ARIATONE™Radio Player User guide

Radio Player user guide

AriaTone Radio Player plays internet radio stations through AriaTone's sound engine and visuals. It's a player, not a station: the music comes from the stations themselves, and Radio Player brings it to you as cleanly as it can, with visuals that follow it. It plays the stations you choose: any station by its address, and three it suggests to start with. Every stream reaches you untouched and in its highest available quality, and a lossless one plays bit-exact, the station's own samples exactly as it sends them, with each song's title (and, where the station gives them, its album and cover) as it plays.

#Getting started

#No sign-in

There's nothing to sign in to: open radio.ariatone.com and listen. The stations you choose and add belong to this browser, which Radio Player knows by a random code it keeps in a cookie (no name, no email, no account), so they're here each time you come back. Another browser or device starts fresh, and so does clearing this site's data from your browser. A browser that hasn't opened Radio Player for 400 days starts fresh too.

#Put it on your home screen

Radio Player works best installed like an app: it opens full screen and has its own icon.

The welcome screen offers it too, under the maker's note, every time it opens until Radio Player is installed: Install as an App, with an Install button in Chrome and Edge, or a reminder of the steps in Safari. Changed your mind after pressing Install? The offer stays, and points you to the browser's menu until the browser offers its own button again.

Installed it before Stemcraft Radio became AriaTone Radio? That one still opens the old address: remove it and install it again from radio.ariatone.com.

#The welcome screen

Each time you open Radio Player, a welcome screen comes first. Radio Player is made for good headphones or speakers: your stations reach you untouched and in their highest available quality, and a phone speaker can't play the deep bass, the stereo width or the detail in them. So put your headphones on, then tap Start listening: the station you last picked starts playing with that tap. Start the tour, beside it, starts the station too, and shows you around the screen while it plays. The two buttons look alike: the choice is yours. Above them is a one-line warning that visuals may trigger seizures. Tick its box once and both buttons work; this browser remembers it from then on, through every update, so you won't be asked again. (Once it's ticked, Esc closes the screen without starting anything.) Under the warning, check Don't show again until the next update before you close the screen to skip it until then. Each update brings it back once, with its notes, and the box already checked, so closing it keeps your choice until the update after. Radio Player remembers this on each device, so a new phone or browser shows it again.

Above the warning, The stations offers you the stations Radio Player suggests, each with a link to its site and a box, Add to my stations (see Why these stations). Every box starts checked: leave one checked and that station becomes one of yours as the screen closes, whichever way you close it; uncheck it and it doesn't. Next time, the boxes show what you chose. You can change your mind later: see Choosing the suggested stations. The screen also carries a short note from its maker: AriaTone is a passion project, made by an audiophile, musician and software engineer.

Under the buttons, a line links the Terms of Service you use Radio Player under. At the bottom, What's new lists what changed in the latest update (or every update since your last visit, up to three). It shows a few lines; Read all opens the notes to the whole screen, with every update Radio Player has had, and Show less (or Esc) folds them back to the latest.

To see it again any time, tap the version and date at the bottom left of the screen: the welcome screen comes back with the latest updates, and Start the tour with it.

#The tour

Start the tour on the welcome screen starts the music and a short tour over it, which lights up each part of the screen in turn and says what it does: the stations, the mixes, Play, the volume, the EQ, Bit-exact, what's playing, the visuals and where to find help. Tap anywhere (or Next) to move on, or Skip tour to stop it. With a keyboard, Enter or the right arrow moves on and Esc skips.

It never starts by itself. It explains each part of the screen that's there, and a part that isn't there yet the moment it appears: Edit, for instance, when you pick one of your stations. It explains each part once, and ends when you skip it or reload the page. To take it again, tap the version and date at the bottom left and then Start the tour.

#The screen at a glance

Rest the pointer on any control (on a computer) for a hint about what it does; with a keyboard, the hint shows as Tab reaches the control. Panels that open over the screen (Feedback, adding or editing a station, and the like) close with their own button, a tap beside them, or Esc on a keyboard; while one is open, Tab moves only between its own controls.

