All your music visuals in one place.
Turn live MIDI and audio into chord, notation, keyboard, theory, and audio-reactive visuals — arranged into a dashboard you build once, save, and reopen every time you play. Record any take as video, audio or MIDI without leaving the app.
Free for 7 days · Then $29 USD one time · Lifetime ChordViz updates
Names the chord the instant you play it — extensions, inversions and slash chords included.
Drag, drop and resize 18 widgets into a dashboard — save it and reopen it exactly as you left it.
Record video, audio or MIDI natively — or grab the last 15 seconds of audio you played. Every take is saved and copied to your clipboard.
Runs as a self-contained app on Mac and Windows — open it, play, and watch. No DAW required.
Real-time chord detection
Play any voicing and ChordViz names it — Cmaj9#11, Eb/G, Gsus4. It reads the root, quality and bass note live, so extensions, inversions and slash chords are spelled correctly.
A dashboard you arrange
Enter Edit Layout, then drag, drop and resize widgets on a snap-to-grid canvas. Hold Cmd for free placement. Your layout is yours — save as many as you like.
See the theory
Keyboard, grand staff with proper key-aware notation, circle of fifths, chromatic strip and a live chord readout. The theory behind what you're playing, visible at a glance.
Studio-grade metering
Oscilloscope, spectrum, spectrogram, waveform, VU, LUFS loudness and a stereo correlation meter — the same tools you'd reach for when mixing, reacting live to your sound.
Make it yours, then get out of the way
Dark or light, eight accent presets or a color you mix yourself, adjustable glow, your own background image and swappable fonts — saved as presets, with a default that loads on launch. Fullscreen and a distraction-free focus mode then hide every control, leaving just the visuals for the stage, the classroom or a second screen.
What it's like to teach with it.
As a music educator, I love ChordViz. It is honestly the best app of its kind for visual teaching and learning within music.
ChordViz goes far beyond my expectations and stands well above any other app I have used for my educational videos. It offers incredible customization to suit your teaching style or need.
In short, I give ChordViz my 100% recommendation to all music teachers, educators, and visual learners.
Quoted in full · Unedited · Published with permission
Hit record without leaving the app.
ChordViz captures itself — video with your audio mixed in, audio on its own, or the MIDI you played. Every take is saved and copied to your clipboard, ready to paste.
The window at 60 fps with your audio mixed in — native resolution, 1080p or 720p. Set a size cap and takes stay under it — 10 MB, say, to clear Discord's free upload limit.
Stereo WAV up to 32-bit float. Or grab the last 15 seconds you played — ChordViz is always listening, so the take you didn't plan isn't lost.
Your performance as a standard MIDI file, tempo and time signature included. Drop it on a track and keep editing.
Saved to a folder you choose · Included in the free trial · No watermark
See it with your own playing.
Free for 7 days · Then $29 USD one time · Lifetime ChordViz updates
Play your own instruments in it.
Point ChordViz at the VST3 and Audio Unit instruments already on your machine and play them straight from the app. The instrument and its patch save with the layout, so your whole rig reopens together.
Load your own VST3 instruments on Mac and Windows, or Audio Units on Mac. ChordViz finds them where they already live — nothing to copy or re-point.
The instrument and the patch you dialled in are stored in the layout itself. Reopen it tomorrow and the whole rig is back — sound included, not just the widgets.
Plugins are scanned in separate helper processes, several at a time. One badly-behaved instrument can't take ChordViz down or hide the rest of your library.
Three sampled electric pianos — a CP80, a Wurlitzer and a Pianet — ship inside ChordViz alongside the built-in synth. Or point it at any incoming audio: it visualizes whatever it hears.
Audio Units on macOS · Instrument plugins, not effects · No DAW in the loop
18 visualizers in one workspace
Combine chords, notation, keyboards, music-theory visuals, and audio-reactive meters in a single dashboard. Click any widget to see it live.
A standalone app for Mac & Windows.
ChordViz runs on its own — open it, play, and watch. No DAW required, and nothing to load it into: ChordViz is the host.
