridor
Horizontal Sweep
I Declare
Magnum
Faster Faster
Mother and Daughters
Moving
NPTU Squared
Null
Parkening Power
Particle Pulse
Quad-Circle
Quad-Sweep
Rotating Arcs
Rotating Bars
Simple Horizontal
Simple Vertical
SOLs Vinyl
Spectagon
Spin Doctor
SpinIt
The Eye
Tri-Cycle
Tri-Vertical
Up Like A Cup
Vertical Corridor
Wave
Zoomed Square
Three Dance
Dense Spiral
Spashy Scope
Interlace
Lightning
Rotating Pulsing Oval
Sinusons
Spin Doctor II
Uber Aurora
Uber Disco Lights
Uber Double VU
Windmill

Visualization "Effects"

6 Feet Under
Claustrophobia
Collapse & Turn
Constant Out
Diamond
Directed Spread
Disco Ball
Donut
Drawn and Quartered
Dreamscape 3
DT - Boxes
DT - Horizon
DT - Swirl
DT - Water
Equalateral Hyperbola
Expand & Turn
Eyes
Flamage
Flamin Ice Cubes
Fractal sweetness
Freezymelt
Gale Force Winds
Good ol LP
Gravity
HS101 Mess
In Or Out, Inner Turn
Left Turn & Flow Out
Marble
Nowhere
ONE
Out Of Control
Paint
Pointsetta
Psycho Disco Ball
Quantum Theta
Right Turn
Scattered Flow In
Sincos
Sine Slide
SOLs Perspective
SOLs Point and Hang
SOLs Tinsle
SOLs Torch
SOLs Waves
Swirly
Tiles
TimeWarp
Tropic Of Capricorn
Tunnel Vision
Twister
UFO
Waterfall Of Life
Watery Ripples
Wet Paint
Wrap Your Brain Around This
Yes
Acid Flower
Act of Love
Angel's Caress
Birth Of The Sea
Blaze
Cloverleaf
Cluster Swirlz
Cyclone Clouds
Horizons
In The Ring
Lovely Darts
Rolling Hills
Sea Creatures
Swirlo
Do Not Adjust Your Set
Echo
Fiber Optic Nerve
Great Minds
Crop Spiral
Dynamic
Julia Seahorse
LDZ -04 +131
Mystery Box
Paint Spinner
Peacock Tail
Quadrupole
RChaos2
Smoking Dandelion
Standard Map
Sublime
Waves of Grain
Weierstrauss Spread
Tunnel
Bubble Tunnel
Quarters
Wavy Diverge
Diamonds
Diamond Tiled Tunnel
Dual Spirals
Waves
Theta Collapse
Rings
Sune Sine Ray
Bizzare Tiles
I Love To Burn
Bizzare Star
Centrifugal
The Sun
Wavy Converge
Organized Smoke
Mysterious Puddle
Nexus One
Pscyco Linear Spread
Smoke in The Mist
Tan Turn
Tornado
Uber Concert
Uber Focus
Uber Incognito
Uber Supernova
Unfolding Before You
Vortex
Warpo Tunnel
Whirlpool In The Waves
Whoo! Whoo!
Wild Fire
Tripping Hard
Directrix Expand Y
Directrix Expand X
Scattered Flow out
Quantum Ripple
Sine Multi Cric
Simple Sine Sphere
Flower Power
Free yourself
Radial Breakaway
Flee
Hip-No-Therapy
DT - Chaos
Sunburst
Boxilight
Contrail
Dandilion Psyc
Dreamscape
Gravity Ball
Linear Spread
Once Upon a Time
Phantom Mist
SOL's Base
SOL's Warp
Sphere
The MAW
Theta Divergence
Traffic Flow
(DJK)Lemming's Water
(DJK)TraverseAmbit
(MT) Vaporizelow

Visualization "Colors"

DT - Wild West End
Muted Middle
Firestorm
Green
Basic
Aqua
Hue Wheel
Blue Lightning
Volcano
Topo
Color Gap
DT - Lake of Fire
Color Gap - Purity
Color Gap - Sunshine
Bizzaro
Brood
Dali
Dark Rainbow
Daydream
DT - Antarctis
DT - Glows
DT - Green Fish
DT - Honor
DT - Metal
DT - Neon Knights
DT - November Rain
DT - Ocean Club
DT - Plastic
DT - Purple Haze
Electric Acid
Hero
Hero 3
Ice Nightshade
Lust
Midnight Dream
Mononoke
Mystery Unveiled - Dim
Mystery Unveiled - Jellyfish
Old Glory
Orange to Blue
Primarily Mine
Punkin'
Purple and Blues
Purple and Blues II
Scythe
Solar Winds
Strawberry
Strawberry Dreams
Sunchemicals From A Queen Bee
Teal
Blue Volcano
China
Cold Fire
Glasses
Metal Brood
Neon
Sea
Silver Machine
Juice
Latium
Primarily Mine - I
Purple Ghost
QuickSilver
Radioactive

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Last modified: July 30, 2003
(sr@csli.stanford.edu)