#Stations

#Why these stations

Radio Player is a player, not a station: every note you hear belongs to the station playing it. It comes with no stations of its own; you choose what it plays. It offers Radio Paradise because it's what Radio Player's maker listens to all day: independent and run on its listeners' support, with no ads. It also offers Naim Radio and Czech Radio Jazz, chosen for how they sound: lossless, from people who care about it. If you love what you hear, support the stations on their sites; the welcome screen and the link at the top right of the radio panel take you there.

#Choosing the suggested stations

The stations Radio Player suggests are among yours only if you choose them:

What you choose is kept for this browser, like the stations you add. With no stations at all, the panel says Add a station to start listening.

#Radio Paradise

An eclectic, listener-supported station from California, with no ads. Its five mixes play in lossless FLAC (16-bit, 44.1 kHz), decoded by Radio Player itself, so they play bit-exact. Each song shows its title and artist, and Radio Paradise's own song list adds the album, the year and the cover. The visuals can be optimized for its mixes, an experimental option: see Visuals optimized for Radio Paradise.

MixWhat it playsOpens with
Main MixEclectic: rock, electronica, world music and moreFractal, in Neon
Mellow MixThe calmer side of the Main MixColumns, in Rain
Rock MixClassic and modern rockPrism, in Ember
Global MixMusic from all over the worldSanctuary, in Wild
Beyond...Ambient, electronic and experimentalChronograph, in Night sky

#Naim Radio

From Naim, the British hi-fi maker: three channels of music chosen by people, with no ads. They play in lossless FLAC (16-bit, 44.1 kHz), decoded by Radio Player itself, so they play bit-exact. Naim's lossless streams carry no song titles, so each song's title and artist come from Naim's own server, and its album, year and cover from MusicBrainz when it knows the recording (well-known albums mostly; a classical movement rarely).

ChannelWhat it playsOpens with
Naim RadioEclectic: new and classic music from every cornerSkyline, in Dusk
JazzJazz, old and newChronograph, in Velvet
ClassicalClassical music, whole works and movementsSanctuary, in Jewel

#Czech Radio Jazz

The jazz channel of Czech Radio, the Czech public broadcaster: commercial-free, around the clock. It plays in lossless FLAC (16-bit, 48 kHz), decoded by Radio Player itself, so it plays bit-exact. Each song's title and artist come from Czech Radio's own "now playing", and its album, year and cover from MusicBrainz when it knows the recording (otherwise Czech Radio's own, smaller cover). When a presenter or the news is on, the station's name shows instead of a song. It opens with Columns, in Velvet.

The stations Radio Player offers all play lossless, and any it offers later will be high-quality sources too: lossless, AAC at 128 kbps or more, or MP3 at 256 kbps or more.

#Picking a station

Tap a station to tune in, then pick one of its mixes or channels from the row under it. It starts playing at once. Radio Player remembers your pick on this device, and opens on it next time.

Every station here is free to listen to. The link at the top right of the panel opens the station's own site in a new tab, where the listener-supported ones ask for your support.

#Your own stations

#Adding a station

Tap + Add station, give it a name, and paste its stream address: the address of the stream itself, or of a .pls or .m3u playlist, starting with https://. Stations usually list it on their site as a "stream link" or "listen in your own player"; it often ends in .mp3, .aac, .pls or .m3u. Then tap Add and play.

Radio Player plays the station first, as a check, and keeps it only once it plays. If it doesn't start within 20 seconds, or the address turns out to be a web page rather than a stream, it isn't saved and the sheet says why. Stop calls the check off.

#Editing and removing

Pick one of your stations and tap Edit next to Play to rename it, change its address, or Remove it. A new name is saved straight away; a new address plays first, as a check, just like a new station. On one of the stations Radio Player suggests, Edit says what the station is and offers Remove (see Choosing the suggested stations).

#When a station won't play

#Playing

#Play and Stop

Play tunes in to the picked station; Stop lets it go. Live radio doesn't pause: Play joins the station again as it is now, not where you stopped. Picking another station or mix switches straight to it.

