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Settings FAQ

Settings Checklist: Optimize your computer for Synesthesia

You'll get the best performance and have the best experience using Synesthesia if you use these recommended settings.

macOS

  • Desktop & Screen Saver -> Screen Saver -> Start after: Never.
  • Mission Control -> Displays have separate Spaces: ON (might require you to log out and back in)
  • Display -> Resolution: Scaled -> More Space (will set your main desktop to 1080p, which is ideal for displaying Synesthesia's GUI)
  • Arrangement -> Mirror Displays: OFF
  • Energy Saver -> Automatic graphics switching: OFF
  • Sound -> Input -> External Microphone -> Input volume: Set depending on the audio level in the environment you're using

Windows

  • If on a machine with Nvidia Optimus settings, right click on Synesthesia and select "Run with Graphics Processor" and set Synesthesia to always run with "High-performance Graphics Processor".
  • Add Synesthesia to your Firewall allowed list, and run as an administrator if you run into any permissions errors.
  • Use a resolution of 1080p or higher for your main display (perhaps turning down application zoom percent to 100%, or suitable so more of the GUI is visible on your screen).

General

The General section of the Settings tab is where you tailor Synesthesia's interface and startup behavior to fit your workflow: - UI Scaling: If the interface feels too small or large on your display, adjust the UI Scaling. - Pane Resizing: Click and drag the edges of the side panels to resize them for more space on the main visualizer or library. - Control Bank Views: In the control panel, you can switch between Standard, Single Row, and Compact view modes using the icons at the top of the bank. Compact mode is ideal for complex scenes with many controls. - Default Startup Scene: Choose which scene Synesthesia loads immediately when it opens. - Primary Scene Folder: The folder on your drive where Synesthesia saves new .synScene's when you duplicate or create scenes.

Backups

The Backups tab in Settings lets you manually snapshot your Synesthesia profile and restore it later. Each backup is saved as a single .synprofile containing your preferences, presets, FavSlots, media configuration, MIDI mappings, and saved state. - Manual snapshots: Create a backup whenever you want to save your current setup. Each one appears in the available backups list, where it can be renamed. - Import / Export: Export a backup to a file to move your setup to another machine or share it, and import a backup to restore it. - Backup folder: Choose where backups are stored, and open or remove the folder directly from the tab.

This is separate from the scene editor's automatic code backups, which snapshot your scene code as you work — see Built-in Scene Editor for those.

Where are my settings, playlists, midi mappings, and presets saved?

Every once in a while you'll need to locate your settings files, either to back them up, to edit them directly, or perhaps to reset them and start fresh. The settings files are stored where many applications save extra data, your "AppData" or "Application Support" folder, depending on OS. You can still access these files, it just takes a few steps to get there. Note that once you open them, they'll just appear as one long line of text. You may want to copy/paste the contents into a JSON parser to make sure you're editing them safely, like https://jsonformatter.org/json-parser. Changing these files outside of Synesthesia can lead to crashes if you aren't careful.

Windows

  1. Go to your C: Drive, then head to the following path: C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\Synesthesia\Data
  2. Note that AppData is a "Hidden" folder. You'll have to have hidden items visible in your view settings. At the top of an Explorer Window, click "View" and then find the check box to enable "Hidden Items".

macOS

In Finder, press Command + Shift + G. Copy and paste this path into the prompt: ~/Library/Application Support/com.gravitycurrent.synesthesia/Data