Full platform breakdown
| Capability | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| ChordVizUniversal on Mac — Apple Silicon and Intel | macOS 11+ | Windows 10 (1903)+ |
| MIDI keyboards and controllers | Supported | Supported |
| Microphone and audio interfaces | Supported | Supported |
| Included soundsBuilt-in synth plus three sampled electric pianos | Supported | Supported |
| VST3 instrumentsInstrument plugins, one loaded at a time — not audio effects | Supported | Supported |
| Audio Unit instrumentsAudio Units are a macOS-only plugin format; VST3 covers Windows | Supported | Not applicable |
| Video recordingSave as .mov or .mp4 on Mac, .mp4 on Windows | macOS 12.3+ | Supported |
| Audio and MIDI recording | Supported | Supported |
| Grab the last seconds you playedAudio only — video and MIDI are start/stop takes | Supported | Supported |
| Capture sound from other appsNeeds macOS 14.4 for Apple's audio-capture API | macOS 14.4+ | Supported |
| Webcam widget | Supported | Supported |
Linux support is in development, and not yet available to download.
Runs on its own · A VST3/AU build of ChordViz is coming later · Built on JUCE
Build your first ChordViz layout free for 7 days
Try the complete ChordViz workflow with no credit card required. Connect your setup, customize your dashboard, save your layouts, and see how ChordViz fits your workflow before purchasing.
Questions & answers
How do I start the free trial?
Download ChordViz and open it — the 7-day trial starts on first launch. There is nothing to sign up for and no payment information to enter.
Does the trial require a credit card?
No. You can use ChordViz free for 7 days without entering payment information.
Does the trial need an internet connection?
Only once. ChordViz needs to reach our servers the first time you launch it, to start your trial. After that it runs offline for the rest of the trial.
What happens after the trial?
You can purchase a ChordViz Founder License for $29 USD one time. Your saved layouts remain on your device.
Is ChordViz a subscription?
No. The Founder License is a one-time purchase.
How many computers can I use my license on?
A license activates on 2 devices. You can see which devices are using it — and free a slot at any time — from your account on this site.
Do I need an account to buy ChordViz?
No. Your license key arrives by email and you paste it straight into the app. An account on this site is optional — it's there if you want to manage your devices, re-download the installer, or find a receipt.
What do lifetime updates include?
Founder licenses include future updates to the ChordViz desktop application for as long as ChordViz is actively developed, including major ChordViz versions.
What is not included in lifetime updates?
Separate products such as ChordLab, optional hosted or cloud services, third-party paid assets, and multi-seat or school licenses are not included unless explicitly stated.
Does ChordViz react to MIDI and audio?
Yes. ChordViz visualizers can react in real time to supported MIDI and audio inputs.
Can ChordViz record what I play?
Yes, natively — no screen recorder needed. Record the window as video with your audio mixed in, record the audio on its own as a WAV, or capture your performance as a MIDI file. You can also grab the last 15 seconds of audio after the fact: ChordViz is always listening, so you don't have to hit record first.
Can I use my own plugins with ChordViz?
Yes. ChordViz hosts your VST3 instruments on Mac and Windows, and Audio Unit instruments on Mac. It scans the places plugins are normally installed, so there is usually nothing to set up. Pick an instrument, open its own window to dial in a patch, and play it from your MIDI keyboard or the on-screen keys — the sound drives the visualizers and lands in your recordings. One instrument loads at a time, and instrument plugins are supported rather than audio effects. Scanning runs in a separate process, so a plugin that misbehaves can't take ChordViz down.
Is ChordViz itself a plugin I can load into my DAW?
Not yet. ChordViz runs as a standalone app today — it hosts your instruments rather than being hosted by something else. VST3 and Audio Unit builds of ChordViz are planned for later.
Does ChordViz come with any sounds of its own?
Yes. Alongside the built-in synth there are three sampled electric pianos included in the app — a CP80 electric grand, a Wurlitzer EP200, and a Pianet T. They work straight away, so you get a real sound without installing anything.
Where do recordings go, and how do I share them?
Every take is saved to a folder you choose — by default your Music folder for audio and MIDI, and your Movies folder for video. The finished file is also copied to your clipboard, so you can paste it straight into Finder, Explorer, or a chat app. To load a clip into a DAW, drag it out of ChordViz instead.