Next to Play, the status says what's happening: Tuning in… while it connects, Live (with a green dot) while it plays (a yellow dot while it plays a lighter, lossy stream, since your connection had trouble keeping up), Buffering… while it waits for more of the stream, and Reconnecting… when the stream dropped. Otherwise it shows a line about the picked mix or station. While lighter streams are on, a lit Lighter button sits beside Bit-exact (see Too many interruptions, and lighter streams).

#When the stream drops

If a stream fails or stalls (nothing arrives for 12 seconds), Radio Player reconnects by itself a few times, waiting a little longer each time. The song on screen stays meanwhile: it's most likely still playing on the station. If it can't get back, it stops and says why, and Play tries again. Some browsers (Safari especially) won't start the sound again without a tap: then it says the station dropped for a moment, and Play carries on.

If a lossless station arrives more slowly than it plays (your connection can't quite keep up), Radio Player doesn't play each scrap as it comes, which would stutter. It pauses (Buffering…) until it has a few seconds of the stream in hand, then plays on: 3 seconds the first time, 6 the next, then 12, so a slow connection gives a few longer pauses rather than a constant stutter.

#Too many interruptions, and lighter streams

When a station cuts out three times within five minutes, Radio Player tells you, once per station in a visit. Its stream comes to you straight from the radio station's servers, so another station may play better. If it keeps happening, it's likely your connection: Radio Player only plays lossless and very high quality streams, which ask a lot of it. A wired connection works best, or a stable home Wi-Fi.

It also offers lighter streams: every station you play switches to a compressed (lossy) stream of the same channel, from the same station, which needs much less of your connection. They don't sound quite as detailed, and only lossless streams can be bit-exact, but the visuals and the EQ still follow them, and each song still shows as before:

Choose Lighter streams to turn them on, or Keep lossless. While they're on, Live shows yellow instead of green, and a lit Lighter button sits beside Bit-exact: tap it to go back to lossless. A station that's playing switches over straight away either way. The choice is kept on this device, since a connection belongs to a device: your phone can use lighter streams while your computer stays lossless.

#The lock screen and your headphones

While a station plays, your phone's lock screen and your computer's media keys show the song, the artist and the cover where there is one (Radio Player's icon where there isn't), and their play and pause buttons start and stop the station. The station plays on with your phone's screen off or locked, as a music app does: on Android its notification shows what's playing. Like a music app, it gives way to a call or another app's music, and stops; on most phones it starts again when the call ends. On an iPhone with iOS 17 or later, the station plays even with the ring/silent switch on silent. Keep screen on in the Visuals menu starts on while playing or watching in Immersive view; switch it off to let the screen dim and lock as usual.

Samsung Galaxy phones: if the music keeps playing with the screen locked but the controls are missing, open your phone's Settings → Lock screen and AOD → Now bar → Live notifications (or See all) and turn on Media player. Lock-screen notifications must also be enabled under Settings → Notifications → Lock screen. While music plays, tap the Now bar on the lock screen to expand the controls. Menu names vary by software version; see Samsung's Now bar instructions.

#What's playing

Above the center of the scene: the song's title and artist, and its album, year and cover where the station gives them. Underneath, one line tells you how it reaches you:

On a computer, rest the pointer on a tag to read what it means.

The song's title (marked with a small arrow) opens the song in a new tab, so the music keeps playing: its own page at the station where the station has one (Radio Paradise), or for Naim Radio and Czech Radio Jazz a search on DuckDuckGo for the song on Bandcamp and Discogs. A station you added has no link, since Radio Player can't know where a station keeps its songs.

See the cover up close: where a larger image of the cover exists, tap the cover (the pointer shows a magnifier) and it opens large over the page, with the album beneath; tap anywhere, press Escape or × to put it away. Covers from MusicBrainz's Cover Art Archive open at up to 1200 pixels, Radio Paradise's at 500, never shown bigger than they are. A cover with nothing larger behind it (Czech Radio's own) opens the song's link instead, as the title does.

#The sound

The volume, the EQ and Bit-exact sit to the right of Play (on a phone, on a row of their own). All three are kept on this device, and nothing about them goes to the server.

#Volume

The speaker mutes and unmutes; the slider sets Radio Player's volume. It moves evenly by ear (half way is quite a bit quieter than full), and double-clicking it goes back to full. Unmuting a slider left at the bottom brings it half way up, so you hear it.

