> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://manual.minimal.audio/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://manual.minimal.audio/lucid-manual/granular-view/waveform-display.md).

# Waveform Display

### Overview

Lucid continuously records incoming audio into a short, timeline-synced loop, and the **Waveform Display** shows that captured loop. As grains are generated, each one lights up on the waveform where it's playing, so you can watch the granular engine at work in real time, whether it's freezing on a single point, reversing playback, or moving across the loop in other ways.

Because the display is locked to your project timeline, what you see lines up with your arrangement. The **Loop Length** dropdown above the display sets how much of the captured audio is shown, and in **Scrub** mode it also sets how much of that audio you can move through.

<figure><img src="/files/BP6oMVwJfC9yiaxSyOkW" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

***

{% hint style="info" %}
Make sure to show grid lines here (make it look timeline-synced)
{% endhint %}

### Reading the Display

Each active grain appears as a vertical indicator on either side of the waveform where it is currently playing, with a fading trail behind it that shows where it has just played. Together these let you see grain position, density, and how each grain moves across the captured sound over time.

The main granulator playhead is shown as a vertical purple line on top of the waveform. This determines where grains are generated and responds to the [**Playback Controls**](https://manual.minimal.audio/lucid-manual/granular-view/pages/nMsHNThF7QG2aMtq1xbf#id-3.-playback-controls). A short blue region extending from it shows the **Spray** range: how far each grain's start position can be randomized around it.

### Stretch and Scrub

The markers on the waveform change with your playback mode.

In **Stretch** mode, the captured loop scrolls in real time, and vertical marker lines show where the stretch will retrigger: the points where playback jumps back to the live input and starts stretching (or reversing) again. These markers fall on beat divisions in **Grid** mode and on detected hits in **Transient** mode.

In **Scrub** mode, the loop holds still while you move the playhead through it. Locking scrub to a note value marks that grid across the loop; in free mode, no grid is shown and the position can sit anywhere.


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