At full volume Radio Player's volume is out of the signal path. Below full it changes every sample, so the sound isn't bit-exact: for the purest sound, leave it at full and use your device's volume.

On iPhone and iPad, a station the visuals can't hear plays at your device's volume: the browser doesn't let a page turn it down, so the slider steps aside and says so.

#EQ

The EQ shapes the sound for your headphones or speakers. It starts off, so a lossless station first plays bit-exact. Tap EQ to show its panel under the controls, and again to hide it. The switch at the top of the panel turns the EQ on and off, and the EQ button lights while it's on, so you can hide the panel and keep listening through the EQ. Off, the panel stays open, dimmed, so you can set it up first; your settings wait for next time, and Radio remembers whether you left the panel open. On a phone or tablet the panel can run past the bottom of the screen: scroll the page to reach the rest of it, Crossfeed last. The visuals stay where they are while you scroll.

The panel draws its curve over the live spectrum of the music. It has two modes:

While the EQ is on, Mono under its curve sums the sound to mono, to hear a station the way one speaker would play it. It's off again next visit, and off whenever the EQ is.

The EQ can't reach a station the visuals can't hear: the panel says so while one plays.

#Crossfeed

For headphones. On headphones each ear hears only its own side, so a sound panned hard left sits inside your left ear. Crossfeed, in the EQ's panel beside Mono, lets a little of each side reach the other ear at low frequencies, as it would from a pair of speakers, so the music sits in front of you rather than inside your head. It's gentle: anything in the middle passes through unchanged. It plays Bauer's crossfeed, and Radio Player remembers whether it's on, on this device. It plays while the EQ is on: turn the EQ off and Crossfeed waits, still set, until you turn it back on. Like the EQ, it can't reach a station the visuals can't hear, and Bit-exact sets it aside while it's on.

#EQ profiles

Ready-made curves, in the menu at the top of the EQ panel. Each sets both the Basic sliders and the Advanced bands. Changing any setting afterwards shows the profile as Custom.

ProfileSounds like
FlatNo change
WarmFuller bass, softer treble
BrightMore sparkle and air
Late nightLess bass and treble, with the deepest lows cut, for quiet listening
LoudnessMore bass and treble, a little less mid, for low volume
Deep subMore low bass, tidied low mids
Air and detailExtra presence and air, slightly leaner low mids
Vintage warmthWarm lows, rolled-off highs

#Headphone profiles

With Bit-exact off, open the EQ, turn it on and choose Headphones, beside Basic and Advanced. Type a brand and model, then choose the exact model and variant: pads, ANC and other settings can change the correction. AutoEq's recommended measurement is shown with its source. Select a result to load its parametric settings and draw its curve on the graph, then Preview profile to hear it or Save preset to save and apply it. Filter settings shows every frequency, gain and Q and the required preamp.

Next time, choose a saved model from the menu at the top of Headphones, where Basic and Advanced keep their profiles; No headphone correction in that menu turns it off. The full correction is saved for this app on this device and works offline after saving; adding another model needs a connection. The profile works with either Basic or Advanced tone controls and stays selected when you choose a tone profile; a dot on Headphones shows it's on, and Basic and Advanced draw only their own curve. Turn correction off leaves your saved preset available; Remove saved preset removes it from this device. Up to 16 models can be saved. Turning EQ off or locking Bit-exact bypasses headphone correction too, keeping its settings for later.

These are AutoEq's published recommended corrections, which can differ from the custom target and bass settings you choose on autoeq.app. If the exact model is missing, try a shorter search; a similar model is not a substitute.

#Bit-exact mode

Bit-exact takes the EQ, Crossfeed, Mono and the volume out of the signal path at once, whatever they're set to, so the station's sound goes to your browser as directly as it can. The button has three states, and its small padlock tells two of them apart:

Clicking Bit-exact: on and locked, a click turns it off, and the button stays lit if your settings change nothing. Off, or lit and unlocked, a click locks it again. Radio Player remembers whether it's locked on this device, so the next visit starts as you left it.

On a lossless station (an Ogg FLAC stream), the button glows violet, and the folded panel's line lights Bit-exact in the same violet, once Radio Player confirms the station's own samples (16-bit or 24-bit) reach your browser exactly as it sent them: nothing resampled, equalized or turned down on the way. On any other station (MP3, AAC and the rest), the button fades, since only lossless streams can be bit-exact: your browser decodes that stream, as straight as it can go. The button still shows its state (faded but lit, its padlock closed or open, or faded and plain), and lights up fully again on the next lossless station.

If Radio Player's volume is down (or muted) when you lock Bit-exact, the sound would jump to full, so it asks first: turn your device's volume down, then choose Go to full volume, or Cancel to stay as you are. Turning Bit-exact off needs no warning: the sound goes back to your volume.

#What bit-exact means here

Radio Player promises what it controls: from the station's stream to your browser, not a sample changes. What happens after that is up to your browser and your device, which may convert the sound to your speakers' or headphones' own sample rate. For the cleanest chain, set your computer's output to the station's own sample rate (the line under what's playing shows it), and to 24 bits for a 24-bit station.

#The visuals

#Looks

The visualizer fills the screen behind everything, following the music. To pick a look, tap or click the Visuals menu in the top bar (the eye, followed by the look that's showing), then a look under Look: the looks sit in one row that scrolls sideways (swipe it, or use the arrows at either end, which step to the look before or after and go round past the last), with the one showing lit in the middle. The menu stays open, so you can try one look after another, and while it's open the rest of the screen clears, so each look shows around the menu and through it. To close it, tap the × at its top right, tap anywhere else, or press Esc. Each preset mix opens with a look of its own (see the tables under Stations), your own stations open on Fractal, and the look you pick is remembered for that station on this device. The menu's row lists the looks lightest to draw first, as this table does, so the first ones suit a phone or an older computer best.

Every look follows the drums. What the table says a kick does, every drum hit does too: the kick drum, and each snare, tom and cymbal hit above it. A lone backbeat answers softly, and a drum fill builds to a burst.

LookWhat you see
ChronographAn engraved watch dial in moving moiré that tells the time, with the waveform traced around it, on a polished floor that mirrors it; its engraving follows the mood, and every kick sends a bead of light out along the seconds hand
FractalA jewel of a medallion, a Julia set folded into a kaleidoscope and engraved in gold: every kick sends a ring of light flying out from it, fading as it goes, and light climbing out through the jewel to the tips of its arms
PrismA glass pyramid edged in laser light splits the waveform into a spectrum, amid soft caustics and glints; a glow around it pulses with the beat, and every kick sends the mood's colors climbing its edges to the apex. Stare at it too long and you'll question which way it's spinning
SoundstageLeft and right as two ribbons of light over their meters, and a phase scope between them that blooms where the mix is wide; every kick sends light climbing the level meters by the edges
EclipseA total eclipse with the waveform fitted with small side gaps inside its dark center. The corona swells with the bass, kicks flash a diamond ring and send light around its edge, and multicolored stars glimmer behind it, with distant shooting stars and golden orbs that alternate between gliding formations and signaling spirals before gathering and darting away.
ColumnsA slow glide down a colonnade of glass columns that fill with light to the music, mirrored in a glossy floor, every kick sending light up their flutes; each wall hears its own side of the music, so a part panned left lights the left wall
SkylineA dark city across still water under a curtain of color that runs like wet paint, trees of light growing through its towers and swaying in the wind: every kick sends the color surging up the curtain and light climbing the trees to blossom at their tips; the mood brings its weather, which stays in the sky around the city, leaving the water dark but for a few faint rings where the rain lands
LoungeThe view from a listening chair in a dark room, after a classic 1980s hi-fi poster, with no waveform over the room: two tall speakers left and right on a polished floor, a woofer, a midrange and a gold horn one above another up the middle of each (on a phone, or wherever they wouldn't fit whole beside the shelf, slim towers), and between them a hi-fi system on its shelf, its amplifier's VU meters lit warm, a cassette deck recording, its record and play keys pressed down and lit red and green, a graphic equalizer whose two displays show each side of the stream's spectrum as LED ladders, green, amber and red, a tube preamp whose glass tubes glow a warm orange, and on top, where a record goes on easily, a turntable lit by its strobe lamp. Every kick thumps both woofers and sends a wave of colored light rolling out of the speakers toward you, until it sweeps past the edges of the screen, and the room breathes slowly with the music: the shelf holds still while the room around it stretches away and eases back. Each slider's knob on the equalizer has a tiny red LED lit in its middle. Called Hi-Fi until 0.26.3
JellyfishA moon jelly lit from within in the dark of the deep, its tentacles trailing down through the waveform: its clear bell glows at its edge, with a warm heart and the four soft petals of its clover in the mood's colors, and smaller jellies drift up further off, each in a color well apart from the main one's; the bell draws in on the beat and lets go slowly, the bass swells its glow, and every kick sends its light out along the bell's canals and down the tentacles, and stirs a burst of sparks in the water around it
SanctuaryA great medallion turning slowly in a polished stone floor under the waveform: every kick sends a ripple of light out from its heart, and small jewels at the ends of its spokes glow as it reaches them; a plain great octagon frames it, and the flower at its heart has as many petals as the mood gives it (called Spill until 0.12.0)
RidgelineA steady flight over glowing mountain ridges and taller swaying trees of light. The whole range blooms on the beat as light climbs the branches and high notes glint on summits. The horizon glows behind the range, going through every color of the mood, and swells with each beat and the energy of the music. Weathered rock seams and sparse fine grass add texture along the ridges. The horizon glow stays closer to the ground, leaving more dark sky for a fuller field of tiny stars, some shimmering through the mood's colors, and occasional shooting stars. Taller distant city lights frame the hills on either side. No waveform is drawn over the landscape. Its cruising pace stays steady, and landscape changes dissolve smoothly

Golden embers rise from Ridgeline’s ridges at twice their previous rate. Strong beats and musical arrivals send a brief staggered burst of golden orbs up from the ground, with quieter intervals between bursts. In both Ridgeline and Eclipse, distant golden lights alternate between a gliding formation that folds into one light and a signaling triangle that spirals inward. They gather, then wait for a beat to dart away as one. During quiet passages they finish after a short wait. These moving lights stop with reduced motion.

Light and movement follow the music clearly even on quieter recordings. Heavy sustained bass notes swell the scene more clearly above the surrounding low end, while kicks and drum hits keep their precise attacks. Quieter passages still look quieter. This changes only the visuals, never the sound.

#Visuals optimized for Radio Paradise

On Radio Paradise's mixes, RP Exclusive optimizes the visuals for each song. It starts on by default; switch it off in the Visuals menu for the classic response (it shows while Show is on Full). It takes effect at once, without interrupting the music, and this device remembers your choice. While the visuals settle into a new song, as one song gives way to the next or just after you press Play, the eye at the start of the Visuals menu's button pulses slowly; it holds still once they have. Once the enhancements settle, VFX delay adds the offset you chose, starting at zero. With it off, with lighter streams on, or on another station, the visuals follow the music as it comes.

The first time you enable it during a station, the enhancements can take a moment to settle. During the same connection, switching off and back on usually makes comparison quick. Ridgeline keeps drawing its ordinary live landscape while it settles, then fades smoothly to the new scenery. Turning the option off uses a short landscape dissolve; an older transition finishes sooner without a cut. If the enhancements cannot settle, the live scenery continues.

In either mode, drum fills stay responsive, with their biggest bursts reserved for musical peaks.

Either way they only listen: the sound reaches you untouched, and Bit-exact stays lit.

The visuals keep a calmer normal groove, swelling with the music and saving their largest bursts for musical peaks.

For Radio Paradise songs, the details also show the musical key when available, such as E major or C# minor. ≈ marks an uncertain estimate. It stays hidden if no usable key belongs to the current song.

#Looks taking turns (Rotate)

At Low, automatic rotation includes Easy and Medium presets. Choose Auto, Med or Max to rotate through all presets your app offers. You can still pick any offered preset yourself at Low.

The menu scrolls vertically when it is taller than the available space. Its preset row scrolls sideways; the panel only scrolls sideways if its contents need more width.

In the checklist below Show, Rotate every 90 seconds has the looks take turns: every 90 seconds the next look takes over while the scene stays anchored in place. Auto fades through darkness with one scene at a time; Low, Med and Max fade the two looks across each other. They always come in a shuffled order, every eligible look before any comes back, and never the same one twice in a row. Jellyfish, Sanctuary and Ridgeline, the looks that take the most work to draw, only ever cross with one of the lightest looks, never with each other or a middle one. It's on every time you open Radio. Turn it off and it stays off until you close Radio; turn it back on whenever you like.

A look you pick yourself shows at once and gets a full 90 seconds before the next one fades in, and it's the look Radio remembers for that station: a look that only turned up isn't remembered. The interval counts only while the visuals are on screen, so a change never happens while Radio is in the background. At Low, Med or Max, if a fade starts to slow your device down while the looks cross, it draws them a quality level lighter at a time, the look leaving first, until it keeps up; the look arriving is back at your quality as the fade ends. A device that keeps up sees no difference.

Each look’s description ends with its graphics load: Easy — should be playable on most modern devices; Medium — may not be playable on all modern devices; Hard — may not be playable on most modern devices. These are general guides; your device and quality setting affect how smoothly a look runs.

#Colors and moods

The visuals follow a mood. Each preset mix has its own; a station of your own takes the mood its name suggests. Every look takes the mood's colors, and three take more: the shape of Fractal's kaleidoscope, the petals of Sanctuary's flower and the pattern engraved on Chronograph's dial follow the mood, and Skyline has its weather. The mood still shapes the visuals, but its name is omitted from the song card.

MoodBrought on by words likeSkyline's weather
Neonsynthwave, retro, techno, electronicClear
Sunnybeach, summer, tropical, reggae, bossaClear
Night skynight, space, stars, ambient, dreamy, winter, snow, iceMist on the water
Rainrain, lofi, jazz, cafe, mellowRain
Wildforest, folk, acoustic, cinematicMotes of light, like fireflies
Emberfire, rock, metal, heavyEmbers rising
Jewelelegant, luxury, glamour, royalClear
Dusksunset, twilight, evening, chilloutMotes of light, like dust in a low sun
Velvetsoul, R&B, smooth, loungeMist
RivieraMediterranean, Italian, flamenco, LatinClear

Each mood has five colors that the visuals drift through, and a new mood eases in rather than jumping. Where a name matches two moods equally, the one higher in this list wins.

Lighter transitions, after Rotate and before RP Exclusive, is on by default unless you previously switched it off on this device. Its description explains the current on/off setting; the selected look’s description appears directly under the row of looks. At Med and Max it halves the visual frame rate evenly during preset changes. Low keeps its 30 fps cap through transitions. It uses less detail in the departing look just beforehand where a lighter version is available. Your selected detail returns with the new look; sharpness and sound stay the same. This device remembers the switch. Turn it off to compare the normal fades at fixed quality. Auto always changes presets through a brief dip into darkness, drawing one scene at a time and starting the next at its simplest layer.

#Auto · Low · Med · Max

Auto draws at your display's pace; Low caps at 30 frames per second with full sharpness. Only Auto's simplest layer falls back to 30 when it cannot keep up; if even that struggles, Auto can lower resolution and then try 20 frames per second. Med and Max retain their normal frame pacing.

Low and Med leave out the faint mirrored trace behind the main waveform, keeping the bright line and its glow. Max keeps that extra trace.

Under Quality in the same Visuals menu, Auto · Low · Med · Max sets how much the visuals draw; the button shows the level next to the look. It changes only what you see, never the sound. Low, Med and Max keep full sharpness.

Radio Player starts on Auto every time you open it, on every device. You can choose Low, Med or Max to fix the level for the visit. The first time you pick Max in a visit, Radio Player warns you that it isn't meant for phones and tablets, where it can stutter, run hot, drain the battery or stop the app from responding: tap Use Max to switch; Keep Auto (or Keep Low or Keep Med, whichever you were on) keeps your current level. It doesn't ask again until you close Radio Player. A picked level lasts for the visit: the next time you open it, it's back on Auto.

If the visuals keep stuttering on your device for several seconds, Radio Player eases them down a level by itself, one step at a time: Max to Med, then Low, then Wave alone. At Auto the easing is built in, layer by layer, so you'll rarely see it; only if even its lightest detail stutters do the looks step aside for Wave. Each time, a short line under the Visuals menu says so, then fades away on its own; there's nothing to tap. A moment of stutter changes nothing, and neither does a device that plays every frame evenly at a slower pace (a phone in Low Power Mode). The visuals are never cleared entirely for you, unless your device's graphics stop responding at the lightest selected view. A level you pick again after it was eased is yours: Radio Player leaves it for the rest of the visit, unless your device's graphics stop responding. Nothing eased is kept: the next time you open Radio Player, the visuals start on your own settings again. In Immersive view the line doesn't show, but the step happens all the same.

Auto draws at whole intervals of the display’s refresh rate near its 30 fps target, keeping frames evenly spaced.

#In time with what you hear

Headphones and speakers play the sound a moment after it leaves the page, some more than others. The visuals wait for it, so the music lands on screen as you hear it, and each new song's title shows when you hear the song begin. RP Exclusive adds your selected VFX delay once its enhancements settle; it starts at zero.

#VFX delay

VFX delay: In Visuals, adjust optimized visuals from 0 to 20 ms in 2 ms steps. It starts at 0 ms and remembers your choice on this device. The sound and automatic device compensation stay unchanged.

#Keep screen on

Keep screen on, the last checkbox alongside the other Visuals options, starts on. While music plays and the app is visible, it asks your device to keep the screen awake. It also applies in Immersive view. Switch it off to let your device dim and lock as usual, including in those views. This browser remembers your choice through visits and updates, even with Show on Off or Wave. Ordinary paused playback lets the screen rest; if you are still in a watching view, leave that view or switch Keep screen on off to release it.

Switching apps releases the request, and returning asks again if needed. Your device can refuse it to save power, and you can always lock your phone yourself. Older browsers may not support it.

#Immersive view

On supported browsers, the corners button also requests browser full screen, hiding the browser's own bars where allowed. If the browser refuses or lacks that feature, the controls still clear away in the usual immersive view. Leaving browser full screen also brings the controls back.

The corners button at the right of the top bar clears the screen: every control slides away and leaves the visuals and the waveform, exactly where they were, with the song's card (its cover, title, artist and details) still showing over them: they're a backdrop with a fixed place of their own, the waveform across the middle of the screen, and nothing on the page moves them. Tap or click anywhere, or press Esc, to bring the controls back, or tap the round button in the top right corner (four corners pointing in), which stays there, faint, for as long as Immersive view is on. A hint at the bottom of the screen says how when Immersive view starts, and again whenever you move the mouse; it fades, with the corner button, once the mouse rests, and the pointer hides.

#Visuals can't hear it

Some stations don't let other sites read their sound (their server doesn't allow it). Radio Player can still play them, through your browser as they are, but the visuals can't follow the music and the EQ can't reach it; the line under what's playing says Visuals can't hear it.

#Notices

Now and then the team posts a notice: planned downtime, an outage, or news. It pops up over the screen (after the welcome screen and the tour), with the most urgent first, while the music carries on underneath. If Radio Player is already open, a new notice shows up within a minute. Got it dismisses it in this browser.

#Staying up to date

Radio Player keeps itself up to date, installed or in a browser. When you come back to it after an update, it loads the new version by itself, in a moment, if no station is playing. While a station plays it never stops it: a small note at the bottom of the screen says New update just dropped! instead. Tap Update when it suits you (the station stops while the page loads again; press Play to carry on), or Not now to put the note away; the next time you come back with nothing playing, Radio Player updates by itself. Either way, right after it updates, the welcome screen opens with What's new in it.

#Send feedback

Feedback at the bottom of the screen goes straight to the team: tell us what you love, what you miss, or what went wrong. It says which built-in mix you were on (or only that it was one of your own stations).

#Privacy: what Radio Player keeps

The Terms of Service say this in full; in short:

#Troubleshooting

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